U.2/U.3 SSD in home server solution?

Hardware Hub Storage
1

Hi All

Inspired by the videos and with me building a new home server I need advice on what to get.

Requirements:

      • 1 x 15 TB or 2 x 7,8TB U.2/U.3 drives
      • Controller + 2 x 2.5" Dock for U2/U3 drives or Dual Pcie card
      • MB have one PCie 4.0 8x slot available (Bifur. 8x/8x in the top two slots

Motherboard: Asus Pro WS W680-ACE IPMI
Already have 3 x WD_BLACK SN850X (4TB) on the MB

I have so far ordered:

image
image827Ă—831 128 KB

And also ordered a cable for my Slimsas (PCi) on my motherboard
MCIO 4i Gen5 Slimline SAS SFF-8654 4X to U.2 NVMe SAS SFF-8639 68Pin with SATA 15P male Power PCIe Mini Cooledge IO SSD Cable

image
image828Ă—551 73.5 KB

But I think I rather get the new U.3 drives and a Easydock with a Controller?
Bud someone said Broadcom is a MESS!! :slight_smile: so any recommendation on what to get? - and what is working?

Controller?
Cables?
Icy Dock ToughArmor?
2 x Micron 7450 Pro MTFDKCB7T6TFR-1BC1ZABYYR 7.68TB

or

1 x Crucial Micron 7450 Pro MTFDKCC15T3TFR-1BC1ZABYYR 15.36 TB
1 x Icy Dock ToughArmor MB111VP-B storage

I might have to reconsider option 2, since the drives is 15mm in thick? And wouldnt fit in the PCie caddy.

Best regards to all LevelOneTech entusiasts !!!

2

If Wendell needs a video idea, SFF for beginners.

3

The Adaptec HBA Ultra 1200p-32i works as a controller. I use it with a MB699VP-B V3 which is great but seems to be out of stock everywhere right now.

4

i have kind of the same idea…

is there any kind of adapter to get a U.2 SSD (PCIe5x4) running on a M.2 PCIe5x4 port on the mainboard ?

i want to run a KIOXIA CD8P-R on a asus proart X670E (when these SSDs will finally ship)

same for a ASUS Pro WS WRX90E-Sage SE… (new Threadripper 7000).
there are no Ports for U.2 or anything with PCIe5
but plenty of PCIe5x16 slots.

If i get it right, U.2 and E.3S is the same Protokol but other plugs ? so it should be compatible ?

KIOXIA CD8P-R Serie (E3.S) ↔ (U.2) is the same drive in an other Formfactor and connector ?

5

Let us know how that cable works out I was looking at the same one, I also run the same motherboard.

Are you going to leave the consumer m.2 SSDs installed? I’ve seen some m.2 to u.2 adapters. Not sure what the benefit would be besides a more reliable u.2 driver vs m.2

6

That card look hard to come by, what about the Highpoint Rocket 1580 I can see many people here write about that card?

Yes I already have 3 x Nvme installed on the board.

I just ordered:
Crucial Micron 7450 Pro MTFDKCC7T6TFR-1BC1ZABYYR
StarTech U.3 to PCIe Adapter Card PCIe 4.0 (Only need a 4x slot)

image
image819Ă—422 68.4 KB

If this works I will try to use the adapter above to see if I can use a U.3 drive in a U.2 adapter card.
Reading up on the Micron drive they state its U.2 backward compatible?
I would like the option to have 2 drives in a x8 slot.

Yes still waiting for the cable and the other card to arrive.

1 Like
7

I have a similar W680 motherboard so I’m very interested

I wonder what the difference is between the Highpoint 1580 vs Adaptec HBA Ultra 1200p-32i

The Highpoint is cheaper /more available but only supports 8 x U.2/M.2 via a plx switch and afaik Highpoint don’t sell cables so it’s hard to obtain PCIe 4.0 SlimSAS Cables(edit, nvm they do)

The adaptec looks cool because it supports 1x SlimSAS to 8 x U.3 cables (and they sell cables too) for up to 32 U.3 total and since it’s tri-mode, you can mix and match and add HDDs and SSDs to the card too

But is there anything else that’s missing with the Highpoint card that makes it less desirable? (If you just want U.2/M.2 drives)

8

Also i don’t think that X8 to 2x U.2 card will work, it most likely requires motherboard bifurcation(x8 to x4x4) in which W680 doesn’t do, so you’ll need a card with a PLX chip or an HBA for using the x8 slot properly

9

You guys should check your BIOS thoroughly. I have an old WS C621 SAGE, the manual says nothing about bifurcation, but the BIOS has an option of turning PCIe slots into “storage mode”. I forgot the exact phrasing, but it’s just bifurcation by another name to support their Hyper M.2 adapters. Asus has been making these M.2 cards for a while, I’d be surprised if they didn’t include support for it on most of their WS motherboards.

Not really. There are a ton of tri-mode HBAs out there with varying features (that may or may not matter to you), port numbers, etc. Anything tri-mode will do NVMe.

1 Like