G292-Z20 nvme pcie gen3, what about bifurcation

High-Performance Computing Workstations & Servers
, ,
1

Hello,
I just got my G292-Z20 and I saw after that, the U2 and NVME m2 are gen 3. even worst the second m2 is x2 only.
I need your opinion on a solution I came up with.
There are 2 pcie x16 gen4 at the back (SFF) and after some investigation it look like I can do bifurcation on those pcie.
should I get something like this https://a.co/d/655B8V6 and get few (3 or 4) m.2 in raid.
This server will have proxmox (install on m2 gen3 x4) and I would put vms on the raid with gpus in passthrough for AI.
I don’t think I need U.2 enterprise drive (first not sure if that backplane can support gen4 but when connected to the motherboard it is U.2 gen3 and only have 2 drives) I will also do external backups.
It look like the backplane was also made for multiples configurations maybe with a second pcie card I could connect the other bay on gen4 instead but might also be too expensive to do.
Otherwise, any suggestion on m.2 drives? I was thinking crucial T500 since they are on sales this week.

Thanks

2

After some test, the documentation says gen3 on the m.2 x4 but in linux lspci report the nvme running at 16GT/s (gen4)… now my question is does the U.2 is gen4 too

3

I decided to get 4x kioxia cm6 1.60tb used on ebay, it wasn’t too expensive. the server only have 2 ports but the backplane have the connectors to allow you to install more (or only U.2) these are the parts that are required
Questions about nvme raid card - #19 by timbit1123

4

I’m also looking at the G292-Z20, rev 100. I’m curious about the onboard NVME controller, were you able to get both to run at PCI4-speeds? Do the PCI slots suppose bifurcation? Did you make any progress with the back-place?

Thanks!