Asus DIMM.2 Riser Card bandwidth

[m3tropolo]

Greetings,

 

The Asus DIMM.2 Riser Card is a convenient accessory included with many high-end Asus motherboards like the Rampage VI Extreme and the ROG Zenith Extreme. It allows up to two NVMe M.2 drives that could eventually be set up in a RAID array.

What is bothering me, however, is the fact that the DIMM.2 slot only shares four PCIe-lanes with the CPU. If I understand correctly, to fully benefit of the performance increase of a two-way RAID 0 array, one would need eight PCIe-lanes. The following is a snippet from the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme manual:

 

In the following YouTube tutorial HardwareCanucks makes use of the DIMM.2 Riser Card two create a bootable array of two Samsung 960 PROs on the X399 Threadripper platform (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csiqG_rkSWI). With merely four PCIe-lanes, I don't expect to get nearly double the sequential read and write speeds of a 960 PRO as is shown in the video:

 

Could anyone insight me on this? I'm sure I'm misunderstanding something.

 

Kind regards.

[Electronics Wizardy]

you have 2 m.2 slots each with pcie3 x4. So there are a total of 8 lanes going to the ssds.

[m3tropolo]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you have 2 m.2 slots each with pcie3 x4. So there are a total of 8 lanes going to the ssds.

Okay, thank you for the reply. I have another question, though.

 

The ROG Zenith Extreme has an additional M.2 slot under a heatsink on the PCB. Would it be possible to create a RAID 0 array with three NVMe M.2 drives? Would there be any bandwidth limitations?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, m3tropolo said:

Okay, thank you for the reply. I have another question, though.

 

The ROG Zenith Extreme has an additional M.2 slot under a heatsink on the PCB. Would it be possible to create a RAID 0 array with three NVMe M.2 drives? Would there be any bandwidth limitations?

Yea you can, bandwidth on threadripper will be fine.

 

But why? What are you doing?

 

For most uses a single optane drive will be much faster than any nand ssd array.

[m3tropolo]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea you can, bandwidth on threadripper will be fine.

 

But why? What are you doing?

 

For most uses a single optane drive will be much faster than any nand ssd array.

Don't mind; it's an overkill build.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, m3tropolo said:

Don't mind; it's an overkill build.

then get optane, its much faster at mosts uses due to the faster random speeds, esp at low queue depths.

[m3tropolo]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

then get optane, its much faster at mosts uses due to the faster random speeds, esp at low queue depths.

Even with a 3-way RAID 0 of 970 PROs? Don't think so.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, m3tropolo said:

Even with a 3-way RAID 0 of 970 PROs? Don't think so.

yea a single optane will smoke that. Those sequentical speeds don't matter in real life. the optane is 10x faster than any nand ssd at random reads at lower queue depths, You really can't beat it for speeds. Just get a optane 905p if you want the best storage solution.

 

 

[m3tropolo]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

yea a single optane will smoke that. Those sequentical speeds don't matter in real life. the optane is 10x faster than any nand ssd at random reads at lower queue depths, You really can't beat it for speeds. Just get a optane 905p if you want the best storage solution.

 

 

I'll examine some benchmarks. Thanks, maybe saved me some bucks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, m3tropolo said:

I'll examine some benchmarks. Thanks, maybe saved me some bucks.

Look at this

optane almost always wins, but really for faster game load times id just get something like a sx8200 or hp ex920

 

http://www.legitreviews.com/game-load-time-benchmarking-shootout-six-ssds-one-hdd_204468

 

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-optane-ssd-905p,review-34339-2.html

 

 

[m3tropolo]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Look at this

optane almost always wins, but really for faster game load times id just get something like a sx8200 or hp ex920

 

http://www.legitreviews.com/game-load-time-benchmarking-shootout-six-ssds-one-hdd_204468

 

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/intel-optane-ssd-905p,review-34339-2.html

 

 

Thanks for the links.

 

I know already of the 905p. I think Intel will even release an M.2 form factor of the 905p (I think it was shown at Computex 2018 or 2017, can't quite remember). Maybe wait for this and put it in RAID 0?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, m3tropolo said:

Thanks for the links.

 

I know already of the 905p. I think Intel will even release an M.2 form factor of the 905p (I think it was shown at Computex 2018 or 2017, can't quite remember). Maybe wait for this and put it in RAID 0?

why raid 0? Really won't help you here loading speed wise with optane. Id just use a single drive. 

 

If you want a lot of them, just get the 2.5 model and fill the drive bays in the case with them.

[m3tropolo]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

why raid 0? Really won't help you here loading speed wise with optane. Id just use a single drive. 

 

If you want a lot of them, just get the 2.5 model and fill the drive bays in the case with them.

I don't plan doing only gaming, also some video editing. Since sequentials increase with a RAID setup this would be more favorable for video editing.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, m3tropolo said:

I don't plan doing only gaming, also some video editing. Since sequentials increase with a RAID setup this would be more favorable for video editing.

What type of video files? It probably will make almost no difference.

 

Id personally start with a single 1tb nvme and see how that goes, the improvement from any faster is very small. Id look at a hp ex920.

[m3tropolo]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What type of video files? It probably will make almost no difference.

 

Id personally start with a single 1tb nvme and see how that goes, the improvement from any faster is very small. Id look at a hp ex920.

Thanks for the advise. But if money is no object: HP EX920 or Intel 905P?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, m3tropolo said:

Thanks for the advise. But if money is no object: HP EX920 or Intel 905P?

905p is a faster drive, its just a waste of money for what your doing.

 

[m3tropolo]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

905p is a faster drive, its just a waste of money for what your doing.

 

I made my choice thank you.