How to connect U.2 SSDs with the least amount of adapters to an AsRock Rack ROMED6U-2L2T?

[j.battermann]

Hello there,

I have an AsRock Rack ROMED6U-2L2T motherboard that has a bunch of Mini Sas HD & Slimsas ports and also four PCIe Gen 4.0 16x slots and given that the Slimas / Slimline ports are supposedly 8i, I thought I might just get two of these cables and be able to hook up two U.2 (Intel DC P4510) nvme drives up to the board, but as it it turns out, it did not work.

So I was wondering, how does one go about, if you do not have a SuperMicro or Dell system which apparently do have special NVME expansion cards for their system boards to hook up 4 or 8 U.2 drives? Are there any good PCIe x16 > 4x U.2 adapters out there that work with normal bifurcation (as the board supports that for each pcie slot) or does anyone know why these Slimline 8i cables might not work with these SSDs? I don't want / would not want any NVME raid cards and I am sure I am overlooking some important nuance here, but in general I simply want to not waste all pcie slots on a 1 slot : 1 ssd config and so on.

Any recommendations / hints would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
-JB

 

[uldise]

this one?

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pcie-gen-4-bifurcation-risers-and-nvme-ssds.32943/

 

[jpmomo]

Hello there,

I have an AsRock Rack ROMED6U-2L2T motherboard that has a bunch of Mini Sas HD & Slimsas ports and also four PCIe Gen 4.0 16x slots and given that the Slimas / Slimline ports are supposedly 8i, I thought I might just get two of these cables and be able to hook up two U.2 (Intel DC P4510) nvme drives up to the board, but as it it turns out, it did not work.

So I was wondering, how does one go about, if you do not have a SuperMicro or Dell system which apparently do have special NVME expansion cards for their system boards to hook up 4 or 8 U.2 drives? Are there any good PCIe x16 > 4x U.2 adapters out there that work with normal bifurcation (as the board supports that for each pcie slot) or does anyone know why these Slimline 8i cables might not work with these SSDs? I don't want / would not want any NVME raid cards and I am sure I am overlooking some important nuance here, but in general I simply want to not waste all pcie slots on a 1 slot : 1 ssd config and so on.

Any recommendations / hints would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
-JB

You still need to supply power to the drives.

 

[j.battermann]

You still need to supply power to the drives.

Yep I did / would do it with the adapter @uldise mentioned as most of these cables have some sort of sata-input-power plug attached. The ones I currently still have here, the SerialCables.com ones also have one of these sata power input plugs for every SFF-8639 connector.

 

[jpmomo]

I have a similar setup and can test later today.

 

[j.battermann]

I have a similar setup and can test later today.

That would be awesome, much appreciated!

 

[jpmomo]

just checked and it worked on my system. Make sure to check the bios settings to change from the default of sata to pci for Slim1 and Slim2. This can be found under Chipset/Slim1 mode/PCIE. Also be sure to change the link width to x4x4 if splitting into 2 U.2 drives. In my setup, I was connecting a similar cable (not the exact cable but similar). My cable differed in that the power was a 6pin going into the psu and was a part of the 8654 cable. This was the recommended cable from tyan (a different motherboard that I needed to connect some u.2 drives.)

 

[j.battermann]

just checked and it worked on my system. Make sure to check the bios settings to change from the default of sata to pci for Slim1 and Slim2. This can be found under Chipset/Slim1 mode/PCIE. Also be sure to change the link width to x4x4 if splitting into 2 U.2 drives. In my setup, I was connecting a similar cable (not the exact cable but similar). My cable differed in that the power was a 6pin going into the psu and was a part of the 8654 cable. This was the recommended cable from tyan (a different motherboard that I needed to connect some u.2 drives.)

Thanks for trying this out.. much appreciated! I did however do all that.. have all Slim* set to PCI and bifurcated to 4x4x and als had the link speed set at auto and then at gen3 (the U.2 SSD is a Gen 3 one). Nothing changed the outcome.. the SSD didn't show up. I have two of these cables and same for both, so I suspect either the SSD being dead (the other ones are on their way) OR there's something off with that particular cable.. pinout or something else.

I have a Startech PCI > U.2 Adapter coming in tomorrow as well though to test if the SSD works or not.

Would you happen to have a product name or number for the particular cable that you're using though? After all using one that works as expected might just be the simplest solution for me.

Thanks any way though!!

 

[j.battermann]

just checked and it worked on my system. Make sure to check the bios settings to change from the default of sata to pci for Slim1 and Slim2. This can be found under Chipset/Slim1 mode/PCIE. Also be sure to change the link width to x4x4 if splitting into 2 U.2 drives. In my setup, I was connecting a similar cable (not the exact cable but similar). My cable differed in that the power was a 6pin going into the psu and was a part of the 8654 cable. This was the recommended cable from tyan (a different motherboard that I needed to connect some u.2 drives.)

Googled around a bit and came across this one: Tyan FRU-CS-1230 Slim SAS 8i to 2*... | Acmemicro ... is this the one you're using?

 

[jpmomo]

I think that is the same one. It is pretty expensive and has the molex vs the sata for power. It is also pretty bulky but I am not sure how to reduce the cable clutter with this setup. I have a few of the romed6 in some cerberus cases (matx) and it can be pretty challenging to fit everything in there! I was mostly using that cable for some other builds with the tyan boards. I also have a romed8 but that uses an occulink connector vs the slimsas. See below for the cable that I tried with your mb (romed6.)

 

[j.battermann]

(Very) Much appreciated, thank you! If you happen to want let go of that cable, please do let me know..

 

[jpmomo]

I would think that the cable that you have should work though. Are you testing with any other drives in the system at the same time? If not, I would try testing with just the one u.2 drive connected, then go into the bios and check the nvme menu. See if it recognizes the u.2 drive at that stage. I have seen some issues when I had other drives (pci ssds) where not all of the drives would show up. I didn't get a chance to look closely and currently all of the drives are showing up on my system.

 

[j.battermann]

I did just that as well.. removed everything but that one Intel SSD. Then tried either of the ports on the cable. Then the other cable.. and no positive outcome. Means: the NVME menu in the bios didn't even show up. I plugged in another m.2 SSD into the Motherboard (and then into a 4x 4 M.2 Pcie card in a bifurcated PCIe port).. and all that made the NVME menu in the bios appear.

The SSD in question was brand new out of the original Intel packaging but I'll see for sure what happens tomorrow with the plain PCIe > U.2 adapter. If that works I'll be confused, but certain the SSD works.

 

[jpmomo]

how long did it take to order those cables? I was going to order some cables through that site for another project as they were the only place that I could find them (the cables were for occulink.) They also seem to be on the high side regarding pricing. They do seem high quality and that is why it is puzzling that they don't work in your system.

 

[j.battermann]

Oh their pre sales contact (on-site chat) was excellent and shipping took only 2-3 days even though these cables are and were marked as having a longer lead time. Turned out they had few of them in their Colorado / US location rather than having to backorder them. Quality wise they do seem (very) nicely made indeed. If they are generally worth the higher end of prices, I don't really know but in general I really can't complain.

 

[jpmomo]

thanks for that insight. I guess you will be happy with them when you can get them to work It just seems strange that a brand new intel nvme drive won't show up even in the bios. Let me know what you find out when you get your new drives. If needed, I may be able to temporarily send you my setup just to test. It seems like these cables are not that easy to find either. specifically, we need a sff-8654 8i to 2 x sff-8639 (with power connectors). there is a lot of sff-8654 4i to 1 x sff-8639 but not a lot to choose from for the 8i. I am not sure which case you ultimately plan on using. There are some cases that may have a backplane that may make things a lot easier. You would typically then only need a slimsas to slimsas cable from the mb to the backplane.

 

[j.battermann]

Alright, the Intel SSD does work when connected via the StarTech PCIe adapter, so there is something off with either the cables and/or with my bios settings. I am going to return the SerialCables ones and ordered two of the Tyan ones. Fingers crossed!

 

[jpmomo]

if you want, I can send my tyan cable out for you to test. I still need it but at least you can rule out your current slimsas cable. You can pm me to sort out any logistics.

 

[j.battermann]

Thanks for the offer.. really much appreciated! I have however already ordered the two cables in good faith that it should really work with these. I'll keep you updated once they are here. Thanks once again!

 

[j.battermann]

if you want, I can send my tyan cable out for you to test. I still need it but at least you can rule out your current slimsas cable. You can pm me to sort out any logistics.

I got the two Tyan cables today and guess what - they do indeed work as expected and without changing anything in the bios that I had set (as mentioned above) for the other ones. So yeah, given that both other ones didn't work, I assume the pinout was different.

Either way - it works now as expected and I am happy. Thanks for chiming in there because without you I wouldn't even have known about these cables!!