Probably with some adapter searching.
You would need some M.2 to miniSAS-HD/MCIO/etc. card and then the other end likely requires some SATA-Power to fulfill power requirements of U.2
I have done x4x4x4x4 with those shinreal adapters, just using mcio 8i to 2x mcio 4i or 2x oculink cables that split it. Corresponding bios configuration is still required.
Might have a new idea to get progress on the Broadcom P411W-32P front: *
Unfortunately I would need the help of someone with both models, a P411W-32P and a HBA 9500-16i and both genuine Broadcom models to hopefully get a Broadcom support case to open.
Any such unlucky folks here?
*My goal:
Get a firmware with all fixes for the P411W-32P that also works with directly-attached SSDs (so no need for an active electronic UBM backplane as is currently the case) and working, signed drivers for Windows.
Catastrophic bugs in Windows might help force Broadcom’s hand here. With two or more customers complaining about the issues it might maybe work…
@thr3e today I got the parts from aliexpress and it works flawlessly! Tested both X8/X8 and X16 5.0, without issues or loss. Tested on 1x5090 at X16 5.0 and 2x5090 each at X8 5.0.
I’m impressed, many thanks for the link of the J0MB adapter.
Been looking at stuff, and it seems that the dell 235NK is some kind of pcie switch for only 30-40 bucks right now. Anyone know whats up with it, or what’s wrong with it?
I have a few of those cards, and I haven’t seen their details posted anywhere else so I’ll share what I know here. Dell 235NK / 0235NK uses a PLX PEX 9733, a 33-lane, 9-port Gen3 switch, and has a full-height bracket. There’s also another version of the card, part number CDC7W / 0CDC7W, that is exactly the same hardware except that it comes with a half-height bracket instead of a full-height one. According to lspci, the card divides each SlimSAS 8i port into two x4 ports, but I haven’t actually tried to connect anything to them yet so I can’t confirm that configuration for certain.
I am having some hard time understanding this Dell 235NK - it is x16 and has only 2x SlimSAS ports, each capable of 2 drives. What exactly does the PLX switch do in this case ?
At least that’s what I see from the picture - only two SFF-8654 8i ports with each port usually being able to do 2x 4i devices. At least I am not aware of SFF-8654 8i to anything other than 2x 4i cables.
I am having some hard time understanding this Dell 235NK - it is x16 and has only 2x SlimSAS ports, each capable of 2 drives. What exactly does the PLX switch do in this case ?
Some systems can’t bifurcate their x16 PCIe slot to x4/x4/x4/x4, and can only bifurcate to x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, or x8/x4/x2/x2, or can’t bifurcate their x16 slot at all. There are also systems that have x16 slots that don’t have 16 lanes connected to them (e.g., a physical x16 connector with only one lane electrically connected to the slot) to have any bifurcation at all. The PCIe switch chip on the Dell 235NK enables connecting four x4 PCIe devices to these systems.
The PCIe switch also shortens the effective PCIe link to the drive, which helps preserve signal integrity. So unlike with a passive riser, where the PCIe lanes would be extended all the way from the CPU (or chipset) to the drive, the PCIe link from the CPU (or chipset) only goes to the PCIe switch, and then the PCIe switch has a new, separate link to the drive. A PCIe retimer would have a similar benefit, but retimers lack the ability to “split” a non-bifurcatable PCIe slot, and so are limited by the host’s ability to bifurcate the slot.
