NVMe Raid 4x Drives

[kronk]

Is my google-fu crap or are there just no systems that have capacity for 4x NVMe drives for a raid5?

In a perfect world the device I'm looking for would have Intel VROC (to keep physical size down), 4x NVMe slots for a raid5 and a modest CPU E-22xx or W-22xx.

With a nice HSF setup, should be able to have something the size of a skull canyon NUC or similar and it'd be perfect for me. Though larger would be fine too.

Anyone have anything to recommend to me?

 

[T_Minus]

Storage Spaces?

 

[kronk]

Storage Spaces?

I've only heard bad things in regards reliability and performance. Never even considered it.

 

[i386]

What do you mean with "nvme slots"? Nvme is a protocoll, not a form factor.

4x m.2 can be achieved with differnet add on cards, eg asus hyper m.2 x16
4x add in cards can be done easilly with matx or larger mainboards that have at least 4x 4 pcie lanes
4x u.2 can be tricky: if you have a system with a pcie backplane (eg supermicro BPN-SAS3-743A-N4) its easy and theoretically hot swappable. Consumer oriented chassis can mount u.2 like 2.5" ssds but are not hot swappable.

I've only heard bad things in regards reliability and performance. Never even considered it.

The parity based spaces are terrible in write performance, mirrors perform great.

 

[kronk]

What do you mean with "nvme slots"? Nvme is a protocoll, not a form factor.

4x m.2 can be achieved with differnet add on cards, eg asus hyper m.2 x16
4x add in cards can be done easilly with matx or larger mainboards that have at least 4x 4 pcie lanes
4x u.2 can be tricky: if you have a system with a pcie backplane (eg supermicro BPN-SAS3-743A-N4) its easy and theoretically hot swappable. Consumer oriented chassis can mount u.2 like 2.5" ssds but are not hot swappable.


The parity based spaces are terrible in write performance, mirrors perform great.

NVMe capable m.2 slots is what I meant, opposed to sata. I found a QNAP with 4x m.2 SATA which is so close to what I was after.

I did come across the ASUS addon card but I was hoping to find a motherboard with native slots.

 

[i386]

4x m.2 directly on the mainboard is weird as most people use up to 2x m.2 for boot devices (or as caching devices)

I think some threadripper (pro) mainboards support 4x m.2 slots (not sure if 80mm or the full 110mm required for plp ssds).

Edit: 4 m2 ssds also take up a lot of space on a mainboard

 

[kronk]

4x m.2 directly on the mainboard is weird as most people use up to 2x m.2 for boot devices (or as caching devices)

I think some threadripper (pro) mainboards support 4x m.2 slots (not sure if 80mm or the full 110mm required for plp ssds).

Edit: 4 m2 ssds also take up a lot of space on a mainboard

Yeah, there's a trend where they stick them on the underside of the motherboard.

 

[i386]

Yeah, there's a trend where they stick them on the underside of the motherboard.

I can't imagine that there is enough airflow to cool them sufficiently...

 

[NateS]

4x u.2 can be tricky: if you have a system with a pcie backplane (eg supermicro BPN-SAS3-743A-N4) its easy and theoretically hot swappable. Consumer oriented chassis can mount u.2 like 2.5" ssds but are not hot swappable.

Actually, I think there is one solution for easy hot-swap on regular consumer chasses: icydock makes a 5.25" bay 4x NVMe hot swap cage. I have yet to use it myself but I'm planning on picking one up soon, because while somewhat pricey, it's still a lot less pricey than any other NVMe hot swap option I've been able to find that will work in a non-rackmount form factor. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-ToughArmor-Rugged-External/dp/B07B9HK4QG

 

[i386]

Actually, I think there is one solution for easy hot-swap on regular consumer chasses: icydock makes a 5.25" bay 4x NVMe hot swap cage. I have yet to use it myself but I'm planning on picking one up soon, because while somewhat pricey, it's still a lot less pricey than any other NVMe hot swap option I've been able to find that will work in a non-rackmount form factor. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-ToughArmor-Rugged-External/dp/B07B9HK4QG

Icydock had to add a warning on their site because the backplane used in that cage caused problems with different cables.

 

[NateS]

Icydock had to add a warning on their site because the backplane used in that cage caused problems with different cables.

True. Apparently they're not compatible with Oculink cables, and only work with SFF-8643 cables. For consumer use, I don't consider this much of a downside, since I've only ever seen SFF-8643 connectors on consumer motherboards and NVMe adapters. But for server use, it would be a good idea to double check compatibility. Fortunately, they have a list of known-compatible HBA/Raid cards on their FAQ: MB699VP-B_ToughArmor Series_REMOVABLE U.2 / M.2 SSD ENCLOSURES_ICY DOCK manufacturer Removable enclosure, Screwless hard drive enclosure, SAS SATA Mobile Rack, DVR Surveillance Recording, Video Audio Editing, SATA portable hard drive enclosure

 

[NateS]

NVMe capable m.2 slots is what I meant, opposed to sata. I found a QNAP with 4x m.2 SATA which is so close to what I was after.

I did come across the ASUS addon card but I was hoping to find a motherboard with native slots.

Motherboards with 4x native NVMe M.2 slots are indeed rare, since most consumers don't need that, and they'd be eating up valuable PCIe lanes that could be routed to a slot instead. But there are some, mostly higher-end newer ones. Helpfully, Anandtech calls out motherboards with 4x M.2 slots in their reviews. This Z590 motherboard overview, for example, calls out 7 motherboards with 4x M.2 slots (though you'll want to double check that they're all NVMe capable): The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed