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I'm trying to connect 8 samsung sata drives to my Asus Pro WS C422-ACE motherboard but I only have 6 sata ports, but no problem I thought since the MB manual clearly states "The Mini-SAS HD connector allows you to connect a Mini-SAS HD cable to support configurations such as U.2 devices or four SATA devices" So I purchased this cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C2LJBLW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 Hooked up the Mini-SAS HD to the U.2 port on my MB and the sata connectors to the drives and sata power to the PSU but no drives were recognized. Even poking around in the bios came up with nothing. So after some confusing searching I found a post from 10 years ago from someone saying they tried multiple cables that wouldn't work before trying this one which worked. So I thought, okay maybe it's the cable, and I purchased the same one the user had mentioned that had worked for him. This cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JOXWD6W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Went through the same motions of hooking everything up... aaaannnnd nothing. No drive is recognized. WTF. Can someone explain to me what I'm doing wrong? I'm so confused by this because it seems like this should work. Why would the manual say you can connect 4 sata devices to the U.2 Mini-SAS HD port and then not recognize when I do? (I know I could just get a sata pcie expansion card but I don't have the slots available. I'm using all 3 for a graphics card, 10g network adapter, and plan to use the final slot for a m.2 NVMe x4 raid card.)

U.2 SSD Question Would this cable work in my system with this SSD? SSD https://www.scan.co.uk/products/960gb-samsung-pm9a3-25-enterprise-ssd-25-ssd-pcie-40x4-u2-6800mb-s-read-4000mb-s-write-1000k-180k-io Cable https://www.scan.co.uk/products/19-highpoint-8643-8639-50-cable-host-sff-8643-device-sff-8639-supported-hba-ssd7120-15-pin-sata-powe Thank you in advance!

Hey guys. I bought a Seagate Exos 8E7 6TB HDD. My question is, can i connect to that hdd to my motherboard through a U.2 port? I already have a U.2 connector on my mobo so i just have to buy the cable, but i read, there have some versions of SFF connectors. For example: SFF-8639/8636 and 84xx series, and i dont know if thats hard drive connector is compatible with the U.2 port or the SFF-8639 variant.

This is my HBA card. BIOS、FW、PSOC、Driver are the latest. But with the drive attached, neither the 3.1x4 P4610 nor the 4.0x4 P5510 speed could reach the nominal speed. I will also provide some information, please help me.

In the years that I have been helping customers and the people here on this and other forums out with computers, I noticed that there has been always quite a bit of confusion around Solid State Drives, the different connectors, formfactors, interfaces and protocols. To help others to understand and to help me to distribute the information necessary to understand the basics of such devices, I am creating this thread. I want to go over the most common misconceptions, the different connectors, interfaces, formfactors and protocols that are commonly used by Solid State Drives and Modules so that you get a good idea what to look out for when shopping for a new drive or to simply understand the concept behind, let's say M.2 2280, if someone mentions it. Solid State Drive (SSD), Solid State Module (SSM), (SSC) You might have noticed that I said Solid State Module a lot, which is where we start. It is common to divide any solid state storage medium into two categories: Solid State Drives Solid State Modules Solid State Modules are not encased in a housing and can therfor be mounted without the housing. Solid State Drives need a housing to be mounted correctly. Sometimes you will also come across SSCs (Solid State Cards), which is a term that is rarely used for solid state PCI storage devices. Just like a graphics card, it plugs into a PCI or PCI-e slot. This simple differentation already tells us whether the storage medium can be for example hot-swapped or mounted externally or only internally of a system. Overall I find it not important to differentiate between SSDs, SSMs and SSCs, because the formfactor alone already tells us everything we need to know. I will mention SSDs and SSMs for continuity throughout the thread. A good example for this would be a typical 2.5" SSD and a M.2 2280 SSM, as shown in the picture below: Formfactor SSDs and SSMs are now further devided into their formfactors. The differentation between SSDs and SSMs does not tell us where the mounting points are located and the actual size of the device. That is where the formfactor comes into place. Here are the most commonly used formfactors today: SSM M.2 2230 2242 2260 2280 22110 MO-300 full-size half-size SSD 2.5" 3.5" PCI add-in card (SSC) As you can see there are quite a few different formfactors and these aren't even all of them, but also only a few of the ones I mentioned are usually used in PCs and servers nowadays. These are mostly 2.5", M.2 2280, PCI-e and MO-300 devices. A brief explenation of a few formfactors: Connector SSDs and SSMs connect in many different ways to a device and we will find in this section, that some formfactors reappear in the name of connectors. This is very common and is why this can be so confusing. On top of that I will go into interfaces later, which are not the same as connectors, but also use the same or similar names. Connectors describe the very physical layout of two interlocking pieces - the dimenstions, the amount of pins and which signal they carry. They are often also called "hardware interfaces", which I find to be a bit misleading and confusing. Here are a few examples of the most common connectors: SSM M.2 B-Key M-Key A-Key E-Key ... mSATA SSD SATA U.2 (SFF 8639) PCI-e x1 x4 x8 x16 I don't want to explain what each connector looks like and what they're used for. I think everyone can find that out very quickly by simply googling the name of the connectors. But I want you to provide with a few handy pictures about the different key-layouts of the M.2 formfactor, which you will find below. To differenciate what the specific M.2 module is used for, the manufacturers seperate the pins by a so called "key", which is nothing more than a gap between the pins at a certain position. It's very similar to the gap you will find in RAM DIMMs (memory sticks) that indicates whether you're dealing with a DDR3 or DDR4 module for example. Interface There aren't a lot of interfaces used anymore for storage. This is due to the fact, that we don't need a lot to simply read and write data from and to devices. The most common interfaces are: PCI-e SATA USB Before I go deeper into interfaces, I want to mention that this is the third time that I list PCI or PCI-e in this thread. This is also where I want to remind you, that I will go into a specific examples later on, to make very clear how exactly formfactors, connectors and interfaces play together. Now onto interfaces... The interface is in the simplest words a guideline to define which signals are needed to get a device to work correctly. So in theory a PCI-e x4 SSD can not physically connect to a M.2 2280 slot, but they both use the PCI-e interface! This means that the necessary pins and signals are available to the M.2 2280 SSM for it to communicate the same way as a PCI-e x4 SSD would. The system does NOT know the difference between the two drives, even tho the connector and formfactor are entirely different. This is also why USB to SATA adapters for external SSDs are so cheap and work so easily. USB already carries all the necessary information to interact with a SATA device over the AHC-interface, by supporting both interfaces (USB and AHCI) It is important to note, that the communication itself is not handled by the interface, but instead by the protocoll, which is the last puzzle-piece to complete the confusion. Protocol The protocol is the necessary software layer inbetween devices to communicate between each other. It interprets the signal that it is given to by the interface and translates it for other devices to understand. The most common protocols for SSDs are: NVM-e AHCI For most users it is simply important to know, that the protocol is specified by its interfaces. The interface decides which protocols are carried. This means that a SSM in the M.2 2280 formfactor, with a M.2 connector can either use a SATA or NVM-e protocol, depending on wheter it interfaces over PCI-e or AHCI. The M.2 connector type changes accordingly to either a B- or M-key! Examples Here are a few examples of a real-world SSDs and SSMs: Samsung 970 Evo (SSM): formfactor M.2 2280 connector M.2 M-Key interface PCI-e 3.0 (sometimes the version number of the interface is added) protocol NVM-e Crucial MX500 (SSD) formfactor 2.5" connector SATA interface SATA protocol AHCI Crucial MX500 (SSM) formfactor M.2 2280 connector M.2 B-M-Key (It has two gaps, to fit into M and B-keyed slots) interface SATA protocol AHCI Intel 750 (SSD) formfactor 2.5" (15mm in hight, notice that the hight doesn't change the formfactor) connector U.2 (SFF-8639) interface PCI-e 3.0 protocol NVM-e The End (for now) I really hope that this thread takes a lot of the confusion out of SSDs and SSMs and can be referenced for future questions about the topic. I'm open to criticism and willing to learn! I don't want to spread misinformation and I took all the information right out of my memory. It is a collection of information of what I've learned over the years. While I did a lot of fact-checking, I'm sure that there are still little mistakes here and there. Please let me know if you find any, so I can correct them! This does also include linguistic mistakes, since english isn't my first language. I plan on adding additional information in the future about the different kinds of NAND, controllers and how to properly measure the performance of solid state storage. But I'm not sure whether I will be keeping up with this promise.

Hello guys. I want some help with choosing the bestest ram. I want the best performance. So which should i choose among the following.: 1.3200mhz with c16 2.3000mhz with c14 3.3000mhz with c15 4.2400mhz with c16 5.2666mhz with c16 6.4000mhz with c19 Also tell me a 2nd n 3rd opinion. No worry abt money. ALSO plz tell me what is U. 2 n what is its speed.

If anyone could explain to me what M.2 and U.2 is that would be great. The videos I have watched gave me little information on it.

I'm kind of lost in between... which interface is superior? M.2 vs U.2 vs SATAexpress Which one is "the future"? All three of these interfaces are NVMexpress ready but, which one is the best? Detailed pros and cons would be very nice. Thanks in advance.

Welcome fellow wanderer! Im looking for a gaming motherboard between 2500Skr($286,83) and 4000Skr($458,93). When I was looking through the different alternatives I noticed something called U.2, I knew there were M.2s but I never thought about a U.2. So what is this mysterious harddrive? Is it faster than M.2? Stronger? M.2 is: - Hotter + Newer + + U.2 is: + Cooler - Old + + Common: + Different inputs

Hi, Looking to experiment in NVMe storage specifically for a boot drive and important applications but unsure which form factor to pursue (M.2, U.2 and Add in Card (AiC)). How do their performances differ and what are their trade-offs? Why would I choose one over the other assuming my motherboard supported all of them.

Hi, I've been looking at building a new PC for gaming and 3D Design/Rendering purposes. My build currently involves a GTX 1080 and a M.2 or U.2 NVMe boot drive (or two in RAID 0). The i7-7700k seems like the best processor choice right now for gaming however it only supports 16 PCIe lanes. In order to future proof my rig, I want to be able to eventually move to a GTX 1080 SLI setup when prices drop over the next year or two. However, two GTX 1080s in SLI REQUIRE at least 16 PCIe lanes (2x8) to work which means that I cannot also have M.2/U.2 NVMe (x4, or in RAID 0 2x4). This means that if I want to consider any possible setup involving SLI and NVMe memory, I would have to move to one of the older i7-5820k or i7 6800k processors on the LGA 2011v3 socket. Is this the best recommended path forwards or will Intel be releasing new higher end chips over the next 6-8 months that have higher PCIe capacities to accommodate the growth of NVMe memory in the high end market? Thanks for all the help! (first post, go easy on me)

I pop my LTT forum cherry with this one! I currently run a 6700k on an ASUS Z170 Extreme with two Titan X's, two Samsung 850 Evo SSD's, and two Seagate HDD's. I boot to one of the SSD's and use the other for project work (with the HDD's being recent archives not on the NAS). If I were to run a U.2 (or M.2) drive connected to my mobo, would that utilize the 4 lanes on the chipset and leave the other 16 CPU lanes to my GPU's (running in 8x and 8x)? I have the 10Gbps ASUS adapter card occupying one of the PCI 4x slots, but I do not use it at the moment as I work from home. If I were to move to the office that has a 10Gbps network, would I still be able to run both GPU's, a U.2 (or M.2), and the card? Merry holidays and happy other days that are not holidays too!

Having issues getting my Sonnet Allegro pro recognized when plugged into PCIE x4 to U.2 adapter. I have the adapter listed below with the cable below that. I have an asrock taichi x399 which mentions that the M.2_2 slot will be disabled if you use the U.2 connector. I don't have anything in any of my M.2 slots- but am still not seeing the card in unraid or windows if I have it connected that way. I do have the additional power connected to the adapter and do see things power up if I plug in a usb peripheral but the device is not recognized. I am also not seeing any options in the bios to enable or manage the U.2 settings. Does anyone but the LMG have some of these adapters and the allegro pro that they can test to see if it is just my issue- or if they are having issues too. Really not wanting to do a PLX bridge just for a controller passthrough for my VMs. Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Mini-SFF-8643-PCI-Lanes-Adapter/dp/B01DV7LF02 Cable: https://www.microsatacables.com/mini-sas-hd-sff-8643-to-sff-8643-cable-50-cm 1x Unraid- 2 CPU cores 4HT 2Gb RAM 1x Linux game server multi-host w/steamcache- 2 cores 4HT 8-12Gb RAM 4x windows 10 gamers- 2 cores 4HT each 12Gb RAM each The hardware: Corsair 740 Air case Asrock Taichi X399 Threadripper 1920X Corsair 64Gb 8x8Gb 2933Mhz Evga CLC 280 Evga 1Kw gold PSU 4x Evga GTX 960 SSC 4Gb (had them already- probably upgrade to 2XXX series eventually) 2x Plextor 512Gb SSD 2x WD purple 3Tb

Was there any U.2 products at CES? In a perfect world, I'd like to have several m.2 drives in removable chassis that I can travel with and use from computer to computer. Maybe there's other uses for U.2? Anything....?

Hello guys I was thinking of building my new NAS setup. I find a nice case in 2u format with 12 trays in front for my rack, I already have a recent motherboard with a Xeon on it and a M.2 port As the HDD backlane of my case offer only a Mini sas HD connexion, I was thinking about pluging an M.2 to U.2 adapter (which is specified as Mini SAS HD standard port by the manufacturer) I want to put FreeNas on the system, so buying an expensive Raid controller with SAS embeded port is not in my mind since it's expensive, and not recommended for Freenas OS. Do you think this connexion will work / will be suitable? If not, have you a smart solution to my connexion issue I don't have any information about compatibility, just the Mini SAS mention on this adapter! (https://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/card.fr.asp?Model=U.2 Kit) Thanks in advance Greetings from France

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10556/micron-announces-quantx-branding-for-3d-xpoint-memory Wow... The performance here is just amazing... Saturating pcie x8 in random read and write? Never thought I would see that day. Thoughts?

I heard that the U.2 port is actually a mini-SAS port (SFF-8639). Does it mean that U.2 port can be used to connect SAS hard drive except NVMe SSD?

So looking at the asus impact viii and it has a u.2 nmve connection on board but not an m.2... wtf is the point of a u.2 slot when ssds can get close to the speeds of an m.2? Is there a u.2 to m.2 adapter? Please someone just explain the whole point on the u.2 connection.