ORICO Dual Bay M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure With Offline Clone USB C 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps For M Key & M/B Key NVME PCIe SSD Solid State Drive Reader $89.99 @ NE

[VirtualLarry]

ORICO Dual Bay M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure With Offline Clone Function USB C 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps For M Key & M/B Key NVME PCIe SSD Solid State Drive Reader $89.99

+ $2.99 off $29.99 + orders with promo code MKTCS2T3QY3P, limited offer By ORICO TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD

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www.newegg.com

This seems like a curiously-useful device, possibly for data-recovery off of NVMe drives, useful for a technician's toolbox. (A little on the pricey side, though, IMHO.)

 

[BenJeremy]

Interesting. I have, and used, a USB-C PCIe NCME enclosure (SSK) that was $20. IT was very handy to use when I was upgrading from my NVME RAID-0 boot drive set up (I had no open slots). I've had poor experience with PCIe cards that should have allowed me to add up to 4 M-Key sticks.

 

[SamirD]

I've had poor experience with PCIe cards that should have allowed me to add up to 4 M-Key sticks.

If they were ccc from one of the online 'marketplaces' that doesn't surprise me. I've stopped buying anything like this from the marketplaces because of the absolute crap quality of that stuff.

 

[BenJeremy]

If they were ccc from one of the online 'marketplaces' that doesn't surprise me. I've stopped buying anything like this from the marketplaces because of the absolute crap quality of that stuff.

It was some cheap card. To be honest, though, it shouldn't be difficult to make a cheap card that runs the PCI lanes to M.2 slots, just like on the motherboard. The card is essentially just a pass-through, with no more logic than any $5 PCI-e card (like a WiFi or sound card)

 

[Steltek]

It was some cheap card. To be honest, though, it shouldn't be difficult to make a cheap card that runs the PCI lanes to M.2 slots, just like on the motherboard. The card is essentially just a pass-through, with no more logic than any $5 PCI-e card (like a WiFi or sound card)

Most of the difficulties getting cheap PCIe m.2 slot adapters to work goes back to how limited the CPU/motherboard support for PCIe lane bifurcation is.

Most of the cheap cards will work well on a Threadripper system, as you have lots of PCIe lanes and CPU/MB support to easily bifurcate those lanes down to as many as 7 links. On anything else, though, support with a cheap card is going to be spotty.

Multi-port cards that will work despite limited CPU/MB bifurcation support are expensive ($150-$200+ for 2 port, $300+ for 4 port) because they have to utilize an onboard PCIe switch chipset (like the Asmedia ASM2824) to get around requiring extensive CPU/MB lane bifurcation support.

 

[VirtualLarry]

But do you really need bifurcation support, in order for a PCI-E x4 card to function properly in an x8 or x16 slot? I thought that was one of the "natural features" of PCI-E, that it could "adapt" to less lanes automagically. (It's not like you're trying to plug multiple PCI-E x4 cards into one x16 slot, that WOULD require bifurcation, I believe.

 

[Steltek]

But do you really need bifurcation support, in order for a PCI-E x4 card to function properly in an x8 or x16 slot? I thought that was one of the "natural features" of PCI-E, that it could "adapt" to less lanes automagically.

Yeah, you would think so but it just doesn't seem to work that well for some reason for this particular purpose. I picked up a few of those cheaper cards but never got one that worked well with more than one drive reliably (or at all).

I had access to a couple different ones before I retired last summer that mapped an X16 slot to four or five m.2 NVMe drive slots, and they worked in any system I put them in with an x16 slot (all of the drives would show up as available). They were $400+ cards, though.

 

[SamirD]

It was some cheap card. To be honest, though, it shouldn't be difficult to make a cheap card that runs the PCI lanes to M.2 slots, just like on the motherboard. The card is essentially just a pass-through, with no more logic than any $5 PCI-e card (like a WiFi or sound card)

The problem with even these type of cards is the awful soldering--they fail prematurely because of it whereas the same design with quality manufacturing will last longer.

 

[samboy]

Isn't this independent of available PCIe lanes and bifurcation concerns?

This is a NVMe/PCIe to USB 3.1 device; meaning that the important thing here is the bridge chip that they use for the NVMe->USB?

To date, many of these bridge chips have a habbit or randomly disconnecting....... there is a long running thread in "Memory & Storage" about this

 

[Steltek]

This is a NVMe/PCIe to USB 3.1 device; meaning that the important thing here is the bridge chip that they use for the NVMe->USB?

To date, many of these bridge chips have a habbit or randomly disconnecting....... there is a long running thread in "Memory & Storage" about this

For this device, the packet switch used for the m.2 slots is an ASM2806A providing 6 lanes and 3 downstream ports, while the PCIe bridge chip to USB is an ASM2362. The Amazon reviews of this device aren't great mainly due to heat - it is cheap plastic with no apparent heat mitigation in the design, a bad thing for something that will run VERY hot with extended use. Which is too bad - the ability to clone NVMe drives without a computer would otherwise be a neat feature (not so much, though, when using it for that will actually melt and deform the plastic it is made from). If you want one and are willing to take the chance, these are always routinely cheaper on Aliexpress.com than even the OOS Newegg special was.

Isn't this independent of available PCIe lanes and bifurcation concerns?

Yeah, it is. We just got a little side-tracked off on the subject of those cheapo PCIe add-in cards for multiple m.2 drives that don't work very well and why (i.e. cheap soldering, poor PCIe lane bifurcation support in many PCs, and lack of a PCIe switch chip onboard to eliminate need for CPU/motherboard to support PCIe bifurcation).