Question U.2 To PCIE

[TryingToVirtualizeStuff]

Hello,

I had a question regarding U.2 to PCIE conversion.

I wish to purchase the following motherboard: Asus Pro-WS-WRX80E-SAGE-SE-WIFI - https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/Workstation/Pro-WS-WRX80E-SAGE-SE-WIFI/

...which has 2x U.2 slots and was wondering, is it possible to convert each U.2 to a PCIE 3.0+ 4x?

If so, should this be just a plug and play affair?

Thank you,
Nelson

 

[Tech Junky]

interesting thought.

I've been looking into potential storage options around U2 as an option but, drives are too pricey and low capacity to make it feasible so I get where you're going with this. I think the option would be using the U2 ports and a fan out cable to SATA drives for bulk storage. I don't recall anything that converts the SFF ports to anything else physically/electrically.

 

[TryingToVirtualizeStuff]

interesting thought.

I've been looking into potential storage options around U2 as an option but, drives are too pricey and low capacity to make it feasible so I get where you're going with this. I think the option would be using the U2 ports and a fan out cable to SATA drives for bulk storage. I don't recall anything that converts the SFF ports to anything else physically/electrically.

Hello Tech Junky,

In actuality, I wasn't planning on using the U.2 to for a drive, but instead a PCIE slot like this:

https://www.ioi.com.tw/products/pro...=116&DeviceID=3035&HostID=2082&ProdID=1160005

Should that be able to work (i.e. just be a plug-and-play affair - being no different than if I had two additional PCIE slots)?

Thank you,
Nelson

 

[Tech Junky]

I would think it would work. The only thing that comes into play is whether each slot is configured for one port on the U2 side. If there's any kid of switching going on it might muck things up.

3.3Vaux Power Input & Output Connectors

This might be an issue depending on the card being used in the slot as well. Native slots have better power abilities.

PNP though the system won't even notice it as there doesn't seem to be any chips being brains on the board though there might be something on the underside that's not pictured on their site.

 

[TryingToVirtualizeStuff]

I would think it would work. The only thing that comes into play is whether each slot is configured for one port on the U2 side. If there's any kid of switching going on it might muck things up.

3.3Vaux Power Input & Output Connectors

This might be an issue depending on the card being used in the slot as well. Native slots have better power abilities.

PNP though the system won't even notice it as there doesn't seem to be any chips being brains on the board though there might be something on the underside that's not pictured on their site.

Hello Tech Junky,

A big thanks for the input.

As for cards (initially they were planned to be plugged into M.2 PCIE risers) for the following system build (see item numbers 11, 12 (PCIE 2.0 x4), 15, 16 (PCIE 2.0 x4), 19, 20 (PCIE 3.0 x4)):



...but the PCIE risers/PCB's seem to wide for the chassis (which has 11 expansion slots - which works out for 9 single slot PCIE cards, and 1 dual slot PCIE card), but the spacing taken by each PCB might be too much (which is why I was looking for alternate solutions to limit the space being used by 3 PCB's).

I also found alternative solutions which allow for mounting of PCIE cards in 5.25" drive bays:

DB525-D8XF014 | PCIe x4 Add-on Card Docking Cable | DB525-D8XF014XXYY

Hopefully someone knows of a solution that could work.

Thank you,
Nelson