Need to build a server with NF1 drives for multi-petabyte yearly read/write and long reliable lifespan

[Artesian]

Hi folks, a client has expressed interest in a 4TB NVME drive from samsung using the NF1 form factor. This more or less requires using a server platform designed for these drives, OR using an experimental adapter. 
The client wants this in a data center anyway, so why not start with a backplane?

Supermicro makes some interesting products like the https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/system/1U/1029/SSG-1029P-NMR36L.cfm -- but we don't need that many drives or two Xeons. 

Their requirements: 

+4TB NVME drive approved for 5+ year life of 5PB/year
+128GB RAM 
+1 or 2 or 4U server size 
+No GPUs 
+At least an 8 core processor with as high a single core clock speed as possible

What existing product works for this medium duty server? 
Or is it better to suggest an array of smaller normal 2TB+ drives on a standard ATX board of some kind? Adapters or not. 

We're usually building big GPU servers so this request kind of threw us for a loop. 

Thanks!
-Artesian 
 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just one drive?

 

 

Why do you need nf1 drives? The 2.5 nvme or pcie add in card slots are about the same in terms of performance and cost. Since nf1 ssds are made for density, there aren't many servers with only a few of them.

 

 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Artesian said:

+4TB NVME drive approved for 5+ year life of 5PB/year

Are you actually sure there is going to be that much write utilization, this is very very high. You'll need to buy an SSD with 6TB+ and larger or  3TB+ with significantly greater than 1 DWPD rating and these are very expensive, something you should buy only when necessary.

 

To me the best options would be 3.2TB+ PM1725b or PM1735, or equivalent from another vendor. These are $1k+ USD products.

 

3 hours ago, Artesian said:

Or is it better to suggest an array of smaller normal 2TB+ drives on a standard ATX board of some kind? Adapters or not. 

If the data is at all important and doesn't get moved off to a more resilient storage platform or backed up then a minimum of two in RAID 1 should be used.

 

Honestly it'll be much easier to contact a HPE/Dell/Lenovo partner and give them the requirements and they'll quote you a system that'll meet it, most of them also sell Supermicro so you can ask for that too but everything is actually very similar in price.

 

3 hours ago, Artesian said:

+4TB NVME drive approved for 5+ year life of 5PB/year
+128GB RAM 
+1 or 2 or 4U server size 
+No GPUs 
+At least an 8 core processor with as high a single core clock speed as possible

Aside from this actually fitting more in HEDT hardware profile it's a situation when Xeon W-3225/W-3235 make sense or Xeon 6244/6244. Problem with Xeon-W is most of the time if you're buying from the big typical server vendors they are in towers for workstations.