345-BJHM Dell 7.68TB PCI-E Gen4 NVMe Read Intensive SSD.

Dell 345-BJHM — Enterprise 7.68TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe U.2 SSD

The Dell 345-BJHM is a high-density enterprise internal solid-state drive engineered for demanding read-intensive workloads. Built on PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe technology and housed in a U.2 2.5" 15mm form factor, this 7.68TB drive delivers fast, consistent throughput and low latency for data-center applications, database caching, and large-scale read-heavy deployments.

Core Specifications

• Manufacturer: Dell
• Part Number / SKU: 345-BJHM
• Product Type: Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Sub-Type: PCIe Gen4 NVMe
• Capacity: 7.68 TB (formatted, enterprise-class)
• Interface: PCI Express 4.0 x4 (NVMe)
• Form Factor: U.2 (2.5" × 15mm)
• Endurance / Use Case: Read-intensive workload optimization (1 DWPD class)

Performance & Endurance Highlights

Designed specifically for environments where read I/O dominates, the 345-BJHM balances large capacity with enterprise-grade reliability. With Gen4 NVMe bandwidth and optimized TLC NAND, it provides faster random read access and higher IOPS compared to legacy SATA or Gen3 NVMe drives, while offering an endurance profile tuned for read-heavy applications.

Why choose a read-intensive Gen4 NVMe drive?

• Significantly improved read throughput and lower latency for analytics, indexing and content delivery.
• Higher capacity per drive reduces chassis and rack density pressures—fewer drives to manage at scale.
• Optimized endurance (1 DWPD) lowers total cost of ownership for primarily read workloads.

Connectivity and System Integration

The drive exposes NVMe over two PCIe Gen4 x4 lanes for direct, high-bandwidth access to host servers. Its U.2 2.5" footprint ensures compatibility with a wide range of enterprise server bays and storage sleds, simplifying integration into standard data-center infrastructures.

Physical & Electrical Interface

• Interface type: PCIe 4.0 ×4 (NVMe)
• Drive bay compatibility: 2.5" U.2 internal bay (15mm)
• Host connection: U.2 backplane or compatible adapter supporting NVMe over PCIe Gen4

Reliability, Security & Management

Enterprise-class features include power-loss protection, robust SMART telemetry for predictive maintenance, and firmware features tuned for data integrity under heavy read loads. These capabilities help maintain consistent performance and protect stored data in production deployments.

Key management and durability features

• Drive health reporting via SMART and vendor-specific telemetry
• Power-loss protection mechanisms to reduce risk of write corruption
• Firmware designed for predictable latency and steady-state performance in read-intensive scenarios

Use Cases

This SSD is ideal for organizations that require high-capacity, low-latency storage optimized for reads. Typical applications include large-scale content repositories, web caching layers, search/index services, analytics platforms, and virtual desktop infrastructure where read throughput is the dominant factor.

Typical deployment patterns

• Read-cached database nodes and analytic query accelerators
• Content delivery and media streaming storage tiers
• High-density server builds where fewer, larger drives reduce rack footprint

Compatibility — Supported Dell PowerEdge Models

The 345-BJHM is validated for use in a broad set of Dell PowerEdge servers. Grouped below for clarity, these compatible platforms cover both rack and high-density compute classes.

Rack servers (R-series)

• PowerEdge R440, R640, R660xs, R670, R740xd, R7425, R760, R760xa, R770, R840, R940, R940xa, R960

Density / Compute & Storage (C / D / T / X series)

• PowerEdge C6420, C6525, C6620
• PowerEdge T560
• PowerEdge Xe9640, Xe9680
• PowerEdge Xr7620

AMD EPYC / Specialized platforms (R-/H-series)

• PowerEdge R6415, R6515, R6615, R7615
• PowerEdge R6525, R6625, R7525
• PowerEdge R7415, R7515

Dell 345-BJHM 7.68TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe U.2 — Product category overview

The Dell 345-BJHM 7.68TB PCI-E Gen 4.0 x4 NVMe U.2 SSF 2.5" Read-Intensive TLC 1DWPD Enterprise Internal SSD represents a high-capacity, data-center grade storage option designed specifically for modern Dell PowerEdge servers (14G, 15G, 16G and 17G). This category page focuses on the enterprise NVMe U.2 family targeted at read-centric workloads and dense server storage configurations. It covers technical characteristics, real-world use cases, deployment best practices, maintenance considerations, and buying guidance to help IT buyers, system architects and procurement teams make an informed decision.

Who this SSD is for

• IT teams running read-intensive applications such as large-scale web services, content delivery, analytics queries, and VM boot hosts.
• Data center operators who require high capacity in a 2.5" form factor for server bays and storage enclosures.
• Enterprises deploying Dell PowerEdge 14G–17G servers where validated, hot-swappable U.2 NVMe drives simplify lifecycle management.
• Systems integrators and cloud providers consolidating storage with an emphasis on cost per TB and predictable endurance.

Key features and technical highlights

Form factor and interface

The drive conforms to the SSF 2.5-inch U.2 form factor with a PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe interface. The U.2 connector provides a robust hot-swappable design that fits standard server drive bays—making it ideal for PowerEdge chassis that have direct support for U.2 NVMe carriers.

Why U.2 matters

• Hot-swaps and serviceability: U.2 allows drives to be replaced without powering down servers in supported hardware.
• Compatibility with existing drive trays and backplanes: Many enterprise servers and storage enclosures use U.2 backplanes for NVMe connectivity.
• Thermal and mechanical stability: The 2.5" SSF form factor is optimized for server airflow patterns and mounting points.

Capacity and NAND type

With a rated capacity of 7.68TB, this SSD targets high density data center deployments where minimizing the number of drives per server is a priority. It uses Read-Intensive TLC NAND which balances cost, density, and read performance—making it well suited for workloads that perform far more reads than writes.

Endurance and DWPD

The product is specified as 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day), which is consistent with the read-intensive class of drives. This endurance rating informs retention planning, expected lifetime under typical workload profiles, and replacement cycle budgeting.

Performance characteristics

PCIe Gen4 benefits

PCIe Gen4 doubles the per-lane bandwidth compared to PCIe Gen3, and when used in a x4 NVMe configuration it unlocks significantly higher sequential and random throughput compared to older interfaces. For read-heavy workloads, the Gen4 x4 link reduces queuing delays and allows the flash controller to service requests with lower latency.

Latency and I/O behaviour

Read-optimized TLC and NVMe protocol together produce low-latency, high-IOPS read paths that benefit database selects, metadata operations and boot storms. The NVMe command set also offers opportunities for parallelism and multi-queue I/O that modern hypervisors and OS kernels exploit for higher sustained performance.

Typical workload fit

• Virtual machine images and boot volumes (high read/low write patterns).
• Content delivery and caching layers where read throughput is critical.
• Analytic query acceleration where random read IOPS reduces query latency.

Compatibility and server support

Validated Dell PowerEdge generations

This product listing emphasizes compatibility with Dell PowerEdge 14G, 15G, 16G and 17G platforms. Dell's validation and firmware QA for those generations typically ensure that the drive performs reliably when used in supported chassis, backplanes and RAID or NVMe adapters used by those servers.

Controller & firmware considerations

When adding NVMe drives to enterprise servers, ensure the server firmware and NVMe controller drivers are up to date. Correct firmware minimizes compatibility issues, improves thermal handling and can include optimizations specific to a particular SSD family. Dell's own lifecycle controller or iDRAC firmware may also report drive health and thermal metrics—useful for ongoing monitoring.

Backplane and adapter notes

Some older server backplanes and risers were designed for SAS/SATA drives. When using U.2 NVMe drives, confirm the server has a native U.2 NVMe backplane or an appropriate NVMe riser/adapter and that the bay supports the required hot-swap behavior and NVMe passthrough to the OS.

Deployment scenarios & architecture guidance

High-density compute nodes

Deploy 7.68TB U.2 SSDs in compute-dense racks where maximizing local capacity per socket reduces network storage pressure. A smaller number of high-capacity NVMe drives simplifies storage provisioning and cuts rack unit overhead for drive bays.

Boot and staging volumes

Because of the read-intensive profile, these drives excel as boot volumes or OS images across clusters—especially in environments where read operations (OS loads, patches, container starts) dominate. Consolidate boot volumes on U.2 NVMe to accelerate host startup and VM provisioning.

Cache and tiering layers

Use the drive as a high capacity read cache in front of slower persistent tiers. In hybrid architectures the NVMe drive acts as an intelligent buffer for frequently read blocks, improving application responsiveness without requiring all data to reside on more expensive write-endurance enterprise drives.

Management and monitoring

SMART / NVMe health telemetry

Modern NVMe drives expose SMART attributes and NVMe-specific health telemetry such as media and controller temperature, available spare, percentage used, and power cycles. Integrate these metrics into server monitoring tools (Dell iDRAC, Nagios, Prometheus exporters, etc.) to enable predictive replacement and reduce unplanned downtime.

Firmware updates and lifecycle

Keep drive firmware current. Enterprise SSD firmware updates often include reliability and performance refinements. Verify Dell's support pages for firmware packages validated for the PowerEdge models in your environment and follow change control procedures for rolling updates.

Maintenance best practices

• Perform firmware updates in a controlled maintenance window, one server at a time.
• Monitor SMART thresholds and set alerts for metrics indicating accelerated wear or potential failures.
• Document serial numbers and Bay IDs for swift physical replacement when an alert occurs.

Capacity planning and cost considerations

Cost per TB and density tradeoffs

High capacity NVMe drives such as 7.68TB units reduce the number of drives required to achieve a targeted TB count per server, lowering chassis complexity and backplane utilization. When evaluating cost, compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) that includes acquisition cost, power, cooling and management overhead rather than focusing solely on price per GB.

Endurance planning & replacement cycles

An endurance rating of 1 DWPD indicates predictable lifetime for read-heavy workloads, but you should still model worst-case write amplification from OS or application behavior. Implement wear monitoring and a replacement policy based on percentage used or an absolute time horizon to avoid unexpected failures.