RAID 5 / 6 NVMe M.2 PCIe Controller Card

[Todd Gakk]

First post, so I'll try to make it a good one.

Local computer shop went under and sold off its assets in auctioned lots. I bought three boxes containing reasonably decent power supplies, cables and various older NIC's, video cards, etc., for spares and small projects I have planned. To top it off, I also got a brand new HAF 932 computer case for $27, still in the box.

When unpacking the case, I found a courier envelope in the box containing six, brand new, Samsung 960 PRO 1TB NVMe M.2 drives, still sealed in original wrapping. Total worth, around $4K retail.

After some time considering what I wanted to do, I thought I could use them to make a RAID 5 / 6 array in my planned RyZen 1800X gaming rig. This isn't something I'd ever consider myself, but with this gift, an over the top solution would seem in order.

I've seen many NVMe M.2 RAID 1 cards, but a quick Google search only shows SATA based RAID 5+ solutions. Closest I could come was a RocketRAID 3800 series card from HighPoint, but that works with U.2 drives, not M.2.

Has anyone here seen a RAID 5 / 6+ card slotted for 4-6 M.2 NVMe drives?

 

[pyro_]

closest you are going to get for that right now are proprietary cards from dell/HP which do 4 NVME drives and you then software raid them. Supermicro also has a card which can do 2 NVME drives. Remember that you are going to be using 4x PCIE lanes for each of them so a 16x slot would only be able to handle 4 drives

 

[Todd Gakk]

Understood. The ASUS Mobo I'm looking at has a spare PCIe x 16 slot so no worries there. It has an onboard M.2 slot as well which leaves me with a spare.

Cheapest HP Z Turbo Quad Pro I can see is $799. May have to wait for more cost effective solutions to appear.

 

[gigatexal]

Sell the drives and pocket the cash. What do you need with raided NVMe?

 

[T_Minus]

I'm going to agree with @gigatexal raided NVME, especially lower performing raid is kind of silly for a desktop gaming build
I would install 2 in the desktop sell the rest and have fun with the cash
or, maybe keep 3. 1 onboard, 2 in pcie adapter card. You could use 1 for OS and 2 for games/storage

 

[Todd Gakk]

Why? Because I can.

Things don't always need to make sense to be challenging and fun. I've built a twelve node RaspPi cluster server. I made a RAID 50 array out of eight 16GB USB keys. I've trashed several CPU's from every manufacturer with LN2 cooling experiments. My basement is a mad scientist laboratory with cables everywhere, oscilloscopes, pieces parts from many sources/ages and many happy memories with like-minded friends.

If you need justification for a NVMe RAID, try this link: Triple M.2 Samsung 950 Pro Z170 PCIe NVMe RAID Tested - Why So Snappy? | Latency Distribution and Latency Percentile

Do understand that just because others think I'm wasting my time, does not mean I am. Besides, it's my time to waste as I see fit.

Cheers.

 

[am4593]

I dont know about waste of time but just a crazy waste of money

 

[Todd Gakk]

Yup, it cost me $27. How will I feed my kids tonight?

 

[Rand__]

If you weren't set on RyZen you could have gotten a SM x10SRL, 7x PCI-E slots total:
2 PCI-E 3.0 x8, 2 PCI-E 3.0 x8 (in x16),
2 PCI-E 3.0 x4 (in x8) or 1 x8 + 1 x0
(auto-switch), & 1 PCI-E 2.0 x4 (in x8)

Then M.2 to PCIe adapter for each of your cards, or one dual if you want a graphics card too

 

[gigatexal]

Sell the drives bro. That's the rational thing. But if not raid them with software get crazy scores. E-peen++;

 

[nk215]

I would contact the owner and tell him about the drives/return them.

I gave back more than $1K cash when it was mistakenly given to me more than 20 years ago. I am still very proud of myself for doing so. That feeling is worth so much more than the money.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

closest you are going to get for that right now are proprietary cards from dell/HP which do 4 NVME drives and you then software raid them. Supermicro also has a card which can do 2 NVME drives. Remember that you are going to be using 4x PCIE lanes for each of them so a 16x slot would only be able to handle 4 drives

Most motherboards can only handle a single "thing" per PCIe slot. So the simple card that just routes 4 sets of 4 lanes to the PCIe x16 connector may not work for you. There are some cards with on-board PCIe bridge chips, but support is still spotty. Check to make sure the solution you are planning on using will work in your system.

Regarding the "give them back to the seller", this was apparently a local going-out-of-business auction, possibly even a bankruptcy auction. These are generally "as-is, all sales final". If it was done by the store and not part of a bankruptcy, it is the seller's job to know what they're selling. If the only thing in the cardboard box was the case and the case was damaged, the normal in-person auction rule is "you should have checked it before bidding". If the seller doesn't know what was in there, it is a "mystery box" (like unclaimed luggage) and you may get a suitcase full of gold bars or a suitcase full of old socks - the buyer takes the risk and reaps any reward. If it was a bankruptcy auction and it has been completed, sending the stuff back may open up a whole can of worms for the seller. For example, if all creditors were paid proportionally from the proceeds of the sale, this may trigger a whole additional round of checks, as well as invalidating any financial figures provided by the seller (to shareholders, tax authorities, etc.) that reflect the proceeds of the sale.

If you contact the sender on the courier envelope, they may or may not know if they were actually paid for those parts. If not, they may be entitled to a proportion of the liquidation value of the company. They may just say "please send them back to us" even if they were paid for them.

 

[am4593]

You can actually bifurcate PCI Express slots, but I've never seen it done for an NVME drive

 

[Todd Gakk]

I am set on the RyZen and ASUS Crosshair VI as it has 12 USB ports on the back alone. The SM x10SRL only has 2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0. As I have a HOTAS, Vive, Gamepad, multiple keyboards, scanner, 2 x printers, and other assorted goodies attached via USB, less just wouldn't do.

am4593 - Bifurication is handled at the PCIe level and is possible for any device on that standard. It really depends on BIOS support.

Cheers all for the answers. Always good to get a variety of opinion.

 

[T_Minus]

WOW! I can honestly say I've never thought " need more usb " ha ha I have more extensions waiting for usage than actually things in use on them, LOL!! I recall in the days gone by using USB non-powered hubs, and such too. It's kind of funny thinking about USB at one point in history you had to unplug / swap due to limited ports and now we have a million and 1 devices plugged into them and forget we're using 6+ ha ha.

Either way the build is going to be awesome @Todd Gakk can't wait to see perf. #s

 

[Rand__]

The SM x10SRL only has 2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0. As I have a HOTAS, Vive, Gamepad, multiple keyboards, scanner, 2 x printers, and other assorted goodies attached via USB, less just wouldn't do.

4x USB 3.0 ports, 8x USB 2.0 ports is what the SM page says - probably a bunch of them are internal but easily routed outside

But its fine if you have chosen