Dell packs 9.8 PB into 2RU server using Kioxia's 245TB QLC SSDs

Dell’s new PowerEdge R7725xd crams 40 of Kioxia’s LC9 E3.L NVMe SSDs — each 245.76 TB — into a 2RU chassis, yielding 9.8 PB of all-flash capacity in a single box. The system runs on AMD EPYC 9005 processors and supports up to five 400 Gbps NICs to move data off the array fast enough to feed AI training and ingestion workloads. A full rack of twenty such servers would top 196 PB.

The density push reflects vendors positioning QLC flash as a direct replacement for nearline HDDs in AI infrastructure, where footprint, power draw, and bandwidth-per-rack now matter more than raw $/TB. Kioxia is competing in this 256 TB-class segment with Micron’s 6600 ION, Sandisk’s UltraQLC SN670, and offerings from SK Hynix and Solidigm. Samsung is reportedly working toward an HDD-killer drive with a roadmap reaching 1 PB per SSD, which storage software vendors like Scality are already preparing to support.