15.36TB Enterprise SSD Hits Second-Hand Market for Around $1,571

Chinese second-hand market pops up 15.36TB enterprise SSD. The dense storage can take the place of 8x 2TB storage.

Intelliflash PBlaze5 910 AIC offers high density for DIY homelabs

This is great storage option for DIYers building local AI labs/homelabs, since it eliminates the trouble of dealing with multiple drives. Not to mention the extra motherboard slot.

Specifications

• Capacity: 15.36TB
• Interface: PCIe 3.0 x8
• Sequential Read: Up to 6GB/s
• Sequential Write: 3.8GB/s
• Endurance: 1 DWPD

This post on Xianyu platform shows that more surplus enterprise products are accessible by DIYers. It's a boon for hobbyists in search for large storage array with good reliability. Without having to purchase retail products at high cost.

Here is the Intelliflash PBlaze5 910 AIC we are talking about. It's an add-in card. Half-height, half-length. with PCIe 3.0 x8 connection.

We noticed this particular product was listed on Chinese second-hand platform: Xianyu. It's advertised as high-density storage option, unlike the traditional M.2 or 2.5-inch form factor.

You can see how the card can go straight to your PCIe slot. The drive has:

– Sequential read up to 6GB/s – Sequential write 3.8GB/s – 64 layer 3D NAND flash – Endurance 1 DWPD, i.e. limited to 5600TB/yr annual write volume. It sounds like a drive that is designed for usage. Not a one-time-in-a-while drive. Perfect for storage local models or heavy logging purposes.

The price in China is 10500 CNY (~1571$) That's ~ 684 CNY (~102$) /TB Certainly a low price per TB compared to many new consumer SSD. But note it's enterprise grade drive with all its endurance and interface limitations.

Also note there's no disclosure on NAND manufacturer and controller model in the report. You'll have to confirm component quality when you get it.

This post on Xianyu reminds us that there are high density enterprise storage available for those niche usage scenarios like DIY NAS or local AI inference server. It's definitely a neat solution to increase your storage density. Without having to add more space to your chassis.

Don't forget to make sure about drive health/warranty before you buy. Used enterprise SSDs are tricky with their varying wear.