NVMe with Dell R440 PE Servers

[BashedRoot]

Looking to get some new Dell rackmount servers for enhancing web hosting servers but instead of using usual 2.5" SSD (front bays), I'd like to use NVMe 2.5" drives instead, front bays if possible.

I'm looking at Dell R440

Example build for VPS hosting: BuildMyServer - Nerds for Life

NVMe Drives: Inland Platinum 8TB NVMe SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3.0x4 = primary
Qty: 4 + 4 standard SSD (SAMSUNG 870 2.5" SSD 8TB (MZ-77Q8T0B) = additional

Will the above work? I don't need hardware RAID, in fact maybe just pass-thru RAID.

Do I need special parts? Can I just use these adapters for NVMe on front bay like this one?

I've been told the below elsewhere:

The R430 doesn't support NVMe drives. Now with that out of the way, with the R440 it does support NVMe, but would require the x10 backplane and would only allow for up to 4 NVMe drives, the remaining slots would be SAS/SATA, as seen below.

Also you can find a list of some of the supported NVMe's on 131-132 here.

 

[ElCoyote_]

@BashedRoot You can't use U.2 drives in the SAS/SATA front bays of an R440 but the 870 EVO drives will work just fine in the 2.5 bays.
Note that the 870 EVOs are QLC and as such have less endurance than TLC drives.

 

[BashedRoot]

870 EVO are SSD, not NVMe. The whole thread is specifically about NVMe and M.2 not U.2 or SSD.

 

[BoredSysadmin]

870 EVO are SATA, not NVMe.

FTFY

to OP: R440 comes with 3 different backplanes, 10 x 2.5" drives variant should support (up to 4) U2/NVMe drives as well as SATA
Ather variant of 8x2.5" and 4x3.5" don't support NVMe so, only Samsung evo (SATA) drives would work.
Source:

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/poweredge-r440-technical-guide.pdf

 

[BashedRoot]

Thanks, but the U.2 seem to be extremely pricey compared to M.2. Are there better solutions, more streamlined as simple as plug n' play, hot swap like traditional drives or SATA SSD? I'd rather use NVMe (as many as possible) than SSD or U.2.

That link says nothing about U.2 compatibility but M.2 it states:

M.2 SATA interface via BOSS module.

Regarding my 1st post:

"Can I just use these adapters for NVMe on front bay like this one?"

 

[BoredSysadmin]

M.2 isn't a hot-plug even with an adapter. Boss is only for os boot

 

[BashedRoot]

Thanks for the tip, but would M.2 with adapter to be used in front bays still work in general? All 10 bays?

I found this U.2 option. Although the document you provided doesn't mention U.2, do you think 10 of these would work seamlessly?

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-D7-P5510-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B08R3XKK5H/ref=sr_1_3?crid=MRDU3ICUJ9AJ&keywords=intel+u.2+ssd&qid=1663778010&s=electronics&sprefix=intel+u.2%2Celectronics%2C76&sr=1-3&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.08f69ac3-fd3d-4b88-bca2-8997e41410bb

 

[BoredSysadmin]

Dell document says, only 4 NVME drives, I assume it's limited by backplane's pcie lanes, the rest could be SATA SSD drives

 

[aero]

Even if you have the x10 backplane that supports NVME, you cannot use the M.2 to U.2 adapter for all 10 bays, just 4 of them, which are wired for nvme back to the motherboard. They should work for those 4 bays though.