Sabrent Shows Off Apex X21 Destroyer Card, a Behemoth Multi-SSD Array Offering 168 TB Storage

[T0@st]

Sabrent USA was in a boastful mood yesterday, and proceeded to gloat on Twitter about an upcoming gargantuan storage solution: "At Sabrent, we run on the cutting edge of technology. Working with Apex, we received one of these new cards and currently running it through tests. We call this the Sabrent Apex X21 Destroyer. 21X 8 TB SSDs for 168 TB of storage on single card!" The company has revealed that it is collaborating with Apex Solutions on the single PCIe card offering, but the smattering of text and two photos uploaded to Twitter are just teaser material for the moment. There have been no reports of preview units getting sent to potential testers or hardware influencers. Sabrent and Apex will continue to tweak and evaluate.

The Destroyer is formed of already existing parts, namely Apex Solution's own x21 NVMe mounting platform card, and twenty-one of Sabrent's Rocket 4 Plus SSD 8 TB NVMe 4.0 Gen 4 PCIe M.2 Internal SSD model (SB-RKT4P-8TB). A single Apex x21 card will set you back $2800, and the 8 TB Rocket 4 Plus SSD is currently discounted to $1099 (from $1499). That grand total comes to a whopping $25,879, and extra expenses are expected in the form of adequate cooling solutions and a hardware controller capable of managing that unruly gang of SSDs. Sabrent is expected to post updates about finalized fittings, features and exact pricing in the near future.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[natr0n]

Looks like an enterprise ssd part.

 

[stanleyipkiss]

Honestly, sell this with QLC or worse NAND flash and I would buy it at $10 000. I need the storage -- I don't need it fast, I just need it to be better than mechanical. I would also buy two of them.

 

[unwind-protect]

21 drives, no cooling solution provided and no hot-swap. Doesn't sound very enterprise-y to me.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Honestly, sell this with QLC or worse NAND flash and I would buy it at $10 000. I need the storage -- I don't need it fast, I just need it to be better than mechanical. I would also buy two of them.

Simple solution. Buy two of them then sell all the 8TB SSDs it comes with and replace the SSDs with whatever you want.

 

[dgianstefani]

Capped at 30 GB/s due to AIC limitations.

Why buy this over a big Optane scratch drive and a U.2 for bulk.

 

[mechtech]

DESTROYER of wallets/budgets!!!

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Wow, that AIC alone is super expensive...wonder why when something like a Highpoint Rocket 1508 costs $800 and can take 8x 4.0 M.2 SSDs, granted it's not as many, but the Apex one is 4x more expensive

 

[dgianstefani]

Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P5800X Series (3.2TB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint™) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P5800X Series (3.2TB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint™) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.co.uk

One of these has 10x (or more) the random performance, much lower latency, and an endurance rating of 584000000 GB, or 584,000 TB, compared to 21 Sabrent 8 TB drives, capped at less than 1/3rd their theoretical max performance due to interface limitations, with individual endurance ratings of 6,000 TB (per drive) for a theoretical array endurance of 126,000 TB, assuming a single drive doesn't fail in some other regard, the complex AIC doesn't fail etc.

 

[trsttte]

This kind of things are always funny and interesting, but as a product, but at this point why not just make a PCIe ssd with whatever many packages necessary for the target space?

 

[dgianstefani]

This kind of things are always funny and interesting, but as a product, but at this point why not just make a PCIe ssd with whatever many packages necessary for the target space?

Because it's a niche vanity project that appeals to marketing dept. Same reason Gen 5 SSDs have a big 10,000 MB/s number but have the same 4K speed as a SATA drive.

Enterprise users or people who use workstations to do actual work would use NAS, cloud or enterprise level hardware.

 

[Courier 6]

heh, how much would it cost to fill all that??? from my perspective, probably an insane amount of money....

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Honestly, sell this with QLC or worse NAND flash and I would buy it at $10 000. I need the storage -- I don't need it fast, I just need it to be better than mechanical. I would also buy two of them.

You can buy the AIC from Apex, and fill it yourself. Ignore Sabrent entirely.

Enterprise users or people who use workstations to do actual work would use NAS, cloud or enterprise level hardware.

Use in a small-medium business server, but not with those ridiculous drives. I know some applications that could make use of what is essentially a massive PCIe RAID array.

 

[Bones]

Within 5 years you start seeing them appearing at you local e-waste recycling center, listings on fleaybay, TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club.....
All this for the purchase price of just under $26,000.

Get yours today!!!

​

​

 

[evernessince]

These cards are always cool to play around with but the price is killer. Cheaper cards don't support JBOD either and require bifurcation support.

 

[Jism]

21 drives, no cooling solution provided and no hot-swap. Doesn't sound very enterprise-y to me.

It looks more like a enterprise product, meaning its supposed to be installed in a server with more then enough of airflow.

 

[unwind-protect]

What's the requirement for the PCIe slot this sucker goes into? Does it work in a x4 (electrical) slot?

 

[bobbybluz]

Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P5800X Series (3.2TB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint™) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Optane™ SSD DC P5800X Series (3.2TB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint™) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.co.uk

One of these has 10x (or more) the random performance, much lower latency, and an endurance rating of 584000000 GB, or 584,000 TB, compared to 21 Sabrent 8 TB drives, capped at less than 1/3rd their theoretical max performance due to interface limitations, with individual endurance ratings of 6,000 TB (per drive) for a theoretical array endurance of 126,000 TB, assuming a single drive doesn't fail in some other regard, the complex AIC doesn't fail etc.

Is that still an official Intel product or does it now fall under the Solidigm unbrella?

 

[unwind-protect]

It looks more like a enterprise product, meaning its supposed to be installed in a server with more then enough of airflow.

Actually it's in the specs: Air Flow: Min 400 LFM

 

[mechtech]

Hmmmm. 8TB on sale for $1k usd

Sabrent 8TB Rocket 4 PLUS NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD

Buy Sabrent 8TB Rocket 4 PLUS NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD featuring 8TB Capacity, M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 Form Factor, Up to 7000 MB/s Read Speed, Up to 6000 MB/s Write Speed, Backward Compatible with PCIe 3.0, Built-In Power Management, ONFi 2.3, 3.0, 3.2 & 4.0 Interface, Works with SMART...

www.bhphotovideo.com

Actually not too bad for 8TB, however should be closer to $680

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-258881-Skc3000d-Kc3000-Pcie4-0/dp/B09K7DRMSC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=1Q8DOXZFVB3P1&keywords=kingston+kc3000+2tb&qid=1681611069&sprefix=2tb+kc%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-3

 

[ir_cow]

Do people not realize this will never come to market and is just a PR stunt?

 

[ixi]

Mother of M.2

 

[FiRe]

and no BBU?

 

[Dirt Chip]

Let`s go for 7 of them together for a grand 1.17PB of storage on a Xeon W-3400\TR5000WX.

 

[Wirko]

Let`s go for 7 of them together for a grand 1.17PB of storage on a Xeon W-3400\TR5000WX.

With immersion cooling. What else could be effective enough?

But actually, Apex says it's a "Double Width FHFL Card", so you're limited to four cards = 104,000 dollares. Or make a mess and use PCIe risers.