Question SOLIDIGM D5-P5430 15.36 TB - 2.5 Internal - U.2 $1050

[Tech Junky]

Amazon.com

Found this somehow and it's intriguing when comparing to M2 drives. It's not blistering fast w/ 3GB/s writes but, reads are double that.

Solidigm D5-P5430 15.36TB SSD PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review

In our Solidigm D5-P5430 review, we see how this 15.36TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD performs and how it is optimized for hard drive displacement

www.servethehome.com

For ~$1K though it blows an M2 out of the water for capacity being 2x8TB.

Of course being U2 you most likely need a U2 adapter but, those are fairly cheap.
$21 - https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-SFF-8639-Adapter-Desktop-Installation/dp/B099185SSV
$41 - https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-PEXU2-132-2-5-inch-SFF-8639-Carrier/dp/B01D2PXUAQ

Gen3 options:
$14 - https://www.amazon.com/PCI-SFF-8639-Adapter-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B01LZEYFD1
$15 - https://www.amazon.com/NFHK-SFF-8639-Adapter-Extension-Express/dp/B096KHM7V1
$46 - https://www.amazon.com/Yunseity-HighPerformance-Converter-19-69inch-Adapter/dp/B0CDFWT3CK - converts an M2 to the 8639 on the SSD
$46 - https://www.amazon.com/Diyeeni-SFF-8639-Adapter-Converter-Compatible/dp/B07V579XN9 - same as prior
$24 - https://www.amazon.com/SFF-8643-SFF-8639-Server-Adapter-Cable/dp/B0C9CKHNXD - same as prior
$28 - https://www.amazon.com/DiLinKer-SFF-8639-Cable-PCIe-Adapter-U-2-Converter/dp/B07VB6L8SJ - same as prior

 

[mxnerd]

Interesting form factor. But is this enterprise thing really reliable?

U.2 form factor also probably is meant for data center where you can hot plug in front of a server case, do you really need that functionality?

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You can buy U.2 enclosure and put 2 NVME drives in it.

someone below said the U.2 drives could be using raid internally and two of them (12 total) became paperweight when he played with them.

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But you can also just buy one quad ports PCIE NVME adapter in theory I guess. But usually those adapters (https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-RIITOP-Support-Bifurcation-Required/dp/B09Y5V18ST, ex.) requires MB's bifurcation support and your MB seems doesn't support it?

However your MB already support 5 NVME drives, so buy a smaller NVME boot drive and put the other 4 NMVE into RAID 0 and then backup up everything to HDD?

 

[Tech Junky]

However your MB already support 5 NVME drives, so buy a smaller NVME boot drive and put the other 4 NMVE into RAID 0 and then backup up everything to HDD?

This doesn't have anything to do with my project. This is a 16TB SSD @ Gen4 speeds in a 2.5" format. To compare though an 8TB NVME M2 runs about the same price. This would be the better deal TB/$.

Yes, a U2 drive is normally an enterprise only use because consumer boards don't have the connector and consumers are lazy. For $1100 though and 16TB @ 3GB/s minimum speed is a good deal. If you wanted to play Raid with them though you just get a different adapter setup to allow for more drives off a single slot.

Interesting form factor. But is this enterprise thing really reliable?

As reliable as any other SSD.

someone below said the U.2 drives could be using raid internally and two of them (12 total) became paperweight when he played with them.

I suppose that's an option but, it could also be how they setup the disks. What comes to mind is the dual actuator HDDs like the Exos that has 2 drives inside a single case. There are U2 adapters you can mount dual NVME M2s inside though as well.

For the straight forward use of a single drive in a system though it should be simple to use. If you used an M2 / cable to U2 under the gen3 section it should also be bootable. It's just interesting to see some competition for higher density flash drives. If you need more space they also make 30/60TB options and smaller sizes as well.

 

[mxnerd]

Solidigm D5-P5430 Addresses QLC Endurance in Data Center SSDs

www.anandtech.com

DWPD (Drive Write Per Day) for 15.36TB model is 0.58, so that's 0.58x15.36 = 8.9TB (100% 4K writes) , 8.9 x 5 x 365 = 16243 = 16 Peta Bytes.

So if a user only writes 1TB per day for the drive, in theory the endurance will be 8.9 x 5 = 44.5 years?

Of course 1TB write will be nothing in nowadays computing. You probably will use a lot more than that.

 

[Tech Junky]

Most writes are when a drive is new and you're installing and copying data. My nvmes avg 5%/yr right now which gives them a potential of 20 years to run.

Now, if I were to put this particular drive into play with a raid as a backup destination it might chew through more but since I would be using rsync probably outlast the source drives. Since these are enterprise as well I suspect they would have better endurance over a longer period of time. In most cases dwpd isn't much of a concern unless you're doing a ton of transactional data.

IOW these drives amortize the cost over time very well. For a flash based option they bring the price down for capacity. They have larger sizes as well up to iirc 60tb.

 

[Tech Junky]

Kioxia's CD8P SSD Unveiled: Up to 30.72 TB, PCI 5.0 x4 Interface

www.anandtech.com

Found these pop up on my news feed as well. No pricing though for the Gen5 drives but, Gen4 options exist...

Data Center SSD | KIOXIA - United States (English)

Data Center SSDs that equipped KIOXIA original flash memory and controller offer high performance, reliability, low power comsumption, which suitable for low end computing, server and cloud data center systems

americas.kioxia.com

https://www.tech-america.com/item/k...r-2-5-nvme-ssd-solid-state-drive/kcd8xrug15t3 - $1190

Getting more interesting to see these 2.5" NVME drives. Talk though is using NVME protocols on spinners as well to make it one protocol no matter the format M2/2.5"/3.5" drives. Simplify things and yield better advancements in products in the future.

@mxnerd

 

[mxnerd]

@Tech Junky These products are interesting and good to know, however 4TB or 8TB storage is all I need in the near future and the price of 4TB NVME already is coming down.

 

[Tech Junky]

4TB NVME already is coming down.

Sure are. About 50% in the past few months. I think the Gen5 drives are pushing the prices down since everyone thinks they need space heater in their case. I just picked up a handful though for $180/ea as you saw in the other thread.

Finding these NVME 2.5 drives though that are just as fast as the M2 format is intriguing though. I knew SATA SSD options were out there but, never really considered 2.5 drives due to cost/TB pricing vs just going with the M2 option. The other issue was getting density on a z690 setup would require PLX controller cards and they're not cheap.

The other issue with these DC NVME drives is the lack of sales to the public have been shrouded until more recently. Maybe I'm just late to the party in noticing them. The whole SAS / SATA thing has been known for awhile with spinners and these seem to be using the SAS connector to unlock the speed.

There's a new connector out as well the U3....

PCIe PHY IP enables U.2/U.3 | DesignWare IP | Synopsys

This DesignWare Technical Bulletin Article explains how PCIe PHY IP enables U.2/U.3 Form Factors for Hyperscale Data Centers.

www.synopsys.com

Evolving Storage with SFF-TA-1001 (U.3) Universal Drive Bays

U.3 is a term that refers to compliance with the SFF-TA-1001 specification, which also requires compliance with the SFF-8639 Module specification.

www.storagereview.com

SSD Form Factors | SNIA

Updated March 2023 Solid-state drives (SSDs) are commonly used in client, hyperscale and enterprise compute environments. They typically come in three flavors: NVMe®, SAS, and SATA. Since SSDs are made from flash memory, they can be built in many different form factors. This resource guide is...

www.snia.org

 

[mxnerd]

U.3 form factor explained by Linus

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Well, EDSFF E1 and E3 to Replace M.2 and U2/U3/2.5in SSDs in Data Centers

 

[Igo69]

Interesting 15TB SSD for $1K! This can be installed on a regular PC mobo?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Interesting 15TB SSD for $1K! This can be installed on a regular PC mobo?

Yes, though not sure if the two U.2 adapters mentioned in the OP will run the SSD at the full PCIe 4.0 speeds.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yes, though not sure if the two U.2 adapters mentioned in the OP will run the SSD at the full PCIe 4.0 speeds.

I posted the top two because they specifically mentioned PCIE 4. Though ini reality anything electrical x4 should suffice no matter the gen when placed into an x4 Gen4 slot or Gen 5. There's nothing on these AIBs that controls jack squat. The other AIBs though are listed for comparison purposes or bypassing a PCIE slot and repurposing an M2 w/ a cable to the drive instead.

@Igo69

That's my intent here for it to be ATX MOBO option. Really any board / cpu should work with the proper adapter to enable SFF-8639 aka U2 to connect to the board.

It's also interesting to see Kioxia offering similar options but, they're harder to find or priced higher as well. It's one way to give traditional offerings the middle finger for their pricing for 50% of the capacity. Now, overall it would be nice if prices over 4TB would come down like 4TB did recently to under $200/drive. I suspect things will tamp down prices with a flood of inventory eventually. We'll see though as time passes.