March 27, 2023, 2:00 am – Updated March 27, 2023, 4:00 am
Apex Storage is a relatively new company in the enterprise storage space, but they’re off to a great start, as the Apex Storage X21 solution demonstrates.
This device is an AIC (Add-In-Card) that allows you to integrate up to 21 SSD units in M.2 Plus 4.0 format. If we use 8TB drives and combine two of these cards, we could have a spectacular storage capacity of 336TB, but beware: this option does not come cheap.
The people at the top of the court are Mike Spicer and Henry Hill. The first similar product was already launched on Kickstarter in 2021: it was called Storage Scaler and allowed the addition of 16 M.2 SATA modules. The Apex Storage X21 seems to be a better version of that product, although they have now opted for the flagship Plu 4.0, perhaps to avoid the high cost of the current Plu 5.0.
This card occupies a full Plu slot and is 274.2mm long. It is compatible with Plu 3.0 holes, but if we use it with hole making, it will be significantly cheaper. By using Plu 4.0 slots and SSD drives with that connection, we can enjoy spectacular transmissions.
In fact, with one card you can reach 28.5 GB/s in reading and writing, but in multi-card configurations that performance can increase up to 107 GB/s and 80 GB/s in reading and writing respectively. . Raid supports card configurations on Windows and Linux, allowing them to perform exactly the same transfer rates.
This AIC also has a “dual” version, which allows the use of precisely double the number of modules, which gives the ability to connect up to 42 SSD modules. The price of that apex storage table is $2,800, about 2,600 European coins.
To that price add the cost of 42 SSD drives. If I choose the 8TB models, which are currently around 1,200 coins, the price of that drive is 50,400 euros, which makes a total of about 53,000 coins with a total capacity of 336TB.
If we choose instead 4 TB units, now much cheaper (models are about 300 coins) the cost is reduced to 12,600 coins, with a total cost of about 15,200 coins and a capacity of “only” 168TB.
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