Affordable High Capacity Storage: 8TB U.2 SSD at $389

Enterprise hardware is always substantially more expensive than consumer hardware. However, they're usually available at more down-to-earth prices when their time has passed. Such is the case with Intel's DC P4510 (SSDPE2KX080T851) enterprise NVMe 8TB SSD, which sells for $399.99 but used to retail for over $5,000. It’s $10 cheaper on the Server Part Deals online store.

The Intel DC P4510 was a big deal back then. The 2.5-inch 15mm drive features Intel's 512 Gb 64-layer 3D TLC NAND with capacities from 1TB up to 8TB. The P4510 won't be winning any races nowadays, with PCIe 5.0 SSDs pushing the speeds over 14 GB/s. Leveraging the PCIe 3.1 x4 interface, the P4510 delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 3,200 MB/s and 3,000 MB/s, respectively. The random performance is quite respectable, too, with 620,000 IOPS reads and 139,500 IOPS writes.

At $399.99, the P4510 costs just 5 cents per GB, an outstanding deal for an 8TB drive. The P4510 shares identical price tags with the Samsung 870 QVO 8TB, currently the cheapest 8TB SATA SSD on the market. However, the Samsung 870 QVO is limited to SATA speeds, whereas the P4510 offers PCIe 3.1-grade performance.

The only caveat with the P4510 is that it uses the U.2 interface, a port hardly found on modern mainstream motherboards. Several years back, there was some hype about the U.2 port, and many HEDT motherboards came with U.2 ports. Sadly, the U.2 interface never caught on in the consumer market. It's not a big letdown since you can find U.2 to M.2 adapters on Amazon for $28.88. If you prefer the PCIe interface, there are also U.2 to PCIe adapters starting at $35.61. Even with the cost of the additional accessories to get the P4510 up and running, it's still an acceptable deal if you want PCIe 3.1 speeds for a secondary storage drive.

The P4510 is a power-efficient drive. The SSD draws 5W at idle and 16W when active. The idle power consumption is comparable to that of a conventional 8TB hard drive, while the active power consumption is up to 2X higher.

As expected, the P4510 offers enterprise-grade endurance. Intel rates the SSD for 1 DWPD (drive write per day) with a five-year warranty. Depending on your preferred term, it equals 13,880 TBW (terabytes written) or 13.88 PBW (petabytes written). For everyday consumer usage, the P4510 is an SSD that will last several years, likely through your subsequent five system upgrades.