4x NVMe M.2 to PCIe x16?

[Me1z]

So, from my understanding, the way NVMe works is by turning up to 4 PCIe lanes into a high speed connection for SSDs. With PCIe slots being the most abundant source of lanes, theres tons of NVMe M.2 to PCIe x4 adapters, some even allowing up to two SSDs, but none that fully utilize x16 lanes or support more than 2 SSDs. The lanes are already there and you could easily fit four M.2 drives on a standard size PCIe card, so why isn't this being done? It's becomeing more and more clear that NVMe is the future of storage, SATA is practically dead and SAS is on borrowed time. Wouldn't it make sense to try and push NVMe into the server/datacenter space? I'm sure there's an obvious reason that I'm just not seeing, but it seems strange to me.

[Windows7ge]

The problem is that for the ability to run multiple PCI_e devices off of one slot the motherboard needs to support what is called PCI_e bifurcation, a feature not available on most if not all desktop motherboards. This is something you'll only really find in the enterprise space.

[jonrosalia]

dell makes one they have a shroud and a fan they look like a GPU from back in the day along with a few other companies i have seen 

 

https://www.ebay.com/i/192781155470?chn=ps 

 

1, the operating system must support UEFI mode to support booting

 

2, this card requires the motherboard to support the pcie switch to use dual M.2 SSD

The motherboard supports the PCIe slot bifurcation option.

 

3. This card supports NVME SSD or single SSD operation.

 

4, this card supports 2242 2260 2280 and full height four different types of SSD, strong versatility.

 

5, the original card default is a half-height baffle, if you want to connect to the full-height machine, please contact customer service, 

we will accompany the card with a full-height baffle, let you apply different models.

 

6, 13G server R730/XD requires more than 2.25 BIOS version can support PCIE allocation, because the server system is more, 

can not guarantee the system can boot, it is recommended to expand the solid state to do from the disk, please consider clearly.

[Jurrunio]

Asrock has Ultra Quad M.2 Card, MSI has M.2 Xpander aero.

[GoldenLag]

46 minutes ago, Me1z said:

SATA is practically dead

Um..... Its very much alive......

 

47 minutes ago, Me1z said:

The lanes are already there and you could easily fit four M.2 drives on a standard size PCIe card, so why isn't this being done? 

Well most PCs only have 16 lanes to play with to the slots.

 

Intel having 16 total and AMD 20 but 4 relegated to m.2

 

This means you dint have enough lanes to have a 16 lane storage card + GPU. 

 

Last time i checked there are HEDT cards that do this. Though only really useful on threadripper and x299. If you are going to do it with less oanes yiu need a multiplex chips to split the lanes.

[Me1z]

You guys are awesome. So it does exist, its just not nearly as common, which makes sense.