Intel NVMe Backplane + AOC/Cables/Trays

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AJXCR

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A1U44X25NVMEDK - Drive Combo SAS/PCle SFF Backplane Acceeory Kit with 4x Nvme | eBay

Seems like a pretty good buy.. NVMe backplanes are still tough to come by and this would be a direct pass through setup in a nice clean 1U kit (true 4x lanes/drive).

I don't think I've tested this card in a non Intel server yet, but if anyone is ready to pull the trigger and HAS to know, I could try to throw it in a machine before I leave town tomorrow afternoon.
 

Rand__

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WHY oh WHY ... has this to be for 1U ?:p

And would be interesting to know I think - not sure what the SM 4 Port Adapter card was selling for...
 

AJXCR

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WHY oh WHY ... has this to be for 1U ?:p

And would be interesting to know I think - not sure what the SM 4 Port Adapter card was selling for...
He's got several available.. stack two on top of each other and you've got 2U :)

Thats what I'm doing in the 846 case so I can stack 2U of 2.5's on top of 2U of 3.5's.. or maybe 2U of SAS3 on top of 2U of NVMe :) ....Haven't decided exactly how the 3 sets of 2U will be organized just yet.

Note that the inexpensive 4E4R SM x16 card DOES NOT work in any X10 motherboard I've tried to date.. even in a x16 Supermicro slot with 4x4 bifurcation. I believe this is related to the 4-pin JNVI2C port near the top of the card.. the two motherboards listed as compatible appear to share a similar port.

For reference:
 
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AJXCR

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WHY oh WHY ... has this to be for 1U ?:p

And would be interesting to know I think - not sure what the SM 4 Port Adapter card was selling for...
Really, it seems to me that the pure NVMe backplanes are the toughest thing to come by. There are several options floating around for AOC's
 

Rand__

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How are you map 6 u worth of backplane in a 4u chassis?
Or did you mean 2x1u from this and a 2u supermicro backplane?
 

AJXCR

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How are you map 6 u worth of backplane in a 4u chassis?
Or did you mean 2x1u from this and a 2u supermicro backplane?
Chassis is half height in the back (sliding tray)... So 4U in the front and 2U in the back.
 

T_Minus

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These are NOT a good deal they've been on there for 2+ months, during that time I've purchased 2 others for <$200 each.

I am using them on the Intel 1U they are made for.

Doubtful they'll work with any other motherboard, but who knows.

I don't see a point in buying them to work with anything but what they're made for... you can get 2x SM PCIE cards for 4x NVME for around the same price as 1 of those, and you don't have to figure out how you're gonna work a 1U Intel backplane with a different chassis, and then hope the intel PCIE card works.
 

AJXCR

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These are NOT a good deal they've been on there for 2+ months, during that time I've purchased 2 others for <$200 each.

I am using them on the Intel 1U they are made for.

Doubtful they'll work with any other motherboard, but who knows.

I don't see a point in buying them to work with anything but what they're made for... you can get 2x SM PCIE cards for 4x NVME for around the same price as 1 of those, and you don't have to figure out how you're gonna work a 1U Intel backplane with a different chassis, and then hope the intel PCIE card works.
Well I stand corrected. Relative to what all of the components cost individually for setting up 4x NVMe in a hot-swap config, pricing seemed favorable. Valid points on both the card compatibility and 1U setup. I’ll double check on the card because I’m now curious.. Should be able to provide some answers Friday night/Sat.
 

T_Minus

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Well I stand corrected. Relative to what all of the components cost individually for setting up 4x NVMe in a hot-swap config, pricing seemed favorable. Valid points on both the card compatibility and 1U setup. I’ll double check on the card because I’m now curious.. Should be able to provide some answers Friday night/Sat.
Ya, its def. cheaper than retail but that seller/those have not sold at all in the last 2 months, might be around 3 months now actually and only 1 sold. I've kept an eye on them :) If the 1U were more common 'great deals' def. would be worthwhile, wish they were part of the 2U intel that was another rare deal but allow a lot more drive/capacity :)
 

AJXCR

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Ya, its def. cheaper than retail but that seller/those have not sold at all in the last 2 months, might be around 3 months now actually and only 1 sold. I've kept an eye on them :) If the 1U were more common 'great deals' def. would be worthwhile, wish they were part of the 2U intel that was another rare deal but allow a lot more drive/capacity :)
Contrary to what might seem standard to those deeply focused on cutting edge tech, I think the majority of both the average IT dept employee and the general public are completely in the dark about NVMe.. particularly when the conversation starts to move towards high capacity/density deployment.

When the Broadcom 9400 cards were about to be released I reached out to the IT dept of a friend’s mid-size industrial electric equipment company for an inside track on pre-release hardware. Not only were they completely clueless with regard to why I would have any interest in such obscenely priced storage, but they were also almost completely in the dark concerning NVMe in general. Until the cost of NVMe drives comes down significantly and the availability of NVMe related hardware drastically increases, I would expect the market for non-authorized-dealer, EBay sourced “enterprise” NVMe high density storage to remain fairly limited.

M.2 appeals to the gaming segment. 1x or 2x u.2 drives are easily utilized by the non or semi-enterprise segment. Realistically (and excludimg members of STH.com or similar communities) I doubt there are all that many non enterprise buyers ready to deploy 4x/8x/12x/24x+ 2.5” NVMe drives..

Point being, just because they haven’t sold on eBay doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it isn’t a good deal.

Paint it red, add a few LED’s and heatsinks, and market the kit as a “Super Duper 8GB/s Gaming Storage Module- Extreme Series” and I bet they’ll be gone in a day. :D

EDIT- Not trying to pick a fight.. Just a good spirited debate :)
 
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AJXCR

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Just some followup (sort of) information:

Looking back over my previous threads, it looks like Intel AOC AXX4PX8HDAIC which is included in the kit A2U44X25NVMEDK2 includes a pcie switch and works in non Intel MB's..

PCIe NVMe HBA FYI

The distinction between the cards included in the A2U44X25NVMEDK and A2U44X25NVMEDK2 kits might be missed by some and consequently yield a good buy on eBay or similar :)

Patrick has already tested the card included in the kit I linked in the first post of this thread (A2U44X25NVMEDK) here and determined that it does not work with non-Intel boards:
4 solutions tested: Add 2.5" SFF NVMe to your current system

So I suppose that puts the issue to rest..!
 
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