Question NVME / U.2 vs U.3 / Cheap NVME high capacity

[Tech Junky]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DR17F5F - works well so far
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BFL485F - working well

I'm going to be switching to an M2 adapter though and picked this one

Amazon.com

key I found is to keep the cables short as possible. I tried a cable twice as long and it wouldn't show the drive.

I'm in the process of converting to AMD and would have been rebuilt today if it for an issue with trying to move my cooler over and missing the AMD brackets. If looking for dual or quad drives though here are what I would go with.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRV7RQLK - supports 4 drives

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMPMJR47 - two drives per cable

I'm also considering a quad M2 adapter to experiment a bit with these and some other devices off the same slot.

Amazon.com

 

[Shmee]

@Singularity9 you can check out the card and cables I got in my previous post, though I can't confirm they will work well at PCIe gen4 speeds as my motherboard is only PCIe gen3.

Yes X99 is Intel, but it is one of the past HEDT platforms, and many X99 boards support Xeon CPUs, such as my Asus X99 Deluxe. As for cards and cables, I got this card https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVMK2K1Z?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1and 2 of these cables https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JH92TD9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

As you can see, since I have bifurcated the PCIe X16 slot the card is in to x4x4x4x4, I can order another two cables and two additional drives in the future.

EDIT: Hmm looks like Amazon is out of the X16 4 port card for that listing, but you may be able to find a similar one.

 

[Tech Junky]

One other thing to keep in mind is the bus speed of x/y/z protocols of which you can use to connect to the 8639 drive.

SAS 12 / 1.5GB/s - SFF-8643 // shouldn't be used w/ NVME / too slow
SAS 24 / 3GB/s - G3 / SFF-8654
Oculink 32 / 8GB/s - G4 . SFF-8611/8612

All of the cards and cables I mentioned above are Oculink for obvious reasons shown here. Now, It's debatable whether or not this will have an impact IRL because I came across some reviews for other SAS based options that showed full speed Gen4 results. So, either they're wrong or these dumb adapters just provide the electrical link and full x4 bandwidth. Seeing as tough for the most part the adapters/cables are the same costs I figured go with the spec that's supposed to give the full bandwidth to the drive / system rather than rolling the dice considering how the first two drives went. Through troubleshooting on the 3rd drive it seems it might have been a MOBO issue all along which pushed my rebuild up the priority list. The drive sitting off a different slot so far has performed well other than some IO error messages and going into RO mode for a bit until running fsck on it and clearing the errors. The hope is that switching everything over will make things stable w/o any errors moving forward.

I've been keeping a close eye on things though after two failures and it's not the worst case scenario of temps frying things as the drive usually sits between 38-43C. And the slot issue seems to be the source as moving the adapter to a different slot made things a bit smoother but not yet 100%. Had I dug in a bit deeper I might have caught this issue on the first or second drive. The issue was though even looking for this gremlin would likely not fixed the ability to partition the drive again since it didn't show up as an option in a second system at all.

The first two drives were used with a PCB mount direct to the slot as it was cheaper but, should have prevented any issues with signal attenuation as shown with the longer cable mentioned. All of this though is based on the research I did while waiting on replacement drives to show up. I'm functional now but, not happy yet with this MOBO issue. I never would've known it was an issue though w/o this little project of mine. Anything else in that slot seems to run just fine. I swapped slots with my quad 5GE NIC and it's not producing any errors at all.

 

[Singularity9]

I'm about to purchase the drives. Any opinions as to which of these I should get?

Intel P5500 1.92TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe U.2 2.5" Enterprise SSD - SSDPF2KX019T9N1 | eBay

Interface PCIe Gen4 x4. Our Model is simple. - Reason for Failure/Defect. - Serial Number. - Order Number. How do I make a warranty claim?. · HGST claims can be made on the HGST Website, or on the Western Digital Website if not available from HGST.

www.ebay.com

1.92Tb Samsung PM9A3 U.2 PCIe4 Gen4 2.5" SSD DataCenter Enterprise MZ-QL21T90 | eBay

One Original Samsung PM9A3 2.5" 1.92TB SSD PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive Hard Drive Server. One Original Samsung PM9A3 2.5" 1.92TB SSD PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive Hard drive Server. · Product Series : Pm9a3.

www.ebay.com

Let me know if there is a better option in this price range and storage capacity.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Double size with minor price increase: https://www.ebay.com/itm/305052410155

Cheaper: https://www.ebay.com/itm/225668212849

Brand new P5500: https://serverpartdeals.com/product...s-3d-tlc-1dwpd-u-2-nvme-2-5-solid-state-drive

 

[Tech Junky]

@Singularity9 @igor_kavinski

Look closely at the specs on each one. As slots / adapters are limited make sure if you go Gen4 you have a slot or M2 socket open for the adapter or you'll gimp your speeds.

2TB isn't really worthwhile since M2 drives are cheaper. You can get a new 4TB M2 for $200.

It's a toss up on some though whether it's TLC or QLC which is a big thig to watch out for like the SS you listed.

You can get a U3 and it works fine on a U2 adapter just not the other way around.

 

[Shmee]

I'm about to purchase the drives. Any opinions as to which of these I should get?

Intel P5500 1.92TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe U.2 2.5" Enterprise SSD - SSDPF2KX019T9N1 | eBay

Interface PCIe Gen4 x4. Our Model is simple. - Reason for Failure/Defect. - Serial Number. - Order Number. How do I make a warranty claim?. · HGST claims can be made on the HGST Website, or on the Western Digital Website if not available from HGST.

www.ebay.com

1.92Tb Samsung PM9A3 U.2 PCIe4 Gen4 2.5" SSD DataCenter Enterprise MZ-QL21T90 | eBay

One Original Samsung PM9A3 2.5" 1.92TB SSD PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive Hard Drive Server. One Original Samsung PM9A3 2.5" 1.92TB SSD PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive Hard drive Server. · Product Series : Pm9a3.

www.ebay.com

Let me know if there is a better option in this price range and storage capacity.

Maybe look at Samsung PM 1733 drives. I ordered two of 3.84TB capacity, with an offer on ebay for $160 each.

 

[Tech Junky]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6B2PGMC - 8TB for $400
https://www.provantage.com/service/searchsvcs/B-HDRVSS?SEC=~HDRVSS&QUERY=PM9A3+&SORT=2&ORD=A

https://www.wiredzone.com/shop/category/components-hard-drives-115?order=list_price+asc&filter=46-658&filter=48-1371&filter=48-673&category=115

When I was comparing other options besides Micron these were helpful considerations. WX though provided better prices than Amazon in most cases of the ones I was considering. Though ultimately bought the Kioxia off ebay cheaper than anywhere else.

The spread on the same drive model can be thousands depending on where you look.

 

[jarablue]

Where are all the gen 5 nvmes? I want some from WD and Samsung. Not joejoes outlet gen5. Lets get near that 14k read speed. Not joejoes speed currently.

 

[Shmee]

Where are all the gen 5 nvmes? I want some from WD and Samsung. Not joejoes outlet gen5. Lets get near that 14k read speed. Not joejoes speed currently.

What PCIe gen5 drives are you thinking of, consumer m.2 drives, or enterprise u.3 etc drives? Keep in mind that PCIe gen5 is on a relatively small amount of systems since it is fairly new. Either way, I expect PCIe gen5 drives to be fairly expensive and with fewer options, especially for enterprise.

 

[Tech Junky]

Where are all the gen 5 nvmes? I want some from WD and Samsung. Not joejoes outlet gen5. Lets get near that 14k read speed. Not joejoes speed currently.

GB/crucial have one that hit 12.4 in M2 format. Nothing for sale right now hits 14. Enterprise options from Kioxia. G5 speed means active cooling and higher prices starting at $150 for 1tb.

 

[Brahmzy]

I need about 55-60TB worth of fast RAID - single file system. I’m thinking of a mirrored pair of the new 61.44TB Solidigm U.2s on a Highpoint SSD7502. Expensive as hell, but I think even with the $3,800/ea SBFPF2BV614T001 SSDs it’s the cheapest way to get 60TB in a single file system, if I’m not using a NAS / ZFS or other. I wish we were a full gen ahead of where we’re currently at, that maybe the 62TB drives would be in the $3K ballpark, not the $3,800 ballpark.