Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?
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Have some parts laying around and want to construct a new lab for playing with. I really want to go with 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSDs but I'm confused on how to actually connect them to the MB. Are there no PCIe HBAs (perhaps the wrong term) that allows you to add NVMe U.2 drives to the system?
I saw this which I guess could work. But I really want to go with two drives and run a MDADM mirror so I'd have to get two of those "interfaces" and stuff two drives in the back of the chassis over the PCIe lanes if I went this route.
Icy Dock makes these cool little kits that I can add into the existing 3.5" external bays in the case. But, again, what do I connect the backplanes to?
Surely it can't be this complicated to add U.2 2.5" NVMe SSDs to a custom build?
Edit: Found this which I wouldn't give a $1 much less the ridiculous price that they are asking.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
Surely it can't be this complicated to add U.2 2.5" NVMe SSDs to a custom build?
It totally would be. Those are enterprise drives really only meant for use with enterprise OEM builds.
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In general, U.2 devices require a full how swap drive chassis and matching back plane. That's not really "built it yourself" style gear. What hardware are you using that you want to add U.2 into?
If you think about why and when this hardware exists (U.2 drives), as it is purely for high end, enterprise, hot swap use cases, you'd never expect to find hardware to support it in a white box kind of scenario. Nothing wrong with the idea, just not something that the market is going to support.
If you want to "build for yourself" a server with these kinds of parts, you'd always start with an enterprise chassis that has at least the majority of the pieces to this built in.
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@scottalanmiller Well there is tons of Enterprise stuff that makes its way to the consumer market. ICY DOCK selling U.2 style racks/bays means they expect you to connect it to "something" and I don't think anyone thinks of ICY DOCK as Enterprise.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
Well there is tons of Enterprise stuff that makes its way to the consumer market.
Like what? This isn't "enterprise first", it's "enterprise only". There's no consumer use case for this gear.
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@scottalanmiller Who branded it as "Enterprise Only"? There must be some demand for the prosumer version since they are building those "adapters" that I listed in the OP.
My other option if I want to go NVMe is M.2 I guess if its really this complicated but I still want two drives.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
Who branded it as "Enterprise Only"?
The market. It's a product with no consumer purpose. There is a lot of gear that no consumer will use, so no company will spend engineering dollars designing and building, because there is no potential customer base.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
My other option if I want to go NVMe is M.2 I guess if its really this complicated.
That's the consumer market equivalent. For good reason. Just think through what use case anyone would have for buying U.2 outside of the enterprise.
And use cases like "I want to use old leftover parts" really doesn't cut it. Nothing wrong with it, it's just that it's an insanely niche market that doesn't justify making parts. In most cases, it's just as cheap for the customer to buy new M.2 drives as to buy adapters for U.2 drives. So why would they buy less useful U.2 adapters, instead of new M.2 drives?
It's all about market forces. U.2 are expensive, rare parts because they add a function, hot swap, that only enterprises need and is very costly and complex to offer.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
Icy Dock makes these cool little kits that I can add into the existing 3.5" external bays in the case. But, again, what do I connect the backplanes to?
that's just a drive holder, it doesn't "do" anything. So super cheap to make and doesn't solve any issues. So not really relevant to the discussion. Presumably mounting the drive wasn't an issue already.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
There must be some demand for the prosumer version since they are building those "adapters" that I listed in the OP.
Those aren't U.2 adapters, they are just 2.5 to 3.5 size adapters. Quite a different thing. It still leaves you with the U.2 problem. So that doesn't indicate what you are thinking that it indicates.
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@scottalanmiller Its a drive holder but what are they expecting you to connect it to? They wouldn't make them if they didn't see some type of demand.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
@scottalanmiller Its a drive holder but what are they expecting you to connect it to?
They expect you to already have U.2 stuff, otherwise, why do you have U.2 drives
It's just for people with U.2 chassis that are 3.5" setup and they got 2.5" drives. It's just a piece of metal that allows small drives to fit in large drive spaces. All the "what it connects to" is completely outside of their realm of concern as they aren't that kind of company. -
So here is an HBA for NVMe drives.
They do exist. But they are an enterprise part.
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Here is a cheap one not from ebay...
https://highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-ssd7120-overview.htm
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@scottalanmiller Ok....
Yeah I've seen that Supermicro HBA reviewed over at servethehome but it was such an old review I figured there would be more stuff out since then.
That Highpoint card is over $400 on Amazon!
Alright, I guess M.2 it is. Just need to figure out a two drive setup.
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The problem that you'll run into is that you don't have a physical backplane, because the entire chassis has to be built to handle U.2. So just having an HBA doesn't fix the fundamental issue of lacking the enterprise server chassis to make it all come together.
What you can do is just cable the drives directly to the HBA. This will work but doesn't allow for your hot swap.
This is where the Icy dock is useful. It provides a stable "one drive" backplane of a sort tha tyou can connect to with this cable.
https://highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-ssd7120-overview.htm
https://www.amazon.com/High-Point-SSD7120-Dedicated-Controller/dp/B0774WLSH4
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
That Highpoint card is over $400 on Amazon!
Yeah, there really isn't a market for cheap U.2 gear. Think of it like a Ferrari specific part. There's no call for a cheap version. Anyone who owns a Ferrari is going to pony up for genuine high performance parts. The number of Ferrari owners who need parts on the cheap is so few that there is no market to support them.
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@scottalanmiller Yeah but, Highpoint? Man, I'd have a hard time paying them anything!
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@scottalanmiller ICY DOCK sent me this .pdf that shows compatible HBA/RAID cards with that bay/tray and none of them are inexpensive.
Alright, back to M.2. Not worth spending this kind of money and not getting Enterprise level quality from end-to-end.
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@biggen said in Add 2.5" U.2 (NVMe) SSDs to custom build?:
I figured there would be more stuff out since then.
I've never seen a company adopting U.2. It's a very rare standard. Certainly out there, but even in the SSD space it remains pretty niche. I'm not sure if it is gaining adoption, or losing it, at this point. It's certainly a valid platform, and has important use cases, but it remains pretty uncommon. In the very large enterprise we see it, in the SMB it's pretty much non-existant.
