Have Extra Cash Stashed Away? This 100TB SSD Can Be Yours For $40,000

ExaDrive 100TB SSD

ExaDrive 100TB SSD (Image credit: Nimbus Data)

Nimbus Data, who is famous for its large enterprise SSDs, announced the 100TB ExaDrive SSD two years ago. The company never did reveal the pricing at launch, and now we can see why.

TechRadar recently noticed that Nimbus Data has finally listed the prices for the brand's ExaDrive lineup. The 50TB unit costs $12,500, while the 100TB model will set you back a whopping $40,000. If we do the math, this comes down to $250 per terabyte on the first and up to $400 per terabyte on the latter.

The ExaDrive comes inside a 3.5-inch case, and it's available with either a standard SATA III or SAS-2 interface. The price remains the same for both so it's up to the customer to pick the format that fits into the system.

According to the manufacturer, the SSD leverages four flash controllers that are escorted by a protocol processor whose job is to direct data traffic. The ExaDrive SSD utilizes enterprise-grade 3D MLC (multi-level cell) NAND chips and comes with DRAM although Nimbus Data doesn't specify just how much.

Nimbus Data ExaDrive Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ModelCapacity (TB)Sequential Read (MBps)Sequential Write (MBps)Random Read (IOPS)Random Write (IOPS)Endurance (DWPD)WarrantyPricing
EDDCT100100500500114,000106,000Unlimited5 Years$40,000
EDDCS10010045026052,00026,000Unlimited5 Years$40,000
EDDCT0505050047097,00091,000Unlimited5 Years$12,500
EDDCS0505045026050,00025,000Unlimited5 Years$12,500

Obviously, the ExaDrive's forte is its density since the drive's performance within  what you would expect from a standard SATA SSD.

The SATA models deliver sequential read and write speeds up to 500 MBps and the random read and write speeds up to 114,000 IOPS and 106,000 IOPS. 

The SAS variants, on the other hand, max out at 450 MBps and 260 MBps for sequential read and write speeds, respectively. The random perfomance is good for up to 97,000 IOPS reads and 91,000 IOPS writes.

ExaDrive SSDs are rated with unlimited endurance over a period of five years. The drives are designed for enterprise systems so they will play nice with servers from big names, including Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro and Tyan.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • drtweak
    Actually the price per TB isn't all that bad to have that much storage packed in one spot. Now sure as hell wouldn't just buy one. You would have to buy two or three of them so that you can have a backup of your data as well as no HDD comes close to that either. But if say speed isn't the reason. If it was used for a backup device, or on the consumer side i could see this being a media storage drive for like a Plex server or something where 400+MBps should be more than enough even for a few streams, you have to think.

    4TB SSD is one of the largest consumer SSD's. You would need 25 of them to equal to one of these.

    40K vs 15.5K on 25 4T SSDs, but then you would need one VERY large controller or a controller with SAS expanderas and the space and power for 25 SSD's where this one guy can do it. So yea for 2.5 Times the price, to have that one drive take up the power of probably a few ssd's and the space of what? a 3.5 inch drive.
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    I'm going to need to sell off several of my organs, but I think I can manage it...
    I'm a pretty healthy male - mental stability is questionable though, so the brain might not be worth much.
    Reply
  • Flayed
    Cool for a steam drive lol
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade
    They seriously couldn't find/make a SSD controller fast enough to saturate SAS-4: 22.5 Gbps?
    Reply
  • neojack
    maybe the existing controllers on the market can't addres that many bits of ram ?

    Personnaly i'm concerned aout cooling. the chips in the center of the drive will cook.
    since it's an enterprise drive, i would have expected a beter solution than just craming and stacking as much possible nand in the tallest 3.5 drive possible.
    For exemple a cooling heatsink on he top / back with heatpipes going inside the drive to extract heat
    Reply
  • DZIrl
    Unlimited endurance and only 5 years warranty?
    For 40k?
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    I'll take two!
    Reply