Funtin SFF-8639: U.2 NVMe SSD To PCI-E Card Adapter

[pal666]

Hi point was to not having to use PCIe slots directly for this stuff. Adapter or native PCIe you're still using a PCIe slot.

well, no matter how you connect nvme drive, you sill using pcie lines. u.2 consumes 4 lines

[pal666]

If they keep this up, in a couple PCIe versions we'll see SSD interfaces shrinking down to x2 or even x1.

why do you want to increase time to read/write whole drive?

[pal666]

How many consumer boards have U.2 host ports again? Socket 2011 boards? ASUS ROG and similar gold-plated "gaming" full-ATX boards?

GA-AX370-Gaming 5 costs $210 on amazon

U.2 is mostly for servers and similar systems, it's not designed with consumer market limitations in mind

for example?
i know of no consumer u.2 ssd until optane 900p, maybe that was reason for slow uptake?

[coder]

SATA Express connector is dead. edit : and it's not U2. it can probably be adapted.
No one made SATA Express drives.

According to what I've read (and starship seems to agree), you can connect SATA Express as a x2 connection to a U.2 drive. Again, for the bulk of NVMe drives out there, this is plenty of bandwidth.

For most people, having one x4-connected drive is enough, while the rest of their drives can use either SATA or PCIe x2 connections via SATA Express.

[starshipeleven]

No one made SATA Express drives.

Sata Express is PCIe x2 on a different connector (on PCIe mode) or 2 Sata ports (in Sata mode). You don't need a "sata express drive", any drive on PCIe can be connected with a passive adapter cable that just moves around contacts to match different physical sockets.

For example there are Sata Express to U.2 cables/backplanes (that provides only x2 PCIe of course).

[starshipeleven]

well, no matter how you connect nvme drive, you sill using pcie lines. u.2 consumes 4 lines

Tangential to the point, the issue in using slots is physical size and wasting space where you can install stuff you can't as easily pipe around (like GPUs). This is an issue on micro-atx boards.

Many mobos use M.2 because it fits fine under a dual-slot GPU, a PCIe card SSD won't (without silly ribbons/risers/adapters again).

[starshipeleven]

why do you want to increase time to read/write whole drive?

Why you don't fucking read what I posted to others making the same question https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...092#post990092 ?

[starshipeleven]

GA-AX370-Gaming 5 costs $210 on amazon
for example?

ASUS ROG boards cost less and are better overall.
But it's still gaming stuff.
Non-gaming is cheaper, 100$ or less.

i know of no consumer u.2 ssd until optane 900p, maybe that was reason for slow uptake?

I know of no seller of rocket fuel for rocket cars, maybe is that the reason for the slow uptake of rocket cars?

Really, it's not hard to make U.2 SSDs (as it's still PCIe x4 on a different box), and there are at least 6 major SSD manufacturers + dozens of lesser ones and rebranders.
If they thought it was going to work then why only Intel is making them?

Meanwhile M.2 ports are everywhere now.

[TheLexMachine]

All the companies that have a significant interest in Enterprise products are pooping out U.2 SSDs or will in the coming year. It is an Enterprise-oriented design, after all, and data centers are upgrading their servers these days. The ones that are heavily focused on consumer markets, are not offering it and may not get in on it, outside of a few offerings for enthusiasts that will hit next year. M.2 is really where everyone is focused for the time being and that's where the money is, because laptop sales dominate the markets these days. We're even seeing high-end/mid-range desktops from Dell, HP, etc. with M.2 drives installed.

[pal666]

there are at least 6 major SSD manufacturers

by uptake i referred to motherboards. now there is u.2 ssd and i expect more u.2 motherboards