Minis forum MS-A2

[piit79]

looking for a card that fits on ms-a2 that can hold additional pci 4x4 m.2s

I got the Delock Dual M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 x8 to 2x M.2 card. It requires the PCIe x8 to x4x4 bifurcation option enabled in the BIOS and works without issues in the MS-A2.

The only annoying thing is that it doesn't come with the M2 mounting hardware and the correct kit is hard to get - the usual set of standoffs (internal thread on one end/external thread on the other) and screws still needs M2 nuts to attach to the card and the shortest one is still a bit too long, but it works.

 

[proxforge]

I got the Delock Dual M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 x8 to 2x M.2 card. It requires the PCIe x8 to x4x4 bifurcation option enabled in the BIOS and works without issues in the MS-A2.

The only annoying thing is that it doesn't come with the M2 mounting hardware and the correct kit is hard to get - the usual set of standoffs (internal thread on one end/external thread on the other) and screws still needs M2 nuts to attach to the card and the shortest one is still a bit too long, but it works.

dont you get really high temperatures on those? I used one of those (not sure if its 100% the same) but withoutactive cooling and I had 80° degrees on those. Im using one expensive from qnap now, which works extremly well..

 

[name stolen]

I use cards like that Delock card and add a heatsink to each m.2 SSDs. Does seem like 4.0 often runs hotter than 3.0

 

[Yuretz]

looking for a card that fits on ms-a2 that can hold additional pci 4x4 m.2s

PA21 2-slot M.2 NVMe to PCIE 4.0 X8 Card, Supports M.2 NVMe Software Raid, Not Support PCIe Bifurcation

Dual Slot M.2 NVMe to PCIe 4.0 X8 Adapter Not Support PCIe Bifurcation (So your motherboard must support PCIe Bifurcation) Support Soft RAID Configuration in Windows or Linux (Intel and AMD Platform) Not support Mac Pro 5.1 Setup pcie splitter in BIOS/UEFI into X4X4X4X4 or X4X4X8 or Hyper M.2...

www.glotrends-store.com

 

[sbloom67]

those are all nice. will a card that holds 4 nvme's fit ???

 

[name stolen]

I don’t have an MS-A2, but comments above lead me to believe that the PCIe slot is x8, so no easy path to 4 NVME on a card.

 

[johanqwerty]

PA21 2-slot M.2 NVMe to PCIE 4.0 X8 Card, Supports M.2 NVMe Software Raid, Not Support PCIe Bifurcation

Dual Slot M.2 NVMe to PCIe 4.0 X8 Adapter Not Support PCIe Bifurcation (So your motherboard must support PCIe Bifurcation) Support Soft RAID Configuration in Windows or Linux (Intel and AMD Platform) Not support Mac Pro 5.1 Setup pcie splitter in BIOS/UEFI into X4X4X4X4 or X4X4X8 or Hyper M.2...

www.glotrends-store.com

I bought this same card, and it works fine. I now have 1TB boot pool, and 4x 4TB NVMe RAIDZ. Thinking about adding a GPU though as I don't really need the extra NVMe's.

 

[MrJonny]

Hi Guys.
I started a few days ago a project.

I wanted to build an 3-Node Proxmox HCI Cluster with 3x MS-A2 in an 10 Inch Mini-Rack, with each Host 2x M.2 Mircon 7450 Pro 2TB SSDs, 2x 10GBit Links (for ceph).

Long story short, I didnt expected the heat issues.
All Nodes are updated to BIOS 1.02, all X710 to 9.54.

The Systems are mostly in idle and have still those temperatures:
View attachment 44850

I already started to remove the cases, it reduced the temperature in general from 5-10 Degrees.
Does anybody have some creative Ideas? I think im okay if the fans get louder, the priority is to keep the temperature in an healthy state.

Should I tweak something in BIOS?
Can somebody recommend new FANs? Even if it involves 3d Prints.
Somebody an idea for the airflow of the case?

Where did you get too with trying to cool down your M.2? I'm thinking of buying a MS-A2 with some PM9A3 drives, but have been wondering about the heat problems, I would of thought the fan on the bottom side of the MS-A2 would cool the 22110 M.2's ok. Perphas needs setting to max speed?

How you finding it?

 

[tempest]

Where did you get too with trying to cool down your M.2? I'm thinking of buying a MS-A2 with some PM9A3 drives, but have been wondering about the heat problems, I would of thought the fan on the bottom side of the MS-A2 would cool the 22110 M.2's ok. Perphas needs setting to max speed?

How you finding it?

Dont do it, these are 15 watt drives. I have 4 of them, never really using it because of constant heat issues. I planned to use them in my Threatripper machine with a 4x4 card with a big active cooler, but the cpu on this NVMEs still crash around 85c. These drives only work in high pressure server cases.

 

[tempest]

Dont do it, these are 15 watt drives. I have 4 of them, never really using it because of constant heat issues. I planned to use them in my Threatripper machine with a 4x4 card with a big active cooler, but the cpu on this NVMEs still crash around 85c, they idle around 65-70c. These drives only work in high pressure server cases.

 

[MrJonny]

Dont do it, these are 15 watt drives. I have 4 of them, never really using it because of constant heat issues. I planned to use them in my Threatripper machine with a 4x4 card with a big active cooler, but the cpu on this NVMEs still crash around 85c. These drives only work in high pressure server cases.

What drives did you put in your MS-A2?

I can find carrier cards for the pcie slot but sady can't find any that are dual m.2 with a fan heat sink, that might be the way to use them. I think that kind of design could hopefully work.

I do have two u.2 pm9a3, and I'm wondering even in u.2 form in the u.2 slot they would run too warm. Where I'm using them now, I have a dedicated fan to force air flow over them.

 

[tempest]

What drives did you put in your MS-A2?

I can find carrier cards for the pcie slot but sady can't find any that are dual m.2 with a fan heat sink, that might be the way to use them. I think that kind of design could hopefully work.

I do have two u.2 pm9a3, and I'm wondering even in u.2 form in the u.2 slot they would run too warm. Where I'm using them now, I have a dedicated fan to force air flow over them.

I have two Western SN850x 8TB (7 watts per ssd), i had them for testing "in" the device, but temps go up to 83 celsius on use, that is quiete near the limit, so i got two OWC Express 1M2 cases, put them in there, plugged them into the back USB-C Ports. It limits the speed to 1gb/sec per SSD, but for normal homelab use, you dont notice it. These disks run at 37-48 celsius on load, that is really good.

I use my MS-A2 as Proxmox Node with a mirrored ZFS pool. Works great. I mostly use LXC containers, much better on consumer SSDs. If you have several Windows VMs, i would use Enterprise SSDs with much more "spare" cells.

Temperature Sensor 1: 47 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 41 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3: 40 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 1: 44 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 37 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3: 37 Celsius

 

[tempest]

I have two Western SN850x 8TB (7 watts per ssd), i had them for testing "in" the device, but temps go up to 83 celsius on use, that is quiete near the limit, so i got two OWC Express 1M2 cases, put them in there, plugged them into the back USB-C Ports. It limits the speed to 1gb/sec per SSD, but for normal homelab use, you dont notice it. These disks run at 37-48 celsius on load, that is really good.

I use my MS-A2 as Proxmox Node with a mirrored ZFS pool. Works great. I mostly use LXC containers, much better on consumer SSDs. If you have several Windows VMs, i would use Enterprise SSDs with much more "spare" cells.

Temperature Sensor 1: 47 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 41 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3: 40 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 1: 44 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 37 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3: 37 Celsius

Forgot to mention: i also got a Framework Desktop with two SN850x 8TB. Originally it was planned as the server, but preorder took so long and i required a replacement for my old broken server. So i got the MS-A2. The Framwork arrived later and is my little Workstation for Work and light gaming, i absolutly love it, much quieter, better temps, SSDs are passive cooled but still much cooler than the MS-A2.

 

[MrJonny]

Hmm that's not ideal the SN850x, run that warm either. I was thinking of getting 4TB versions instead of buying the PM9A3.
Starting to think the MS-A2 is a bit flawed in the m.2 cooling design

Was your testing with the SSD fan on auto or max speed?

Effectively looking in to rather to fix my U2 server or change to something a tad more power efficient but nvme cooling is very important

My ambient will be perfectly fine since it's in an actual colocation

Edit: I'm guessing this card would be too long, although it's double sided and probably won't fit because of that. But this is kind of what we need

New PCIE 4.0 x16 To M.2 M-Key NVME SSD Expansion Split Card Supports 4 Nvme M.2 | eBay UK

Backward Compatibility: Supports both PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 baud rates, allowing for seamless integration into existing or upgraded server infrastructures. RAID Support: PCIe 4.0 RAID 0 Mode. 1 x Split card.

ebay.us

 

[Markn12]

I just got mine and it wont recognize the 96gbs of ram. Im using CORSAIR Vengeance SODIMM DDR5 RAM 96GB (2x48GB) 5600MHz CL48-48-48-90 1.10V Intel XMP 3.0 Computer Memory – Black (CMSX96GX5M2A5600C48)
it only sees it as 32gbs each stick. Not sure why maybe its the ram itself. It also wont boot if you try to set it to 5600 and use the right timings the max it will go is 5400.

Only real thing i hate is amd doesnt allow ryzen master to work on these CPUs and there is no real alternative to it that works on the 9955hx that i can find.

 

[wadup]

I just got mine and it wont recognize the 96gbs of ram. Im using CORSAIR Vengeance SODIMM DDR5 RAM 96GB (2x48GB) 5600MHz CL48-48-48-90 1.10V Intel XMP 3.0 Computer Memory – Black (CMSX96GX5M2A5600C48)
it only sees it as 32gbs each stick. Not sure why maybe its the ram itself. It also wont boot if you try to set it to 5600 and use the right timings the max it will go is 5400.

Only real thing i hate is amd doesnt allow ryzen master to work on these CPUs and there is no real alternative to it that works on the 9955hx that i can find.

You try latest bios? See if it detects the ram one stick at a time.

 

[Markn12]

You try latest bios? See if it detects the ram one stick at a time.

It came with 1.02 so I believe so. I tired one at a time shows 32gb.

 

[Devedse]

So my MS-A2 arrived last week and I'm running into a problem.

I installed an Intel Arc Pro B50 but when I set the PCIE slot to PCIE 5.0 I'm getting a BSOD with the error:
VIDEO_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL

If I switch back to PCIE 4.0 it works fine.

Another issue I have is that without the graphics card the device runs on like 18 watts, whereas adding the graphics card increased this to 50 watts. I was looking for an option to turn on ASPM (Active State Power Management - Wikipedia) but there's no option for the PCIE slot, just for all SSD's, WIFI and Ethernet modules. Any ideas around this?

 

[wadup]

So my MS-A2 arrived last week and I'm running into a problem.

I installed an Intel Arc Pro B50 but when I set the PCIE slot to PCIE 5.0 I'm getting a BSOD with the error:
VIDEO_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL

If I switch back to PCIE 4.0 it works fine.

Another issue I have is that without the graphics card the device runs on like 18 watts, whereas adding the graphics card increased this to 50 watts. I was looking for an option to turn on ASPM (Active State Power Management - Wikipedia) but there's no option for the PCIE slot, just for all SSD's, WIFI and Ethernet modules. Any ideas around this?

MS-A2 is not gen5

 

[Devedse]

MS-A2 is not gen5

Really weird you can select it in the bios then.