I’m looking to add faster flash to a DIY TrueNas build, I’m on a Ryzen 5700G and an Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming WiFi II.
With SSD pricing the way it is, it looks cheaper to buy used enterprise U.2 SSDs compared to consumer ones. I was thinking of using some sort of x16 to x4 U.2 adaptor and install the drives directly onto the board.
My only concern with this is hotter temperatures and much higher power draw, 5w idle and up to 20w active on some spec sheets.
Are there U.2 NVMe SSDs that are more power efficient? I’m ideally looking for something that supports ASPM, and idles at less than spinning rust. I see that some of the sata U.2s do draw less power, but they’re not priced cheaper than NVMe, so it doesn’t make sense to downgrade to sata.
If you’re up for up-to 4 NVMe drives on a PCIe 16x slot, consider an adapter board that houses 4 M.2 drives (<- link!). I have one, works great as long as the mainboard allows for bifurcation of the specific 16x slot.
(I don’t have this specific board but they’re essentially the same, so hunt around on Aliexpress to find better priced versions. Do note these are all PCIe 3 speeds, despite claims about PCIe 4 compatibility)
I went down that rabbit hole a couple months ago, the only enterprise U.2 SSD I could find that ever so much as hints at ASPM support is the Solidigm D7-P5520:
Unlike many enterprise SSDs that do not support ASPM power saving at all, the Solidigm D7-P5520 supports both ASPM L0s and L1 power saving. However, in testing we will disable it to show its full performance.
I don’t have the money to go out and buy one of those drives so I have to take their word for it.