Recently got myself a Fractal Pop air as it fits my needs and came out pretty much at the perfect time! Looking to get myself into the NVME Hotswap world to be able to have a cartridge like U.2 Loading with certain DataSets / Files i need for work and be able to make my storage management easier.
Was looking at the IcyDock MB699VP-B todo so would this fit in the Case and work with the hardware? or would i need something like a HBA/LSI card to get the connectors needed? if it does do they make alot of noise as thats something that bothers me at my work space, current specs are;
It just uses the miniSAS connector. It doesn’t use SAS but NVME, so you don’t need a SAS card.
Actually on other ICY DOCK products they explicitly advise against tri-mode HBAs
The cheapest way to use an IcyDock MB699VP-B (have it) would be a passive adapter from PCIe/M.2-to-SFF8643 and one SFF-8643-SFF8643 cable per bay. Example: Delock 62721 and Delock 83386;
Note: Consumer motherboards don’t really support PCIe hotplug so if you want to add or remove an U.2 NVMe SSD you would have to shut down and reboot your system;
If you want hotplug you’d need an active PCIe Switch AIC (stay away from “Tri-Mode” HBAs if you want to use NVMe backplanes due to them breaking compatibility), these need “proper” airflow or they’ll die pretty soon.
U.2 SSDs need active cooling. The Icydock backplane’s two 40 mm fans are horrible noise-wise, replaced them with two Noctu NF-A4x20 PWM to at least be acceptable. You can use tools like “Fan Control” to only ramp up the 40 mm backplane fans during heavy U.2 SSD load (max. power draw/heat during continuous write operations);
I strongly advise against the use of PCIe Gen4 SSDs if you are someone who wants to know what’s going on underneath the hood.