Solidigm is on a major push right now to phase out a new wave of hard drives from the data center. The Solidigm D5-P5430 is one of those new NVMe SSDs. The model we are looking at is the Solidigm D5-P5430 15.36TB model, but there is also a 30.72TB model in the line available. This drive is a higher-performance option than the 61.44TB D5-P5336 that we showed briefly in a recent video, but it is not designed to be a performance drive. This is a capacity with moderate performance SSD.
Solidigm D5-P5430 15.36TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
Something that is fun with the new line is that it fits between higher-end drives designed for performance and lower-end QLC drives designed for writing infrequently, and reading often (we are going to call this WIRO access.) We just looked at a SLC-based DapuStor Xlenstor2 X2900P 800GB drive that is almost on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. SSDs like the Optane P5800X and that DapuStor are designed for heavy write workloads and fast 4K random workloads. The D5-P5430 is designed to hold a lot of data and serve it.
This is still a PCIe Gen4 drive. Folks may be wondering with all of the new server CPUs being PCIe Gen5 capable, why we still have PCIe Gen4 drives. The simple answer seems to be that PCIe Gen4 offers a lot of performance at lower power and SSDs are not really effectively using PCIe Gen5 yet.
The somewhat strange thing is that there is a warranty tamper indicator. Warranty void seals are generally not enforceable in the US and many other jurisdictions so it is just strange to see on a drive from a large company. On the bottom, we get flat metal. This is a bit different as many high-performance drives utilize a finned exterior for better cooling. Given the cost of 15TB of NAND, it seems interesting that the design choice is to keep a lower-cost non-finned chassis on these drives.
This was also one of the first drives we saw with Solidigm branding.
As for the key specs, one can find them here, the key thing is that this is not designed to be a revolutionary speed SSD. Instead, this is a capacity play.
This is still the 15mm U.2 2.5″ form factor, but Solidigm has E1.S and E3.S EDSFF drives as well.
Next, let us get to some basic performance figures.
Why?
Bring back MLC!!! I still use Intel drives I bought ages ago.
“Solidigm is on a major push right now to phase out a new wave of hard drives from the data center.”
This sentence reads very awkwardly. Are they trying to phase out hard drives in the datacenter by replacing them with SSDs? Are they trying to phase in a new wave of hard drives? If so, why is the article about SSDs, not hard drives?