Broadcom 9670W -16i

I bought 2 two Broadcom 9670W -16i’s for our forensic workstations to replace a Highpoint SSD7580B in two machines. The Highpoint 7580B’s were giving me trouble and i wanted to get away from the hybrid hardware/software raid. Connected to the Highpoints, i have 8 X Samsung PM9A3 3.84TB NVME SSD’s. The drives are in 2X Icydock MB699VP-B-V2 U.2 enclosures. The Highpoint card has 4X2 SFF-8654 to oculink connectors going into the two icydocks. The 9670W only has 2X8 SSF-8654 connectors on it. I have been searching but can’t find a 8654 to four oculink connections. I know I am missing something. I just need a little help.

You unfortunately have multiple technical issues:

  • The Icydock MB699VP-B-V2 is ONLY compatible with pure PCIe Switch Chipset HBAs, like the Highpoint 7580B you previously used or the Broadcom P411W-32P which is basically the same product.

  • The V2 WILL NOT WORK with Tri-Mode HBAs (HBAs that can use PCIe/NVMe as well as SAS and SATA drives), you would need Icydock MB699VP-B-V3 models for that, oh, and don’t be mistaken, you can still only use U.2 NVMe SSDs then (Icydock sucks there, too). I also had to move from the V2 to V3 models after giving up on the issues with my Broadcom P411W-32P.

  • The Broadcom RAID 9670W-16i has a Tri-Mode chipset so you’re SOOL.

  • With an Adaptec SmartRAID 3258Up-32i ( https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/SmartRAID-3258upc-32i ) you could have continued using the old cables from the Highpoint 7580B BUT you still need the Icydock V3 version of the U.2 backplane.

  • Broadcom Is a piece of shit company*. I have a long history with Broadcom and PCIe NVMe SSDs, the issues were unresolvable (they even changed officially supported features after the fact because of me nagging them), I moved to Adaptec (the non-RAID HBA version called HBA Ultra 1200p-32i).

*Note: In my opinion Broadcom is Intel ca. 2015 product quality- and corporate policy-wise, my gut says there are going to be a humbling developments for them in the not too distant future.

  • To connect 8 U.2 SSDs in the Icydock V3 backplanes to one Broadcom 9670W-16i you would need two 1 x SFF-8654-8i to 4 x OCuLink 2 lane cables (downgrading each SSD to a PCIe x2 link, technologically possible), of course Broadcom doesn’t support those, the only supported way is downgrading each SSD to a PCIe x1 link:

Sorry to hit you with a rant, everytime I read the name Broadcom I throw up a little in my mouth.

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I cant express how grateful I am for your response. I too am not a fan of Broadcom but i saw so much promise with this card. Is there a compatible back plane you would recommend for a tower workstation other than the V3 from Icydock?

I am always searching for the best nvme ssd storage solution to speed up forensic processing. I like the Highpoint card but i have had some disastrous issues with their hybrid hardware/software controller approach.

I don’t know of a better tower PC case U.2 backplane for individual drives than the Icydock MB699VP-B-V3 at least until PCIe Gen5 products become more mainstream (in that niche market).

I’m just also a bit salty about Icydock, I have all MB699VP-B revisions, from V1 (in my opinion false advertising claiming to support PCIe Gen4 with lackluster signal integrity with SlimSAS HD connectors), V2 that doesn’t work with Tri-Mode chipsets and finally V3 that’s the product it should have been since the beginning.

Current Broadcom’s controllers are intended to be combined with active electronical UBM backplanes which basically add additional Switch and signaling chipsets to the build so they can better load balance active drives over the bottleneck of the PCIe Gen4 x8 HBA host interface whereas the MB699VP-B is just a dumb static route configuration you have to properly wire up (that’s okay for me).

But with a few Noctua fans and a bit of fan control configuration you can make the MB699VP-B backplanes usable in an office environment regarding their noise level, something I very much value for my own little world. I have yet to see (and hear) an active UBM backplane that can be modded to be quiet without cooking its own internal electronics or the U.2/U.3 drives it’s housing.

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I was looking into this not too long ago and ended up going with the V3 for obvious reasons. However, there used to be a note on the V2 that a cable could be sourced from PC-Pitstop that would allow the V2 to work with tri-mode adapters. There was a connection change to match up the dock to the expected signals from the card, or something. I just looked and I do not see that note there anymore.

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