HBA/Raid Card for U.2 Drives

Why not a PCIe x4 m.2 AIC with on board bifurication, for the existing M.2 sticks, then a couple of m.2 > U.2 adapters?

Edit- Bifuricating AIC’s seem to be expensive enough to wipe out any savings from using U.2 drives.
[And I can;t spell bifurication]

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if you found a pcie card that supported bifurcation onboard, you’d want it to have more than x4 lanes or you’re be bottled necked before the word go.

so to find a pcie to m.2 card with x8 or x16 would mean you’d have to have room for the m.2 drives and the plx chip you’d need. Probably why its not common (if there is even one with onboard bifurcation)

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[Edit: Yeah, was looking at a 16 wide PCIe add in card]

The cheapest no-name listed at 4x4 with onboard was listed on Amazon at £99, but brand name was like £300.

This would take it well over the savings that OP already sought by getting the drives, but would have fit in the breif of retaining 2 current m.2 drives, and adding in access to 2 new U.2 drives, presuming the m.2 to u.2 adapters actually work?

Better to strip out the link’t telemetry after and search, but I was looking on the UK site at:
Delock PCIe x16 IOI – 4 x M.2 Key M Nvme – Bifurcation
UK link for ref )

and
ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Card v2 4 x M.2 Socket 3

UK link for ref

I haven’t used either, but heard good thinga sbout the Asus card, at least for M.2 drives.

There might be a 2x card that might ahve it as well?

I’ve looked at the m.2 aic but the good ones aren’t cheap and they usually have a fan and cover that prevents you from using the u.2 adapters in them. I really don’t trust then no-name devices unless I have someone give me a good recommendation.

I may have to get the m.2 add in card for now and a few m.2 drives and hold on to the u.2 drives for later. I know they will get put to good use. I appreciate all the help.

m.2 to u.2 drives adapters are just a cable, they come with certain skus of the 900p and 905p optane drives

if theres not a large heatsink on the back side for the plx chip, then theres likely not any bifurcation on the PCB of that

You’re going to spend the difference on interfacing. Also comparing a drive that’s 5+ years old to one brand new not exactly fair. The $200 m.2 would also be twice as fast.

Not negging your purchase choice, I’ve been close to pulling the trigger on some Intel U.2 SSDs.

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I wouldn’t go with U2 & pick an ASUS Hyper M.2 card instead, 1 PCIe x16 slot for 4 thin storage devices at $55 in Amazon US wins over bulkier U2 drives. You don’t really need enterprise gears for web browsing, gaming, and light video editing

Won’t that only work if his MB supports setting the pcie slot to x4x4x4x4

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Agreed and OP wouldd have to move his GPU to the chipset slot, since x370-x570 already bifurcated the first two slots anyway for dual GPU support.

OP needs more bandwidth to do this proper

I agree that this wasn’t the smartest choice. I have a bad habit of experimenting with enterprise gear without it being worth my while. I’ve been able to pick up a few older pieces of enterprise gear. A few older switches and wireless APs. That sort of thing. I appreciate all the information. I’ll keep working on this end to find a way to make u.2 drives work on a desktop in case anyone else wants to try.

Theres been several solutions presented for using 2.5" U.2 drives

straight pcie to u.2 adapter
m.2 to u.2 cable
HBA adapter that supports nvme (e.g. 9400-8i)
io crest bifurcation pcie controller
asus hyper m.2 pcie adapter plus m.2 to u.2 cables

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True bifurcation is needed, but with assumption this is on newer Ryzen MB (bought recently), it has better chance of succeeding than fitting consumer MB for enterprise gears.

For OP’s reference https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1037507

Ok all,
I got the drives in and tried to attach them with my spare card, ADAPTEC ASR-71605E, as you suggested it wouldn’t recognize the drives. I then ordered a pair of

StarTech.com U.2 to PCIe Adapter - x4 PCIe - For 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 PCIe Adapter - U.2 SSD - PCIe SSD - U.2 drive (PEX4SFF8639)

I have them installed and running correctly but I’m looking to do some speed tests.
One of them is plugged into an x4 (electrical) slot and the other is and x1. I’ve heard crystal disk mark is not reliable, any suggestions?

Try Bonnie++

i looked at Bonnie++ but it seems to be linux only, I’m stuck on Windows. So I tried moving files around.
I copied some files from one of my m.2 drives about 20gb for a test, an assortment of videos if it matters. In the 1x slot I got speeds of about 500mb/s sustained after a couple initial seconds of 1.5gb/s
In the 4x slot I got sustained speeds of 1gb/s after another couple initial seconds of 1.5gb/s

Sounds good for old drives. Those drives are going to shine under enterprise workloads, like a busy database doing lots of random IO or lots and lots of tiny reads.

This looks interesting for a benchmark, never used it.

http://www.iozone.org/

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