One thing that seems rather puzzling is that NVMe is offered in three
different connection configurations. PCI-E, USB (with a USB connector),
and SSD via SATA (with an SATA connector. Since multichannel PCI-E is
very much faster that either USB or SATA I don't really understand why
the USB and SATA options are offered. It seems a bit like having a car
that's designed and built for racing and only driving it on city streets.
Are you sure you're not conflating M.2 and NVMe? From what I can tell NVMe is only for storage whereas M.2 is primarily used for storage but there are other types of M.2 cards.
M.2 SSD's can come in SATA and NVMe variants.
As far as USB 3.0, it's pretty fast and someone may want compact a M.2 NVMe SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure for convenience.
From the various conversations with the test folks over time, it seems
many in the group test on laptops. Many of the newer lap tops have a
connector on the motherboard that connects an NVMe to PCI-E. This and
the above leads me to believe that the testing we want to do is with
NVMe on PCI-E. That's what I'm planning at this time.
Yes I think that would cover the vast majority of situations, but that includes many desktops today too, not just laptops. I'm running a Samsung 970 EVO on my Ryzen 5 2600 system.
I have only desktops none of the ones I support have such a slot on the
mother board. No worries; There are PCI-E adapter boards that NVMe
modules can be plugged into then the board plugs into a standard PCI-E
four channel slot. This is the route I'm planning to go.
That should work for secondary storage (and testing) but frequently the system can't boot from a NVMe add-in card because the BIOS doesn't support it.
The complication is that there are different kinds of NVMe modules and
the PCI-E boards have different configurations as well. At this point I
think I will get a board for "M.2" modules and a module to go with it.
There are still some points I want to investigate before I go ahead. I
want read some of the module data sheets in detail to see if there are
any GotYas that need to be considered. Also I want to see what the "raw"
formatting of the module looks like and if it changes from brand to
brand or with module capacity. My observation has been that
manufacturers always want a "competitive advantage" and sometimes those
"advantages" can turn into "let the buyer beware".
In regard to actual procurement. Many of the modules require heat
sinking most of the adapter boards provide at least some minimal
provision for adding a heat sink. Others come complete with all required
hardware for heat sinking. This gets a bit tricky. The modules provide
the specifications necessary to calculate temperature rise from modules
heat dissipating surface. I still need to find an adapter card with the
corresponding specifications. so a complete thermal analysis can be done.
A final point of interest is that there are some NVMe modules that are
being called SATA instead of just being called NVMe.
My google-fu may be failing me here, however there appear to be adapters, but again I think you're conflating NVMe and M.2.
Thanks,
Richard
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