Intel DC P3520 SSDPE2MX012T7 1.2TB PCIe 3.0 NVME U.2 SSD Warranty 2022 $99.95

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mimino

Active Member
Nov 2, 2018
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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.
 
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Fireworm

New Member
Sep 18, 2019
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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.
Easiest is a u.2 to m.2 converter,or if you have a spare pci slot, u.2 to pci-e.

AFAIK, u.2 is just a form factor, like m.2. Both are electrically just pcie x4.
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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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:
StarTech U.2 to PCIe Adapter 2.5 U.2 NVMe SSD SFF-8639 x4

Generally what I've found on cheaper versions of more expensive devices is that the soldering isn't that great so it fails or starts acting flaky after a while.
 
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Schoondoggy

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Apr 26, 2017
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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:
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
 
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mimino

Active Member
Nov 2, 2018
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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
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?
 

Spartacus

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May 27, 2019
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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?
No, the U.2 drives are using pcie lanes for data, not sata lanes. Think of it as an enterprise NVME form factor.
 
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Schoondoggy

Member
Apr 26, 2017
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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.
 
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mimino

Active Member
Nov 2, 2018
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Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on these tri-mode ones, but they seem to be prohibitively expensive still. Not that I'd want one in the workstation...
I guess I'll just skip the U.2 form factor and hunt for an M.2 or even SATA. Thanks everyone for the input.
 
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Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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I noticed lots of "like" in my earlier thread.

Here are 3 adapter card that I had purchased.

Best, around $35-$40
Funtin PCIe NVMe SSD Adapter with SFF-8639 Interface for 2.5" NVMe or SATA SSD
Funtin PCIe NVMe SSD Adapter with SFF-8639 Interface for 2.5" NVMe or SATA SSD | eBay

Better, $20 each , really nice card with power regulator , looks like the Funtin card
PCI-Express 3.0 to U.2 SFF-8639 Adapter NVMe PCIe SSD PCI-e to U2 Adapter Card
PCI-Express 3.0 to U.2 SFF-8639 Adapter NVMe PCIe SSD PCI-e to U2 Adapter Card | eBay

Cheap, $10 card , looks cheap, work OK .
PCIe x4 to U.2 SFF-8639 Intel 750 SSDPE2MW400G4 2.5" NVMe PCIe SSD adapter card
PCIe x4 to U.2 SFF-8639 Intel 750 SSDPE2MW400G4 2.5" NVMe PCIe SSD adapter card | eBay
 

josh

Active Member
Oct 21, 2013
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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?
 
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azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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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?
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.
 
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thingy2098

New Member
Mar 16, 2018
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Possibly fake, no warranty, possibly failed qa--no thanks!
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.

There isn't really anything to counterfeit, a 1st year electrical engineering undergrad could design that thing in an afternoon.