Sonnet Announces PCI Express 3.0 Adapter Card Featuring Two NVMe SSD Slots

[Uskompuf]

Sonnet Technologies today announced the Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card, the latest offering in the company's popular family of high-performance storage adapter cards that enable the installation of multiple SSDs into a computer's or Thunderbolt expansion system's PCIe card slot. The low-profile, half-length PCIe 3.0 card features two M-keyed NVMe M.2 SSD slots that support the installation of M.2 form factor NVMe PCIe SSDs.

The Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card enables users to mount two M.2 NVMe 2280 PCIe SSDs (sold separately) into almost any expansion card space with an available x8 or x16 PCIe card slot; using today's highest-capacity SSDs, up to 16 TB of storage capacity may be installed. RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD configurations are supported, providing users with flexibility in configuring the SSDs for best performance or data safety, or both.





For users who need to add internal storage to their computer and require ultra-high-speed data transfer speeds for a smooth workflow — such as video editors working with 6K and greater resolution footage — an NVMe M.2 SSD-based upgrade is ideal. Many computers do not include slots to support installing M.2 SSDs directly but do include PCIe expansion card slots. With Sonnet's M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card installed, a user can mount two SSDs in a single PCIe slot — with no cables, adapters, or mounting trays required — for instant-access media storage or as a high-performance scratch disk. For users whose computers lack PCIe card slots — such as notebooks, mini, and all-in-one desktops — but include Thunderbolt ports, installing the Sonnet card into one of Sonnet's multi-slot Echo Thunderbolt to PCIe card expansion systems connects the M.2 2x4 card's dual SSD slots through a single cable.

Compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems, The Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card requires only a low-profile card space and includes both full-height and low-profile PCIe brackets — so it is ideal for use in most any desktop tower, mini workstation or server computer, or Thunderbolt to PCIe card expansion system with an available x8 or x16 PCIe slot. Because the Sonnet card employs a high-performance 16-lane PCIe 3.0 bridge chip, it doesn't require specific SSDs or a particular motherboard to operate, nor PCIe bifurcation to support RAID features.

Installed in a computer's PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 card slot, the Sonnet card supports outstanding storage performance — a single SSD installed on the card can deliver data transfers up to 3,400 MB/s — with two SSDs installed and configured as a RAID 0 set, sustained transfers up to 6,600 MB/s are supported. To support their sustained high performance, the card's integrated heatsink silently cools SSDs to eliminate the need for them to "thermal throttle" — an SSD protection feature that prevents overheating by choking performance until they cool down.

Availability & Pricing

The Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card (part number FUS-SSD-2x4-E3S) will be available the last week of June from Sonnet and soon after from channel partners worldwide at the suggested retail price of 199.99 USD.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Berfs1]

wtf, 200$??? Hell no.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

wtf, 200$??? Hell no.

This late to the game too.

 

[TheLostSwede]

wtf, 200$??? Hell no.

PCIe bridge chips are costly.

 

[Berfs1]

PCIe bridge chips are costly.

I understand that, but 200$ for a PCIe 3.0 x8 card that supports 2x gen 3 NVMes in RAID? If you SPECIFICALLY need RAID, an Asus Hyper m.2 gen 4 RAID card goes for 77$ on Amazon. If you don't need RAID but need bifurcation (for both drives to be detected individually), Supermicro sells the AOC-SLG3-2M2 for about 54$ on Amazon. This product is just not going to do well with today's hardware options. Sure it might make sense in very limited server environments, but then again, there are better priced options out there. Even for half height, there are better products that don't cost 200$ for an adapter. Hell, you could probably buy a half height x8 SSD (like the DC P3608) for the cost of that adapter plus your choice of SSDs. This kind of price just doesn't make sense in 2022.

 

[bonehead123]

pcie gen3...ummmm.....whahdatizzz, hehehehe ???

Sonnet used to have a solid track record for makin good parts at reasonable prices, but sadly, this just aint one of them... ....

 

[W1zzard]

but 200$

While I agree that it's way too expensive, neither of the options you listed come with a PCIe bridge chip

https://www.amazon.com/CREST-SI-PEX40129-Ports-Bifurcation-Controller/dp/B07HYZY7P2

$180

 

[stimpy88]

Is this a joke that was released 3 years ago, because that's the only way this looks good.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I understand that, but 200$ for a PCIe 3.0 x8 card that supports 2x gen 3 NVMes in RAID? If you SPECIFICALLY need RAID, an Asus Hyper m.2 gen 4 RAID card goes for 77$ on Amazon. If you don't need RAID but need bifurcation (for both drives to be detected individually), Supermicro sells the AOC-SLG3-2M2 for about 54$ on Amazon. This product is just not going to do well with today's hardware options. Sure it might make sense in very limited server environments, but then again, there are better priced options out there. Even for half height, there are better products that don't cost 200$ for an adapter. Hell, you could probably buy a half height x8 SSD (like the DC P3608) for the cost of that adapter plus your choice of SSDs. This kind of price just doesn't make sense in 2022.

Keep in mind that Sonnet is a company that makes Apple accessories, so most people wouldn't buy their products, as they're overpriced in general.

 

[eidairaman1]

These pcie adapters should include a fansink

 

[Berfs1]

While I agree that it's way too expensive, neither of the options you listed come with a PCIe bridge chip

I don't understand why that PCIe bridge chip would matter in this case. If the target audience is server platforms, just get a card that supports bifurcation, and most server boards support PCIe bifurcation, so it will see both SSDs, and you can just create a RAID array in the BIOS.

Many computers do not include slots to support installing M.2 SSDs directly

Okay if that's the case, there is absolutely no way this product was announced today. This has to be a 5 year old product at least.

 

[W1zzard]

If the target audience is server platforms

This seems targeted at consumers

 

[Berfs1]

This seems targeted at consumers

In THAT case, why would the PCIe bridge chip be of importance? A single gen 4 SSD isn't the way to go, because I know transfer speeds under high loads won't be faster than two gen 3 SSDs in RAID 0, but this has to be for the 1% of 1% of video editors that for some reason they are on a mainstream platform (example LGA1151) that doesn't support gen 4, but has an x8 slot if you cut off half the bandwidth for the single graphics card in their system, instead of an HEDT platform where an Asus Hyper m.2 would make more sense due to the x16 lane. Plus, most boards nowadays have multiple NVMe slots. I do video editing myself, I can't really imagine why this would be a necessary product for 200$, rather than choosing a different motherboard altogether that has the amount of NVMe slots you need. As a matter of fact, if they ARE editing 6K footage with this, they probably should be using multiple graphics cards or at the very least an RTX 3090/Ti (>20GB VRAM), at least according to Puget Systems' recommendations for 6K/8K editing. I don't want to get too off track, but at that point they probably have the budget to instead get two QSFP+ cards and just use another computer as a NAS, which is obviously way more expensive, but you could put an insane amount of NVMe storage in another computer, multiple arrays too if someone needed.

 

[Calenhad]

In THAT case, why would the PCIe bridge chip be of importance? A single gen 4 SSD isn't the way to go, because I know transfer speeds under high loads won't be faster than two gen 3 SSDs in RAID 0, but this has to be for the 1% of 1% of video editors that for some reason they are on a mainstream platform (example LGA1151) that doesn't support gen 4, but has an x8 slot if you cut off half the bandwidth for the single graphics card in their system, instead of an HEDT platform where an Asus Hyper m.2 would make more sense due to the x16 lane. Plus, most boards nowadays have multiple NVMe slots. I do video editing myself, I can't really imagine why this would be a necessary product for 200$, rather than choosing a different motherboard altogether that has the amount of NVMe slots you need. As a matter of fact, if they ARE editing 6K footage with this, they probably should be using multiple graphics cards or at the very least an RTX 3090/Ti (>20GB VRAM), at least according to Puget Systems' recommendations for 6K/8K editing. I don't want to get too off track, but at that point they probably have the budget to instead get two QSFP+ cards and just use another computer as a NAS, which is obviously way more expensive, but you could put an insane amount of NVMe storage in another computer, multiple arrays too if someone needed.

Yes, we get that you don't like this product. It still have many use cases for other people.

What makes this hill such an important place for you to defend to your last breath?

 

[InVasMani]

I suppose they could bundle this with Intel's discrete graphics and double down on two years too late technology.

 

[AusWolf]

Why not just buy two of these?

 

[timta2]

Keep in mind that Sonnet is a company that makes Apple accessories, so most people wouldn't buy their products, as they're overpriced in general.

"overpriced" is a subjective opinion, there. Sure, their products have historically been higher priced than others, but the quality has often been worth the price. Sonnet has a long history of making excellent products.

The "makes Apple accessories" idea is also out of date.

 

[Aerpoweron]

You can get a PCIe-bridge chip with 12 lanes.

ASM2812-PCIe Gen3 Packet Switching Chips，12 Lane / 6 Port|ASMedia Technology Inc.

PCIe Gen3 Packet Switching Chips, 12 Lane, 6 Port PCI Express Switch, Packet Switching Chip

www.asmedia.com.tw

On Aliexpress there are cards with 2 NVME slots which use this chip. I payed around 80€ for it. But there are PCIe gen 2 and gen 3 versions. Gen2 uses the ASM1812 chip and the gen3 uses the ASM2812 chip.

There are also chips with more lanes from AsMedia, and they are quite decent.

ASMedia Readies ASM2824 PCIe Switch Anticipating a Rise in M.2 Slots

ASMedia is giving finishing touches to the ASM2824 PCI-Express gen 3.0 x24 switch. With half the fabric as the PLX PEX8747, the chip takes in PCI-Express 3.0 x8, and puts out four PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connections. In theory, this would let a motherboard designer create four M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[TheLostSwede]

You can get a PCIe-bridge chip with 12 lanes.

ASM2812-PCIe Gen3 Packet Switching Chips，12 Lane / 6 Port|ASMedia Technology Inc.

PCIe Gen3 Packet Switching Chips, 12 Lane, 6 Port PCI Express Switch, Packet Switching Chip

www.asmedia.com.tw

On Aliexpress there are cards with 2 NVME slots which use this chip. I payed around 80€ for it. But there are PCIe gen 2 and gen 3 versions. Gen2 uses the ASM1812 chip and the gen3 uses the ASM2812 chip.

There are also chips with more lanes from AsMedia, and they are quite decent.

ASMedia Readies ASM2824 PCIe Switch Anticipating a Rise in M.2 Slots

ASMedia is giving finishing touches to the ASM2824 PCI-Express gen 3.0 x24 switch. With half the fabric as the PLX PEX8747, the chip takes in PCI-Express 3.0 x8, and puts out four PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connections. In theory, this would let a motherboard designer create four M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots...

www.techpowerup.com

This kind of product requires 16 lanes though.

 

[Aerpoweron]

This kind of product requires 16 lanes though.

The first one (ASM2812) has 12 lanes. So you can do 4 (to the mainboard) and 4 + 4 to 2 NVME SSDs

The card i have looks like this:

No idea why it has an 8x connector tho. All the lanes also go to the chip. If i could access the chip i could probably do something like PCIe 2.0 8x to the board and 2 PCIe 3.0 to each of the NVME SSDs

 

[TheLostSwede]

The first one (ASM2812) has 12 lanes. So you can do 4 (to the mainboard) and 4 + 4 to 2 NVME SSDs

The card i have looks like this:

View attachment 252300

No idea why it has an 8x connector tho. All the lanes also go to the chip. If i could access the chip i could probably do something like PCIe 2.0 8x to the board and 2 PCIe 3.0 to each of the NVME SSDs

Yes, can, but you only get two lanes per SSD if you do that, at least if both are being accessed at the same time.