Mini review of NVMe PCI adaptor and drive caddy

[ChrisA]

Hey all!

Just a quick one, so I bought these a while back and thought I’d give them a go. Here’s the caddy first:

Comes with some handy accessories

Nice and tool-less

Has a little rotating doo-daaa that holds the drive in place.

Unfortunately the transfer speeds were rubbish, I might try it again sometime, but I was getting 40MB on average (from NVMe drive)

Now onto the PCI adaptor (on the left)

Comes with a mini screwdriver…at which point I thought, “Oh god”.

Access is from the non-heat sink side

I really don’t like using the worlds smallest screws that are not captive

Came with some heat transferring pads

They are slightly adhesive, comes with a selection of thicknesses so you can get the right density.

Plugged in and I got good enough transfer speeds

Did a macrium reflect disk image to it. Not bad speeds, though they plummeted whenever I plugged in a portable battery charger into the USB-C port of the motherboard. Here’s some temps and task manager performance info

This happened with the portable battery charger plugged in (before the transfer started):

Bit of a downer was getting a blue screen, after the disk image occurred and when I went to start normal computer usage. Hasn’t happened since, but if it does, I’m pulling it out!

Hope this is interesting to some!

[Trooper_ish]

I like that the AIC has cut outs, so it can fit in a x16/x8/x4/x2 slot… Morten from MyPlayHouse uses them, and, IIRC, he chops off the goldfingers he doesn’t need… Seems a little wasteful to me…
But thanks for sharing!I wonder if the 40MB/s is to do with the control chip?

And if it runs at that speed on a USB2 socket, as well as 3/3.2/3.2Gen2

[vivante]

@ChrisA

Unfortunately the transfer speeds were rubbish, I might try it again sometime, but I was getting 40MB on average (from NVMe drive)

Could be a bad cable or port, it’s close enough to USB 2.0 speed.

[E-Wasted]

@ChrisA

Unfortunately the transfer speeds were rubbish, I might try it again sometime, but I was getting 40MB on average (from NVMe drive)

The NV2 doesn’t have a DRAM cache and instead relies on HMB, which doesn’t work over USB as far as I’m aware.

@ChrisA

Bit of a downer was getting a blue screen, after the disk image occurred and when I went to start normal computer usage. Hasn’t happened since, but if it does, I’m pulling it out!

I don’t think this is uncommon behavior for those types of setups, I think it is better to use them for storage expansion rather than boot.

[ChrisA]

@Trooper_ish

But thanks for sharing!

You’re welcome troop!

@vivante

Could be a bad cable or port, it’s close enough to USB 2.0 speed.

It might be, but I did use a known good cable. I’ll try again when I have a moment!

@E-Wasted

The NV2 doesn’t have a DRAM cache and instead relies on HMB, which doesn’t work over USB as far as I’m aware.

Well that’s a shame, makes it a little pointless then eh…mind you, I guess it’s more reliable external storage than a USB stick?

@E-Wasted

I don’t think this is uncommon behavior for those types of setups, I think it is better to use them for storage expansion rather than boot.

I am only using it as storage and not a boot drive, but wise words indeed

[Mach3.2]

@ChrisA

40MB on average

Sounds like the USB link negotiated at USB2 speed, check your cable/port/etc.

[ChrisA]

@Mach3.2

Sounds like the USB link negotiated at USB2 speed, check your cable/port/etc.

This was using the USB-C port on the motherboard, I thought that would improve the throughput - it is an old board though.

[Mach3.2]

Could be the enclosure too, you can request for an exchange if it’s still within the return/exchange window.

But I’ll only do that once I rule out the port/cable, and it seems like your cable works fine on other devices.

[ChrisA]

I think I’ll keep it, even if it is a problem with the caddy. It’s really helpful to have external access to an NVMe drive, even just for wiping it (where an OS resides on it).

I will test again soon, getting over a bad flu right now, so lacking energy, to put it lightly!

[Shadowbane]

I am so sorry to hear you are sick. I hope you feel better in a couple days.

[ChrisA]

Thanks, I am almost back to normal today thankfully! It does remind me to invest in kleenex stock though.

[hornefrog]

Have you been able to try it on a thunderbolt port?
Thanks!

[positroned]

I recently had to buy something similar from MicroCenter.

Micro Connectors M.2 NVMe SSD PCIe 4.0 Adapter with Covered Heat Sink = $27.99

I bought a 1TB Samsung 990 SSD, plugged it into my motherboard and only got 1700MB/s speed from a 7400 MB/s SSD. My Z490 mb + 10th Gen i9-10850K only supports PCIe v3.0 x2.
Then I get the PCIe v4.0 adapter and find out that PCIe v4.0 is only supported on Gen 11 Intel Core CPU’s. Now I have the PCIe card running at v3.0 x 4 = 3400 MB/s.

There is a remote chance that if I get a i9-11850K 11th Gen LGA1200 CPU it will allow the Samsung SSD to run at full speed. But that would be throwing good money at a bad decision. If I am getting a “newer” CPU, I should get a whole new PC. A 3400 MB/s SSD is good enough for now.

[E-Wasted]

@positroned

a i9-11850K 11th Gen

Doesn’t exist, there’s a 10850k, 10900k, and 11900k.

[positroned]

@positroned

11850K

sorry, my bad

[ChrisA]

A SMALL UPDATE

I’ve removed the PCI adaptor as my machine started blue screening. A bit sad about it, may be I’ll use it for temporary uses.