Hello. First post. I have a new workstation build, with an Asus ROG Maximus Hero Z790 motherboard. I’m planning to purchase two Kioxia CD6 U.2, 8TB drives. I have one PCIe slot available (maybe two, if I used a riser cable) and need a card for both drives.
I found this one:
Highpoint Rocket 1580 NVMe U.2 8-port RAID card.
It’s listed as PCIe 4.0. I won’t be using hardware raid on the card, would just set up a Windows RAID1 mirror. This thing is very expensive for this use ($600). It’s more than I wanted to spend, but want something reliable. It does not require bifurcation on the motherboard.
Another option is a dual U.2 PCIe card from Micro Sata Cables. It’s listed as a PCIe 4.0
This card does require bifurcation, which this Asus board does, 8x8x only. I would be stuck with the two U.2 drives. The Highpoint card above, does not require bifurcation and it supports 8 drives. I like the idea of expansion.
Am I overlooking something here? Are both of these good options? Any recommendations on the two?
Consider getting a cheap Aliexpress PCIe to 2x M.2 card and 2 sets of M.2 to U.2 adapter kits. Should be well under 100$. Not sure if said cheap PCIe->M.2 adapter cards work on an 8x8x bifurcation slot, you may need to move some other cards around if you have some. (I’m not familiar with your particular mainboard) If unsure, get a PCIe->4x M.2 slot and leave 2 slots open.
Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t really want to go with unknown, cheap components, to control the hard drives. I don’t want the increased risk of data corruption, inconsistent throughput, etc.
On the other hand, I’m not wild about spending approx. $1500 for an 8TB RAID1 mirror on my workstation! I would if I need to, but it would not excite me to spend that much.
I actually have one of these, works just fine with 4x4x4x4x bifurcation: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005281766077.html
(unfortunately, the actual shop listing I bought is no longer available, this one is pretty much the same unit though, just another shop selling it)
As I don’t have U.2 drives (yet?) I can’t recommend any M.2 to U.2 adapters.
That’s why the card is so expensive, it has an active PCIe switch on it, thanks to Broadcom for the prices.
I use Delock M.2 Key M to U.2 SFF-8639 NVMe cables for my desktop, works without problems so far.
And for my server I bought a Broadcom 9500 16i on eBay/China for $350, with that you can run four U2 NVMe.
But I’ve heard of problems with the card if you use it without a backplane, but I can’t confirm it.
I have two U.2 NVMe connected to it with Broadcom x8 SFF-8654 to 2x SFF-8639 U.2 cables and a 12G SAS expander with x8 SFF-8654 to two x4 SFF-8643 , it works well.
Another question - I ordered some of the Micro U.3 drives mentioned above and have the Highpoint Rocket 1580 on the way. Trying to decide between two cable options:
Host-to-8639 connectors, to connect directly to the U.3 drives.
or
Host-to-Oculink (8611) connectors and connect to a backplane on something like an Icy Dock ToughArmor box.
I thought I read somewhere on this forum that the Broadcom chipset was flaky with Oculink connections to a backplane? (Maybe I mis-read something?)
It seems it would be best to use the 8639 direct-to-U.3 connections?
Ah - one other question - I was going to order cables directly from Highpoint. Are the MicroSataCables any better in quality? (I’m being obsessive… Just don’t want to run into any flakyness on the connections.)