In brief: PCIe 5.0 will soon enable SSDs with more than double the typical read and write speeds of PCIe 4.0 models, but you don’t have to wait any longer. In fact, Sabrent just made a configurable PCIe 4.0 x16 SSD that tops at 64 terabytes of insanely fast storage.
Sabrent is known for its fast and increasingly popular Rocket SSDs, but every now and then the company comes up with some rather outlandish products for NAND enthusiasts and professionals who need the fastest possible storage for scratch files. The latest is the aptly-named Rocket 4 Plus Destroyer 2, and it combines several Rocket 4 Plus SSDs into a monstrosity that is likely to be just as fast as the money disappearing from your bank account as you place an order for one.
The Destroyer 2 is essentially a carrier board that can take up to eight M.2 SSDs in either a 2242, 2260, or 2280 format for a total of up to 64 terabytes of high-speed storage. It does this with the help of a Broadcom PCIe 4.0 8 series PEX switch, and Sabrent says the eight slots can accommodate both single-sided and double-sided M.2 drives. There’s also a six-pin PCIe power connector for external power, and the SSDs are kept from melting with a full aluminum heatsink and active cooling.
Since it relies on the same Highpoint SSD7540 PCIe 4.0 x16 RAID card as the previous Destroyer, it will be able to reach sequential read speeds in excess of 28,000 megabytes per second. For reference, that is faster than prototype PCIe 5.0 SSDs, which are capable of reaching anywhere from 12,000 to over 14,000 megabytes per second in sequential read tests.
The Rocket 4 Plus Destroyer 2 can also be configured for better data security using a RAID 10 setup or maximum performance using a RAID 0 setup. In any case, Sabrent says installing the drivers is pretty straightforward, and you can configure RAID arrays using a web-based management interface. If you work with large deep learning databases or edit videos at 4K and higher resolutions, this may just make your life easier.
As you’d expect, this solution doesn’t come cheap. Populating all slots with Sabrent’s 8-terabyte Rocket 4 Plus SSD will cost you a small fortune, even at the currently discounted price of $1,499.99 per unit (25 percent off the original price of $1,999.99).