9400-16i maximum NVMe drives

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ARNiTECT

Member
Jan 14, 2020
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I bought a 9400-16i, but it hasn't arrived yet (US-UK).

The 9400-16i 'Product Brief' describes the board as being capable of 8 no. direct attached NVMe drives at PCIe x2 and the controller is capable of supporting 24 no. NVMe drives.

In the meantime, I have been in discussion with Broadcom and they explained that at the moment, 4 no. NVMe is the maximum this board can accommodate, as there are no cables allowing 8 no. NVMe drives from the 4 no. Mini SAS HD ports, the feature of '8 no. x2 NVMe' is currently disabled on the controller, there are no PCIe x2 NVME drives on the market and there are no NVMe expander switches on the market.

Theres not much I can do about '8 no. x2 NVMe' being disabled in the firmware.

Would such a custom cable require bifurcation such as x4>x2x2?

I understand any PCIe device correctly designed to PCIe standards can operate on fewer lanes, just at slower speeds. NVMe PCIe x4 SSD drives can also work at x2 and therefore PCIe x2 designed NVMe is not required.

Do NVMe expander switches exist on the market?
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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My guess would be no since the "expansion" happens on either the card via a pcie switch or through bifurcation on the MB (sometimes even on the PCH).

I read your post at https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xeon-e-all-in-one-server-build.27101/

and was wondering why you went the lsi route for nvme rather than supermicro/intel route.

Also, given that you are using M.2 Nvmes, how were you connecting those to the 9400-16i?
 

ARNiTECT

Member
Jan 14, 2020
92
7
8
I read your post at https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xeon-e-all-in-one-server-build.27101/
and was wondering why you went the lsi route for nvme rather than supermicro/intel route.
I plan to use the ‘Supermicro AOC-SHG3-4M2P‘ (not yet received) for up to 4x NVMe M.2, it is a switch and doesn’t need bifurcation. It costs about the same as the u.2 enabler cables alone for the 9400-16i.
The LSI was for 16x SATA HDD now and upgrade to many NVMe in the future, but it looks like that won’t be the solution I hoped for.
I’m not sure if I should keep the LSI. It was a good price compared to other Gen3 x8 16i controllers, so even on PCIe x4 it would be quick enough for HDDs leaving an x8 PCIe slot for more NVMe if required. Or maybe 16x SATA SSDs.
 
Last edited:

Almighty

Active Member
Oct 27, 2019
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I plan to use the ‘Supermicro AOC-SHG3-4M2P‘ (not yet received) for up to 4x NVMe M.2, it is a switch and doesn’t need bifurcation. It costs about the same as the u.2 enabler cables alone for the 9400-16i.
The LSI was for 16x SATA HDD now and upgrade to many NVMe in the future, but it looks like that won’t be the solution I hoped for.
I’m not sure if I should keep the LSI. It was a good price compared to other Gen3 x8 16i controllers, so even on PCIe x4 it would be quick enough for HDDs leaving an x8 PCIe slot for more NVMe if required. Or maybe 16x SATA SSDs.
Did the AOC-SHG3-4M2P end up working okay on the MB that didn't support bifurcation?