What the hell is this

[Dulan Neelaka]

Who users these and for what 

[Nicnac]

that sata thing is hella weird but don't they have a similar b-key pcb for optane memory that can be used as ram?

[lmeneses]

Those things are kinda dandy, and they are usually used on mobos that don't have a m.2 slot

[martward]

Whaddaya mean? Easy hax to get 2 TB of RAM, it's the trick Corsair really doesn't want you to know.

(I have absolutely no idea)

[mariushm]

My guess is an adapter which allows you to install a SATA ONLY M.2 drive into a DDR slot, using the slot just for mechanical retention.

The drive itself gets powered from the SATA power cable (through that 3.3v linear regulator on the right side of the board).

 

I suppose it could make sense for some builds, like for example an ITX motherboard with no m.2 connectors, where you don't want to install a regular 2.5" sata drive or you don't have the locations on the case for it. So in such scenario, mounting the m2. SSD in an unused DDR slot would make sense.

 

edit: but since it's keyed for DDR2, most likely it's for older systems, which don't have M.2 connectors.

[Fasauceome]

reminds me of Asus' Dimm.2

a space saving measure for m.2 storage, although this is ddr2 so that's interesting

[Nicnac]

1 minute ago, lmeneses said:

Those things are kinda dandy, and they are usually used on mobos that don't have a m.2 slot

sacrificing a memory channel for m.2? doesn't sound like it's exactly gonna speed things up...?

[lmeneses]

1 minute ago, Nicnac said:

sacrificing a memory channel for m.2? doesn't sound like it's exactly gonna speed things up...?

I mean, I never said they were smart lol

[Bubbles_TPB]

3 minutes ago, martward said:

Whaddaya mean? Easy hax to get 2 TB of RAM, it's the trick Corsair really doesn't want you to know.

(I have absolutely no idea)

It would be slow as molasses-covered balls

[mariushm]

2 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

sacrificing a memory channel for m.2? doesn't sound like it's exactly gonna speed things up...?

If you have an old motherboard with 4 DDR2 memory slots and only 2 memory sticks installed and you want to use a SATA m.2 drive but you don't have m.2 connector on the board, this would make sense.

[Bubbles_TPB]

Besides, how can a dimm slot power a 12v hard drive?

[Dulan Neelaka]

8 minutes ago, Dulan Neelaka said:

Who users these and for what 

I just saw it at ali 

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/btIUxxg4

[Nicnac]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

If you have an old motherboard with 4 DDR2 memory slots and only 2 memory sticks installed and you want to use a SATA m.2 drive but you don't have m.2 connector on the board, this would make sense.

mhm. yea, but then again... wtf ?! lol

[Nicnac]

1 minute ago, Dulan Neelaka said:

I just saw it at ali 

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/btIUxxg4

damn that gold copper

[Dulan Neelaka]

I was find these kind of crazy shiy

[mariushm]

1 minute ago, LukeTheCoder05 said:

Besides, how can a dimm slot power a 12v hard drive?

M.2 drives are powered using only 3.3v. If you look in the picture on the board there's a chip - that chip takes 5v from the SATA power connector and creates 3.3v for the m.2 connector.

 

SSDs in general only use the 5v part of the SATA connector, since they don't have motors to spin which require 12v.

 

This adapter board doesn't use the contacts in the DDR2 slot for anything, the adapter look like a DDR2 memory stick in order to be mounted on a motherboard only, it uses the DDR2 slot retention mechanism or keep itself for flying around the case. That's all.

[Dulan Neelaka]

Sorry I alway ......

[Bubbles_TPB]

Just now, mariushm said:

M.2 drives are powered using only 3.3v. If you look in the picture on the board there's a chip - that chip takes 5v from the SATA power connector and creates 3.3v for the m.2 connector.

 

SSDs in general only use the 5v part of the SATA connector, since they don't have motors to spin which require 12v.

 

This adapter board doesn't use the contacts in the DDR2 slot for anything, the adapter look like a DDR2 memory stick in order to be mounted on a motherboard only, it uses the DDR2 slot retention mechanism or keep itself for flying around the case. That's all.

3.5" harddrives take 12v of power through Sata.

[mariushm]

1 minute ago, LukeTheCoder05 said:

3.5" harddrives take 12v of power through Sata.

Yes, some do, because they need that to spin the hard drive motor. There are some 2.5" hard drives (especially laptop models but even some desktop models) that only use 5v for everything.

But SSDs don't have motors, and this adapter board is for an M.2 SSD only, so it makes no sense to talk about 12v .

[Dulan Neelaka]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

Yes, some do, because they need that to spin the hard drive motor. There are some 2.5" hard drives (especially laptop models but even some desktop models) that only use 5v for everything.

But SSDs don't have motors, and this adapter board is for an M.2 SSD only, so it makes no sense to talk about 12v .

 He is tell the truth

[Bubbles_TPB]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

Yes, some do, because they need that to spin the hard drive motor. There are some 2.5" hard drives (especially laptop models but even some desktop models) that only use 5v for everything.

But SSDs don't have motors, and this adapter board is for an M.2 SSD only, so it makes no sense to talk about 12v .

What does the top right sata connecter do then?

[mariushm]

1 hour ago, LukeTheCoder05 said:

What does the top right sata connecter do then?

The SATA power connector has wires for 3.3v , 5v and 12v.  The 3.3v part is kind of optional, in the sense that SATA devices don't rely on its presence, they stick to using 5v and/or 12v.

The reason for that is because right after the creation of the SATA connector, a lot of people were using molex to sata power adapter cables that simply rearrange the 5v and 12v pairs of wires from the molex connector into the SATA power connector, ignoring the 3.3v pair of wires.

Also, back then for quite some time mechanical hard drives had both the molex AND the sata power connector, so for backwards compatibility they kept the drives using only 5v and 12v (the voltages in the molex connector)

 

So this adapter board doesn't rely on the 3.3v in the sata power connector, which may or may not be present, instead it takes 5v from the sata connector and uses that chip to create 3.3v.  The adapter board could have used 12v from the sata power connector, but that would require a potentially more expensive voltage conversion chip, with more components around it.

So the sata power connector on top right brings 3.3v , 5v and 12v to the board but most likely the adapter board ignores everything except 5v, it doesn't need 3.3v or 12v.