Currently, mechanical hard drives are still the best and cheapest option for mass data storage. This may not be of value for everyone, since capacity and speed are required for certain cases. Apex Storage has introduced a PCIe card, Apex X21, that supports up to 21 M.2 SSDs for a maximum capacity of 168TB.
We have commented on some occasion that SSDs in M.2 format have a major problem with capacity. The technical limit is 4TB, although there are some drives (literally four) that reach 8TB. Said problem is given by space limitations and thermal problems.
Create your own 168TB (give or take) SSD
Actually, the Apex X21 card is nothing more than a motherboard to install M.2 SSD that connects to a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. This card is focused on 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 SSDs. Drives with a PCIe 5.0 interface have not been supported due to their scarcity and absurdly expensive drives. This drive allows for a maximum capacity of 168TB (with Corsair MP400 8TB drives) and read and write speeds of up to 31GB/s.
This expansion card is characterized by having a length of 274.2 mm long, which is quite a lot. The card, according to Apex Storage, combines two PCBs to form this Apex X21, as a sandwich. It is designed to accommodate up to 21 M.2 format solid-state hard drives. It has not been revealed which controller it uses, but it will be some custom solution.
It has a sandwich type design , as we said, being two independent PCBs and held by two specific communication connectors. We found 10 M.2 drives in the internal zone , so to speak. While in the external zone we have another 11 M.2 slots. The controller, on the other hand, has a large passive central heat sink.
Drives located outdoors may have thermal issues normal to M.2 drives. But the internal ones are the ones that will suffer the most from thermal stress, as they have a system with little space to circulate the air.
Ideal for burning SSD drives
According to the manufacturer, an air flow close to 700 m3/h is required. To give us an idea, Noctua’s 120mm fans are around 100m3/h . Note that it has two power connectors on the back of the PCB, which affects the airflow.
Taking into account the configuration and the data, it seems like a solution that is not recommended at all. It requires an air flow more typical of servers than of home computers. Also, this card is one PCI slot thick, so having good airflow is difficult.
Any professional, before using this solution, better use a NAS or any similar better cooled slicer card. If massive use is made, the days of SSDs are really numbered, and they will be few.
Unfortunately, Apex Storage has not given a price and release date for this X21 card.