NVMe: 2.5" SFF drives working in a normal desktop

[ATS]

I'd want to see a PCIe x16 card with 4-6 connectors.

@ATS I actually think if you look at the post right above yours some information is already there.

I saw the post from Patrick, just giving the hardware explanation of the whys and hows.

And over subscription will likely be a thing shortly, cause the PLX chips are there, they are just the multi-master/multi-root ones which carry a slight premium. For a x16 slot, you ideally want a 48 lane PLX chip like the 8750 configured in x16->8x4 mode. This will allow getting to roughly maximum bandwidth on a wide variety of workloads where as non-over subscription just ends up wasting PCIe lanes in many workloads. Also PLX doesn't make a 40 lane device which is what you would need for 6 connectors.

 

[T_Minus]

My 750 and SM cards arrive Monday/Tuesday it looks like P3700's later this week.

 

[zer0gravity]

Is there any card that supports 4x drives? How much data can one PCI-e 16x slot support.....is it even possible? Will we see this in the future?

 

[T_Minus]

Well, looks like they all arrive today... fingers crossed

 

[Chuntzu]

Darn FedEx! Bought the plx card and two 750s. The 750s are here but have to wait til tomorrow or Sunday to pick up the plx card. This whole "working" thing gets in the way of my hobbies! Might need to retire early...like 30 years early

 

[TechIsCool]

Darn FedEx! Bought the plx card and two 750s. The 750s are here but have to wait til tomorrow or Sunday to pick up the plx card. This whole "working" thing gets in the way of my hobbies! Might need to retire early...like 30 years early

I luck out on the shipping side. We have a secure building that all shipping companies have codes to get in. The packages are just there when I get home. But its part of a business and I would say I see my UPS and FedEx drivers at least 3 times a week.

 

[Chuntzu]

Ups isnt that bad for me. I just pick them up at the depot they return to each night. Fedex out sources their drivers and don't have a central depot, which ends up taking an extra day for me to pick up my packages. But not a huge deal, I should be able to pick it up on my way to work tomorrow.

 

[Patrick]

OK well I have a PLX card inbound now.

 

[Chuntzu]

FYI the plx card works great. Put it in an e5-1620 node and is great. Though I think iops wise I need to move it to my dual 2680v2 node to really push it.

 

[Jeggs101]

FYI the plx card works great. Put it in an e5-1620 node and is great. Though I think iops wise I need to move it to my dual 2680v2 node to really push it.

Are you running one drive or two?

Oh and what about this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-A2U44X25NVMEDK-CORP-UPGRADE-KIT-NVM-EXP-SUPPORT-/351381416418 looks like more drives supported.

 

[Lance Joseph]

I've been looking around for a sample SMART dump from an NVMe device but haven't found one yet.
@Patrick, @Chuntzu, could either of you guys post a "smartctl -a /dev/nvme0"?

 

[Patrick]

OK @Jeggs101 - I ordered one using that $15 off ebay coupon. Expensive but it is an interesting possibility especially since I think I have an Intel server that can use it.

@Lance Joseph do you need a 2.5" drive or is a PCIe AIC ok? I can probably get this tonight/ tomorrow.

 

[Chuntzu]

@Patrick I hope to hear the Intel kit works as I have a chassis/jbod that it works in as well.

@jegs101 I am using it with two drives and works really well. I only had about 30mins to test it the other night but it worked very well. I have been eyeing that set up for a bit, but truth is I bought the supermicro board with 11x pcie 8x slots so I can't really utilize the card since its a 16x pcie card...might be limiting my bandwidth a bit. But maybe not I will look into with some more bench marks.


FYI just saw a raid inc jbod for nvme drives with failover (not sure if any current gen drives support dual control fail over like SAS drives, but supposedly this jbod supports it. 25 million iops...not bad!

 

[Patrick]

@Chuntzu I am pretty excited to see how well it works.

I also ordered a second Intel 750 400GB just for the second cable.

 

[Patrick]

Well... looks like it is going to take awhile to get that Intel kit. Estimated delivery 6/16.

 

[T_Minus]

I've been eying that Intel as I Think it just may fit in my 5U older intel chassis.

@Patrick -- Any idea what's required of the chassis or motherboard to operate that intel NVME kit? I'd seriously swap out of mSuperMicro to run my 5U If that 400$ kit works !

 

[Patrick]

I've been eying that Intel as I Think it just may fit in my 5U older intel chassis.

@Patrick -- Any idea what's required of the chassis or motherboard to operate that intel NVME kit? I'd seriously swap out of mSuperMicro to run my 5U If that 400$ kit works !

This is more of a buy then try type of experiment.

 

[T_Minus]

When you guys tested the AOC-SLG3-2E4R what OS, and did you have to install any drivers to get it detected ?

 

[Patrick]

Seems too slow. Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 do not need additional drivers.

 

[ATS]

@Patrick

FYI just saw a raid inc jbod for nvme drives with failover (not sure if any current gen drives support dual control fail over like SAS drives, but supposedly this jbod supports it. 25 million iops...not bad!

Only drive that explicitly states support for dual porting is the OCZ Z6k series but only in a future update/release. No one else seems to even mention dual port support. Intel/HGST/Samsung have no mention, no one else is shipping/previewing 2.5" U.2 drives. The PMC Flashtec controllers claim support but so far no drive with them has support (OCZ Z6k is Flashtec NVMe 1016 based).

And FYI, the 2.5" NVMe connector is now known as U.2 which is a whole lot better than SFF-8639.