PCIe to U.2 carrier card for Optane P5800X drives

Hi All,
I am looking for a PCIe 4.0 x8 card which can carry dual Intel Optane U.2 P5800X SSD drives in dual x4 mode.
The latest Level1Techs video about the new MSI Z690 Unify motherboard shows such a PCIe carrier card. But what brand/model is it? And where can I buy it?
Thanks.

I got it on eBay but that particular seller is out. It’s a bit of a crapshoot

I bought several to try

ServertheHome did a video from the OCP Summit that showed a riser card with Optane, but it might not have been pcie. The item is about the 15:20 mark

@wendell

Could you post nice photos of the x8-to-two-U.2 carrier AICs that work for you with Gen4?

When testing various M.2-to-U.2 adapters it became obvious that many different “manufacturers” are just distributors which get their adapters from the same few OEMs so maybe there are alternative sources for the x8-to-two-U.2 carrier AICs as well.

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Also looking for some guidance/recommendations for this.

Tried my luck on some generic one from Amazon, will report back once it and a motherboard for testing (ASUS ProArt X570-CREATOR WiFi) arrives.

Plan to use the x8 PCIe slot from the CPU (5900X) for two U.2 SSDs.

Can test PCIe Gen3 and Gen4.

How did it go? And what did you pay?

Unfortunately bad news:

So if someone can find an available x8 bifurcation AIC for two U.2 drives that is designed for Gen4 I also would be very grateful!

Tested it with two Samsung PM1733 U.2 SSDs, the first one gets a PCIe Gen4 link (but PCIe errors and max read down from 7.400 MB/s to 5.000 MB/s), the second one only gets a PCIe Gen1 connection :frowning:

To be fair it was only advertized for PCIe Gen3 but I refused to recognize it as another “landmine” as @wendell put it so nicely :sob:

A-B-tested it with two first-gen P4801X U.2 Optane SSDs and here both drives get a proper PCIe Gen3 link without any errors.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B097R2JK2V/

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the new one with the side ears is advertised as pcie4 certified and is only $20. This Is The One I think

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Could you post a link? It’s fine if it might be out of stock but then I’d know what PCB design to hunt for specifically :vulcan_salute:

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I just wish that it was a x8 that was long enough for two disks.

@wendell

Same desire as @Veidit, do you have any idea where to get something with x8 for two U.2 drives that handles PCIe Gen4 well?

(Intended for an X570 homelab system, enough lanes for my use case but unfortunately one slot has to service two drives somehow)

The elephant in the room is that I currently want to avoid SFF cables as long as there isn’t a reliable source for really good ones :nauseated_face:

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