Icydock Hotswap in Fractal Pop Air?

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;

CPU: 11900K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z590 UD

The product link, should give you all measurements [Icydock is pretty thorough]

It would be a U.2 - PCIe connections - see example of some add-on cards below

  • Highpoint SSD7120 4X Dedicated 32Gbps U.2 Ports to PCIe 3.0 x16 RAID Controller
  • IO CREST U.2 Ports to PCIe 3.0 x8 Bifurcation Riser Controller SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 Cable is Included (SI-PEX40151)

Assess rest of peripherals involved with this rig, in assuring sufficient lanes

It takes 4 mini-SAS in so you’ll need a SAS card if your motherboard don’t have it. MB699VP-B_ToughArmor Series_REMOVABLE U.2 / M.2 SSD ENCLOSURES_ICY DOCK manufacturer Removable enclosure, Screwless hard drive enclosure, SAS SATA Mobile Rack, DVR Surveillance Recording, Video Audio Editing, SATA portable hard drive enclosure

Screenshot 2022-07-06 23.16.20

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

There’s a whole thread about this topic A Neverending Story: PCIe 3.0/4.0/5.0 Bifurcation, Adapters, Switches, HBAs, Cables, Backplanes, Risers & Extensions - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

  • 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;

  • If I read the spec sheet correcly the Gigabyte Z590 UD has three PCIe M.2 slots and one chipset PCIe slot available. With a PCIe AIC like the Delock 89517 You could use all four bays of the Icydock U.2 NVMe backplane, I assume you want to use your motherboard’s main PCIe x16 slot for a dGPU;

  • 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.

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