Description
HP P18438-B21 3.84TB SATA 2.5" SSD
The P18438-B21 is HP's 3.84TB SATA drive in the 2.5-inch SFF size, rated Mixed Use and running at 6Gb/s. Close to four terabytes out of one SFF bay is the reason to buy it. Cutting the drive count in an array leaves bays free for later growth and reduces the number of parts that can fail on you. The drive is hot-swappable, and HP codes it P18438-B21, which is the number a spares list will ask for.
Key Features
- 3.84TB in a single 2.5-inch bay, around four times what a 960GB drive of the same shape holds
- 6Gb/s SATA, listed as the maximum data transfer rate for this drive
- Mixed-use endurance, sitting between HP's read-intensive and write-intensive tiers
- Hot-swappable, so it changes out with the chassis still powered
- 2.5-inch SFF internal drive under HP part number P18438-B21
- RoHS and WEEE compliant
Performance and Applications
Large SATA SSDs exist because plenty of server workloads want capacity ahead of raw speed. A capacity tier underneath a faster cache layer is the usual job. Archives, backup repositories, file shares and media libraries all sit well on 3.84TB drives, and cost per terabyte improves as capacity climbs, which is why estates buy fewer large drives instead of many small ones.
Rebuild time is the thing to plan around. A bigger drive takes longer to rebuild after a failure, so choose a RAID level that survives a second fault while the array recovers.
Compatibility and Installation
You'll need a free 2.5-inch SFF bay with a SATA connection, plus the carrier tray built for your chassis generation. Check that your RAID controller handles volumes of this size, since older controllers carry limits a 3.84TB drive can run into.
HP P18438-B21 3.84TB SSD for Server Capacity Tiers
For the bulk layer of a server's storage, the P18438-B21 puts 3.84TB behind one connector and keeps the rest of your bays free.
