LSI 9400 series or a PLX (Broadcom PEX) card?

[newabc]

I am planning to use a HBA or PLX card on an ASRock B450 motherboard. I have a U.2 P3700 and am possible to move one or more SAS3 SSDs from a 2U server to this build. Since they will become a Proxmox boot drive at first, the durance is more important than the writing speed. Of cause if I use a PLX card, I will buy 1 or more U.2 SSDs in the future.

(I got a m.2 to U.2 converter cable but failed to make the motherboard to find the U.2 drive after connecting them with SATA power. By the way, other drives will use the motherboard's SATA ports.)

Thank @andrewbedia 's new post on Broadcom PLX PEX cards here. You gave a new idea for NVME SSDs for any brand's motherboard.

Dear friends, will a 9400 series HBA card or PLX PEX card be better on a regular ASRock motherboard?

Thanks!

 

[andrewbedia]

I'm not sure why your m.2->u.2 card didn't work. This is what I would recommend Amazon.com: DiLinKer M.2 to U.2(SFF-8639) PCIe NVMe SSD Cable- PCIe NVMe U.2 (SFF-8639) Drive to M.2 Host Adapter-U.2 SSD Converter -with Power Cable(50CM): Industrial & Scientific I have one that is an Intel branded part, but they no longer sell it. Amphenol makes the cable... adapter... thing.

In terms of NVMe, always go with PLX or straight through/bifurcated. I have a Lenovo 530-8i flashed to Broadcom stock tri-mode firmware and the NVMe performance was garbage (800MB/s). Not to mention I had to buy a $80 cable to make it work (would not work with cheap intel-branded U.2 cables that work in everything else).

 

[newabc]

I'm not sure why your m.2->u.2 card didn't work. This is what I would recommend Amazon.com: DiLinKer M.2 to U.2(SFF-8639) PCIe NVMe SSD Cable- PCIe NVMe U.2 (SFF-8639) Drive to M.2 Host Adapter-U.2 SSD Converter -with Power Cable(50CM): Industrial & Scientific I have one that is an Intel branded part, but they no longer sell it. Amphenol makes the cable... adapter... thing.

I am using this cable, too. Its low profile design make me able to use a pcie x1 video card over it. I tried 2 m.2 slots on the motherboard but both are failed. Your PEX card idea is so great, even it cannot use sr-iov, but it can be boot drive.