Entreprise SSDs are something else

Hey, Krafting’s here! Today on my blog we’ll talk about SSDs. You might say that there isn’t much to talk about here, but if you’ve never seen entreprise SSDs, you might get very surprised. We will also compare them to a standard and recent cheap-ish SSD. And I’m talking purely about hardware, we won’t talk much about the specs, but we will open all of them and see how are their inside.

Table of Contents

Here is our few subjects for today:

  • Dell 1.92 TB SAS (from 2016)
  • Dell 1.92 TB SAS (from 2015)
  • Dell 400 GB SAS (from 2020)
  • Dell 400 GB SAS (from 2015)
  • Intel 800 GB SATA (from ????)
  • A standard Samsung EVO 250 GB SATA (from 2018)

You might wonder how I got my hand on such a large panel of solid state storage. Well, I got them at work when we decommissionned some servers. I’m very lucky to be able to get my hand on such high-grade devices (and also, save them from the trash).

But anyway, let’s see what they have inside them!

Dell 1.92 TB (SAS)

We’ll start with one of my first SSD I got my hands on. Here is an open 1.92 TB SAS SSD from Dell, this one is from 2016.

A Dell 1.92 Enterprise SSD open, with two PCBs and a lot of chips on them.
A Dell 1.92 Enterprise Plus SSD open, with two PCBs and a lot of chips on them.

As we can see, there are 2 printed circuit boards (PCB) on here. This SSD comes with one of top of the other. We can see the two connectors for these PCBs at the left of each of them on the picture above. There are also a lot of small components all around the board, and it is actually taking all the available space inside the SSD case. Talk about optimization!

There are a lot of chips on this SSD, and we can even see all the thermal pads sticking to the metal frame above the PCBs (yes, this SSD is made of a metal frame to help dissipate heat).

The other side of the Dell SSD.
The other side of the Dell SSD.

Here is the other side of this SSD, we can see a very big die acting as a controller with even more chips on there!

I have another version of this SSD from 2015, sadly, I cannot open it up as I don’t have the required screwdriver. However, I can safely say that there are at least two PCBs inside it aswell, I can see them both from the front connector. This SSD is shown at the end of this article, to do a little size comparison with the SATA drives!

Dell 400 GB (SAS)

Let’s continue our little digging with some 400 GB drives from Dell. And remember kids, this is a warranty voiding zone.

The side of an SSD with a sticker "Warranty Void if Seal Altered or Broken"
The side of an SSD with a sticker “Warranty Void if Seal Altered or Broken”

Warranty is long gone on these drives anyway. (or is it ?)

Above, you can see the two drives we’ll be looking at here, the light gray one is from 2020 and the dark gray one is from 2015, and they are quite different inside as we’ll see.

Side/back view of the PCBs inside the SSD case.
Side/back view of the PCBs inside the SSD case.

Even before opening them, there was a big difference in weight. The newer drive is way lighter than the older drive, and when I opened them, it became obvious why. On the right, you can see the 2015 drive, with 3 PCBs stacked on top of each others. And we also see than the newer one have 6 big capacitors on its PCBs (and way less chips, with only a singular PCB)

The 3 PCBs were all sticking to each others thank to some thermal pads all over the boards. This surely helps with thermal dissipation and also provide a way for PCBs to not get in contact with each others. The way the boards are linked is quite satisfying, and we just “open” them like a leaflet. The cable connecting them is very rigid though, and I didn’t want to force too much on it. After all, I don’t want to break my SSDs !

Top view of the other side of the SSD.
Top view of the other side of the SSD.

Here is the other side of this leaflet, standing on its “feet” and again, there is a big thermal pad and under it, a big chip, probably a controller once again. And a lot of small components all around the board. On this SSD we can also see an extra connector at the right of the SAS connector here, I’ve seen some extra connectors on drives before, but never like this one. It looks like an extra data or power line for the drive, maybe used in some proprietary storage box ? If you have any idea, feel free to tell me, please!

Closer look at the newer 2020 SSD. 5 big chips and  4 smaller ones along side a TOSHIBA controller.

And here is the back of the 2020 one. We can see some KIOXIA chips and a TOSHIBA controller. And as it is tradition, a whole lot of thermal pads all around the full metal frame!

Intel 800 GB and Samsung 250 GB

Now let’s take a look inside some SATA drives. Yes, we only looked at SAS drives for now, but I have two SATA SSDs laying around, shall we open them up ?

Yes we shall, of course. And after opening them up you can clearly see the difference between a consumer-grade SSD and an entreprise-grade one.

The Samsung EVO is just a small PCB in a frame way too big for it. But at least, we have a standard size for the shell, and I’m glad that we don’t end up with SSDs of different size, screw-hole position, or even worse.

The Intel SSD DC S3510 drive on the other hand, still takes up all the available space, with a lot more chips once again.

Closer look at the Intel SSD, With 8 chips, a controller and 3 smaller chips.
Closer look at the Intel SSD, with 8 chips, a controller and 3 smaller chips.

A closer look at the Intel SSD reveal more chips and a controller with a singular thermal pad, just for it. Chips doesn’t have thermal pads in here however, even though the whole case is made out of metal once again.

A closer look at the Samsung SSD, with a singular chip on it.
A closer look at the Samsung SSD, with a singular chip on it.

Nothing more to say on the Samsung SSD other than it is very small, but there is a second chip on the other side. The case is also made of some kind of metal though!

I’d be curious to take appart more consumer SSDs to see if they are all made equal (which I’m 100% sure they aren’t). This is a small SSD too, bigger SSD would require more chips and more PCB real-estate!

The two SATA SSDs on top of another in the left and a Dell Enterprise Plus SSD in the right, displaying the thickness difference.
The two SATA SSDs on top of another in the left and a Dell Enterprise Plus SSD in the right, displaying the thickness difference.

And to finish this blog post, here is a little size comparison. All SAS drives, I have looked at, are as thick as the drive in the right of this picture. They need to be bigger to accomodate all those extra PCBs! And it is twice as thick as a normal SSD as you can see here.

Conclusion

This conclude my article on these entreprise SSDs. They are clearly built to last, and to be run 24/7 in a data-center or a storage server somewhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the chips on those SSD were made in spare, in case a chip fails at some point. And I will clearly try to find some use for them in the future.

I’m no expert in storage, but I do love some great hardware, and I had a lot of fun looking at these. And I hope you had fun as well!

Until next time on my blog! Thank you for reading and stopping by.

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