Multi-NVMe (m.2, u.2) adapters that do not require bifurcation

[unphased]

So I finally ordered one of these things. Ended up going with a ANM24PE16 quad M.2 card from ebay, as the prices on aliexpress were higher for these.

I did find a ANU28PE16 on aliexpress for only $93, however after adding on the cost of getting 4 M.2 devices connected to it (and M.2 really is kinda the only reasonable thing to adapt SFF 8643 to it seems, I'm not spending $40 on a 8643 to pcie female slot adapter, nope...) it came out to nearly 150, and there's a huge amount more bulk with that approach, plus going beyond 4 devices to 8, although impressive, seems very questionable in utility... what they should have designed is one of those with 8 M.2 slots, 4 on each side!

I've had 3 of those for 2+ years. I like them.

Again, no worries. In SAS3 usage, the signal speed on the cable is 12Gbps (x4=48G); whereas, in PCIe3 usage, the sig spd is 8Gbps (per-lane; x4=32G)

@UhClem could you answer a question I have about these. I take it that the functionality will be full duplex. That is to say if I plug a PLX card like this into an M.2 slot connecting it to my computer with 4 lanes, and suppose I have two high end 4-lane NVMes installed on it. If I do a copy from one of those drives to the other, will it go at half speed or full speed?? My hope is that full duplex means both receive and send could saturate the 4 lanes at the interface. This should be easy to test, if we don't actually know. But somebody surely has tested it and knows.

Thanks.

 

[UhClem]

@UhClem could you answer a question I have about these. I take it that the functionality will be full duplex. That is to say if I plug a PLX card like this into an M.2 slot connecting it to my computer with 4 lanes, and suppose I have two high end 4-lane NVMes installed on it. If I do a copy from one of those drives to the other, will it go at half speed or full speed??

I've never actually installed one of my cards in an x4 (elec) slot, but I have done tests, in an x16 slot, that confirm the "full-duplex performance". In an x4 slot, there should (/will) be x4 lanes of (target) bandwidth in each direction--it's a two-way street.

 

[darwkl]

Does the Linkreal PCIe 3.0 X16 do Quad M.2 NVMe SSD karta adaptera do Servers-LRNV9547L-4I or these Multi NVME Adapters in general support TRIM on connected SSDs?

 

[asdfh123]

These cards don't support S.M.A.R.T. data from the SSDs? My TrueNAS in the GUI shows:

"These disks do not support S.M.A.R.T. tests:"

 

[thigobr]

The pcie switch should be transparent to smart/trim/etc.
I am curious though if these PLX switches support ASPM? Anybody checked?

 

[Docop]

The Highpoint do show perfectly, but the firmware present do help to translate the info. The ssd718x work good for that and even a direct gui tool to config and see thoses smart info.

 

[asdfh123]

NVM it does show in the CLI using smartctl but not in the GUI of TrueNAS. TrueNAS doesn't show NVMe SMART data.

 

[pimposh]

I am curious though if these PLX switches support ASPM? Anybody checked?

Yes, they do handle it correctly.

 

[unphased]

I've never actually installed one of my cards in an x4 (elec) slot, but I have done tests, in an x16 slot, that confirm the "full-duplex performance". In an x4 slot, there should (/will) be x4 lanes of (target) bandwidth in each direction--it's a two-way street.

Thanks for confirming!

I got my ANM24PE16 in this week. The build is quite nice, the PCB is not complex at all but crisp clean edges, good material, and perfectly clean. I feel that it is very good value for what it is. Would be very happy to keep purchasing Ceacent going forward. The heatsink is plenty hefty, a large chunk of solid aluminum.

One thing I noticed is that there is a ceramic sheet glued to the chip package, meant to mate through a thermal pad to the heatsink. I've never seen a chunk of ceramic used as TIM before.

Since most of the typical usage that I will be putting this card in will involve at least one M.2 to PCIe slot extender (e.g. to run multiple mellanox or LSI cards off a single x8 or x4) the massive heatsink will not be attached to the chip. The PLX 8748 has a typical output of 8 watts... I'll check with thermal imaging during operation but my guess is that as long as I leave this built in fan powered on blowing at it, this should be okay. Worst case I can jimmy up some kind of shroud. And failing that, strapping on a small heatsink.

Also contemplating dremeling out some channels on the side of the massive heatsink to allow probably up to two PCIe riser cables to exit while the heatsink remains seated. But would be a lot of work, and i doubt I would resort to this.

 

[TRACKER]

Congratulations for the purchase
I have the same card and max speed i was able to achieve with 4 of 970 evo plus 2TB is around 10GB/s (with 2667 v4 on X10SRI-F).

 

[EvoDyn]

Does anyone know if Ceacent stopped production of their ANU24PE08 card? Their store states that it's no longer available. Or does it come in and out of stock?

 

[UhClem]

Does anyone know if Ceacent stopped production of their ANU24PE08 card? Their store states that it's no longer available. Or does it come in and out of stock?

Most likely a temporary situation. I've noticed the ANU28PE16 be "unavailable" (ie out-of-stock) twice, and the ANM24PE16 once. They came back in 2-4 weeks.

 

[Ouroboros]

Looks like Highpoint has a nice dual blower double wide host card for 8xM.2, but unfortunately currently only their NVMe RAID model currently (not clear if you can set it to pure passthru). They do usually make a basic AIC version of their models eventually, so maybe wait for that.

Highpoint SSD7749M

 

[seroton10]

Sorry, noob question: Which cable would I use to connect the LRNV9324-4I (4-Port U.2, PEX 8724) to a Micron 7450 U.3 SSD?

Would any of these work?

• Delock Cable SFF-8643 male > U.2 SFF-8639 female + SATA power connector 50 cm
• U.3 Female (SFF-8639) to Mini SAS HD (SFF-8643)

Has anyone here had success with that combination (or something similar)?

(Yes, I know the adapter won't be able to extract all the performance the drive has to offer, but suppose I don't care about that.)

 

[mrpasc]

Looks like Highpoint has a nice dual blower double wide host card for 8xM.2, but unfortunately currently only their NVMe RAID model currently (not clear if you can set it to pure passthru). They do usually make a basic AIC version of their models eventually, so maybe wait for that.

Highpoint SSD7749M

They do have 8 Port NVME non-RAID cards already, unfortunately not for 22110 ones. https://www.highpoint-tech.com/nvme-aic/r1508

 

[Ior X]

Hi!

Searched this thread if anyone has tried a 4xNVMe in an HP Microserver gen10 plus, no hit.
Anyone? And if so, which card?
This looks promising though: Linkreal PCIe 3.0 X16 to Quad M.2 NVMe SSD Swtich Adapter Card for Servers-LRNV9547L-4I