Please help me find a PCIe card which takes 2x m.2 NVME drives

[3080guy]

I only have one spare PCIe slot.
This motherboard https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-A-PRO-MAX

Id like to buy a PCIe card which takes two or more m.2 NVME SSD cards, so I can buy an SSD card now and add another card later.

I have one NVME port on my mobo already, its a small card and has the OS installed, I want to leave that as it is.

Id like a fast PCIe card which takes more m.2 NVME drives.

What PCIe card is fast/reliable and takes 2 or more m.2 NVME drives?
Thanks for your help guys.

 

[3080guy]

You won’t be able to run more than 1 m.2 drive off that PCIEx16 slot. That slot only has 4 lanes and doesn’t support bifurcation. So it won’t recognise more than 1 drive.

Journey said it worked on a build for someone (Thanks Journey).
Maybe I shouldnt buy it, in case it doesnt work.
Im not sure what to think or do (not knowlegable enough)

 

[3080guy]

In the board you linked the second port is only PCI-E 2.0 4x as pointed out, I'm not sure if I missed this or you edited it in later. Either way you can't do what you wanted with the card I linked.

Right, got it. Its my PCIe slot which creates the limitation. I didnt understand the comment as I didnt realise my PCIe slots were different.
Thats very helpful, thank you everyone.
Will I be able to achieve high speeds using only one NVME SSD on that second PCIe slot? ie, the 3500mb/s some cards advertise?

 

[3080guy]

No the slot is limited to ~2000 MB/s

Thats also really helpful to know, cheers!

 

[3080guy]

Can any sata drives run anywhere near that speed, 2000 MB/s?

 

[3080guy]

SATA is capped at a theoretical 600 MB/s, but most drives manage 550MB/s at the most.

Thanks. That explains why sata drives advertise those sorts of speeds. Those must be the top end speeds, like you say.

 

[3080guy]

Well in this case it does, as the it is a physical 16x slot wired for 4x, and on PCI-E 2.0 which limits the performance to 4x 2.0 so ~ 2,000 MB/s.

Thats really helpful, thanks for the info

 

[3080guy]

I read this
https://www.everythingusb.com/speed.html
After trying to find out what the fastest USB3 drive I could buy is, it seems that the 1000mb/s mark is about the top end, for SSD read speeds over usb, at the moment.

And the fastest way for me to upgrade storage is going to be 2000mb/s via my second, slower PCIe port.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[3080guy]

Thanks for all the info guys, got there in the end. Cheers.

 

[3080guy]

Couple more questions guys.
1) If I bought this, would it run a two m.2 nvme card in my mobo which does not support bifurication, because it supports hardware raid?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...roller-card-v2-90mc06p0-m0eay0-cc-001-as.html

Or not, because my bios does not support PCIe bifurication as discussed, despite the raid.

To confuse matters/me, at some point I just asked OC shop what to buy, and got a reply before yesterday after a short delay.

They recommended the card above. But by that time, Id already ordered a cheap single m.2 card which did not arrive on the delivery date (yesterday/amazon) so I may still be able to cancel that and get the board above, if is likely to work on my current motherboard.

It should work with 1 m.2 card now
But will it work with 2 m.2 cards now (or not, for the reasons already discussed).

Apologies if I seem a bit slow, but this looks like it has the hardware raid support which...bypasses the need for bios bifurication?
Thanks for the help

 

[3080guy]

The RAID support is via the CPU, something called VROC on high-end Intel parts, not what you have. This in effect is still bifurcation as there isn't an actual hardware RAID chip on the Asus card itself.

If you want more details feel free to use the direct message system, you might need to configure your trust account first, little button at the bottom right of your post.

Thanks for the help, its greatly appreciated, cheers Journey!