Currently, mechanical hard drives remain the best and cheapest option for mass data storage. This may not be beneficial for everyone, as capacity and speed are required in some cases. Apex Storage has introduced a PCIe card, Apex X21, which admits up to 21 M.2 solid-state drives for a maximum capacity of 168 TB.
We have commented on some occasions that M.2 format SSDs have a big capacity problem. The technical limit is 4 TB, although some disks (literally four) reach 8 TB. Said problem is given by space limitations and thermal problems.
Create your own 168TB SSD (more or less)
actually the map Apex X21 is nothing more than a motherboard where install M.2 SSD which plugs into a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. This card is intended for photography and video editing professionals. Such segments require large storage capacities and read/write speeds.
This expansion card has a total of 21 slots for M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD. Drives with a PCIe 5.0 interface were not supported due to their scarcity and absurdly expensive drives. Allows this device to 168 TB maximum capacity (with Corsair MP400 8TB drives) and read and write speed up to 31 GB/s.
This expansion card is characterized by a length 274.2 mm long, which is enough. The card, according to Apex Storage, pcb combination to compose this Apex X21, sandwiched. It is designed to accommodate up to 21 SSD hard drives in M.2 format. It has not been revealed which controller it uses, but it will be a custom solution.
He has a sandwich design, as we said, being two independent PCBs and held by two specific communication connectors. We find 10 M.2 drives in the internal area, therefore, to say. While in the outdoor space we have others 11 M.2 slots. The controller, on the other hand, has a large passive central heatsink.
Drives on the outside may have normal thermal issues for M.2 drives. But the internal They are the ones who will suffer the most. thermal stress,
Ideal for burning SSD drives
According to the manufacturer, a air flow close to 700 m3/h. To give us an idea, the fanss 120 mm Noctua i.e. approximately 100 m3/h. Note that it has two power connectors on the back of the PCB, which affects airflow.
Considering the configuration and the data, this seems like a solution that is not recommended at all. It requires an airflow more typical of servers than home computers. Also, this card is one PCI slot thick, so it’s hard to get good airflow.
Any professional, before using this solution, better to use a NAS or any similar better cooled slicer board. If massive use is made, the days of SSDs are really numbered, and they will be few.
Unfortunately, Apex Storage did not give a price or release date for this X21 card.
