Not my ad, but seems like a fair deal:
Intel DC P3520 SSDPE2MX012T7 1.2TB PCIe 3.0 NVME U.2 SSD Warranty 2022 | eBay
Intel DC P3520 SSDPE2MX012T7 1.2TB PCIe 3.0 NVME U.2 SSD Warranty 2022 | eBay
Easiest is a u.2 to m.2 converter,or if you have a spare pci slot, u.2 to pci-e.Never dealt with U.2 drives. What's the cheapest way to get them to work on a regular workstation? I see different U.2 to PCIe adapters floating around, varying in price, both ebay and amazon.
When I was researching the same, I ran into this adapter by startech that is on the upper end of the price range, but their products are built with the quality we need and it comes with a 2yr warranty:Never dealt with U.2 drives. What's the cheapest way to get them to work on a regular workstation? I see different U.2 to PCIe adapters floating around, varying in price, both ebay and amazon.
If you want to boot from this drive, U.2 NVMe, the worktation would need to have a UEFI BIOS and support booting from NVMe. For connecting the drive I have used the Startech board that was referenced above. Additionally, I have used these two adapters to provide a connection to cable to U.2 drives mounted in the chassis:Never dealt with U.2 drives. What's the cheapest way to get them to work on a regular workstation? I see different U.2 to PCIe adapters floating around, varying in price, both ebay and amazon.
While paying $40+ for an adapter makes no financial sense (not to me at least), this cable looks interesting. Would it work with any SAS HBA with internal SFF-8643 ports as is?If you want to boot from this drive, U.2 NVMe, the worktation would need to have a UEFI BIOS and support booting from NVMe. For connecting the drive I have used the Startech board that was referenced above. Additionally, I have used these two adapters to provide a connection to cable to U.2 drives mounted in the chassis:
U.2 2.5in NVMe SSD Adapter | HDD Adapters | StarTech.com
U.2 to M.2 Adapter for U.2 NVMe SSD | StarTech.com
using this cable:
IOCrest Mini SAS SFF-8643 to U.2 SFF-8639 +15 Pin SATA Power SSD Cable 1m 6935409611615 | eBay
No, the U.2 drives are using pcie lanes for data, not sata lanes. Think of it as an enterprise NVME form factor.While paying $40+ for an adapter makes no financial sense (not to me at least), this cable looks interesting. Would it work with any SAS HBA with internal SFF-8643 ports as is?
Not if the SFF-8643 is SAS only. U.2 drives are NVMe and use PCIe lanes for connectivity. There are HBA like the LSI 9400 that are tri-mode, SATA or SAS or NVMe from each SFF-8643 connector.While paying $40+ for an adapter makes no financial sense (not to me at least), this cable looks interesting. Would it work with any SAS HBA with internal SFF-8643 ports as is?
Possibly fake, no warranty, possibly failed qa--no thanks!The same StarTech adapter is only $24 shipped from China
NEW StarTech PEX4SFF8639 U.2 to PCIe Adapter for 2.5" NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 x4 PCI 65030872591 | eBay
you are somewhat correct, most modern server have some slot dedicated for NVME drives, but they are usually still very demand premium pricing on marketplace like ebay. Most of the server you see on ebay with 2.5" hot swap bays are for SAS drives not NVME.Am I right to say that with the right backplane these would go into the hotswap 2.5" drive bays of servers? Seems very impractical to be wasting a single PCI slot for each drive, at least with regular M.2s you could bifurcate the slot and stick a multi drive adapter into an x16.
What servers run these in bulk or high density? Maybe a PCI expander chassis connected to C6220?
Quite possibly, although there are virtually no active components on there. Modern automated PCB manufacturing these days has so few defects that it would be really hard to mess up making one of those. It's just a U.2 connector that routes the appropriate traces down into the PCIe slot.Possibly fake, no warranty, possibly failed qa--no thanks!