Trying to get an ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Gen 4 Card to see more than 2 SSD's

[Comrade!]

Trying to upgrade my computer from SATA HDD's to using Samsung 980 Pro 2Terrabyte drives. I have what should be compatible with the ASUS card. I have a Gigabyte TRX40 WiFi Pro motherboard with an AMD Threadripper 3960x CPU. I also have an RTX 3090 video card in the first PCIe x16 slot. I've had a Samsung 970 Evo 1 Terrabyte as the OS drive and have been using 3 Toshiba 2 Terrabyte SATA HDD's for storage.

I bought the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 card to hold 4, Samsung 980 Pro 2 Terrabyte SSD's.

My Gigabyte motherboard has a second X16 slot which I have set to bifurcate 4x4. The AMD Threadripper supports 64 PCIe lanes and according to everything I've read, the ASUS card should work with 4 SSD's on it. However, when I install the SSD's on the card and put it in the case, it only detects 2 of the four SSD's, the ones in slots 3 and 4 on the ASUS card. I want to clone my current Samsung 870 Evo 1 Terrabyte OS disc to one of the Samsung 980 Pro's and use the other three SSD's for storage. I don't want to set up any RAID array or anything, but everything I've read about this ASUS card that holds four SSD's says it should work.

Anyone have any idea of why it only sees two of the SSD's and what can I do to make this thing work?

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered!

 

[Ahhzz]

First step I would take is to try only one drive is slots 1 or 2, and then 2 in slots 1 and 2 to see the response.

 

[Assimilator]

My Gigabyte motherboard has a second X16 slot which I have set to bifurcate 4x4.

Are you sure you've put the M.2 card in the correct slot? The TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI has 4 full-length PCIe slots, but only two of those (the topmost one, and the third from the top) support x16; the others are only x8.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Are you sure you've put the M.2 card in the correct slot? The TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI has 4 full-length PCIe slots, but only two of those (the topmost one, and the third from the top) support x16; the others are only x8.

What is related number of PCIe lines with detection of SSD on AIC device?

 

[sLowEnd]

What is related number of PCIe lines with detection of SSD?

Quite a lot.

Asus has a page for it

[Motherboard] Compatibility of PCIE bifurcation between Hyper M.2 series Cards and Add-On Graphic Cards | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Quite a lot.

Asus has a page for it

[Motherboard] Compatibility of PCIE bifurcation between Hyper M.2 series Cards and Add-On Graphic Cards | Official Support | ASUS Global

Bad view on phone of this webpage. I see that 4 SSD isn't working properly when number of lines is limited. But how this related to detection of numbers of installed SSDs?

 

[Comrade!]

First step I would take is to try only one drive is slots 1 or 2, and then 2 in slots 1 and 2 to see the response.

I've tried that. Even with only 1 drive in the first position and then with 2 drives in the first two positions, it just doesn't see them. It only sees drives installed in the positions 3 and 4.

 

[ir_cow]

The MB / BIOS has to support 4+4+4+4 bifurcate or it won't see all the drives. I had the same problem with my old Threadripper. Only solution I found was either use a card designed for that specific motherboard or buy a enterprise card that has a onboard controller so it internally does the bifurcate.

 

[Comrade!]

The MB / BIOS has to support 4+4+4+4 bifurcate or it won't see all the drives. I had the same problem with my old Threadripper. Only solution I found was either use a card designed for that specific motherboard or buy a enterprise card that has a onboard controller so it internally does the bifurcate.

In the BIOS I have the second PCIe x16 slot set to x4x4x4x4. I checked the motherboard specs to make sure it would do that before I ordered the card.

The 3960x supports 64 PCIe lanes, which should be sufficient to support this card.

Are you sure you've put the M.2 card in the correct slot? The TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI has 4 full-length PCIe slots, but only two of those (the topmost one, and the third from the top) support x16; the others are only x8.

I've got the Hyper card in the third slot. That one is labeled as PCIe 16. There are two PCIe slots that are x16, the first, which has the RTX 3090 in it and the third which has the Hyper card. I know the other two full length slots are only x8. They are clearly labeled. I don't have any other PCIe cards installed. The three drives I have now are SATA. The OS is on a Samsung 1 TB 970 Evo SSD that's been installed on one of the three M.2 slots on the MB.

Quite a lot.

Asus has a page for it

[Motherboard] Compatibility of PCIE bifurcation between Hyper M.2 series Cards and Add-On Graphic Cards | Official Support | ASUS Global

That page has a lot of cards on it..., all of them ASUS cards. I have a Gigabyte card with the TRX40 socket and chipset. The CPU is a 3960x which supports 64 PCIe lanes.

 

[ir_cow]

I had a Gigabyte X399 MB and went through the same troubles. After reading the manually multiple times I found a note that said bifurcate only worked on a single slot. That happened to be the main x16 one. Go figure because that is where most people put the graphics card. Check the manual to see if that bifurcation is limited to certain slots.

By this time, I've moved on and ditched the 4 M.2 in favor of a SATA SSDs.

 

[freeagent]

I couldn't get it to see more than 2 drives even with the top slot. The only thing I could think that would work is outside of threadripper is with iGPU.. but I don't know for sure.

 

[LabRat 891]

Almost certainly already gone over but I'll throw my $0.02 in (since, I have experience with these and bifurcation)

On my X570, it will not 'auto' detect reliably. I had to go into UEFI and TELL the X16 slot the card was installed in to config as x4/x4/x4/x4. (Manually setting the PCIe gen is probably unnecessary but something I did anyway.)

 

[Comrade!]

I had a Gigabyte X399 MB and went through the same troubles. After reading the manually multiple times I found a note that said bifurcate only worked on a single slot. That happened to be the main x16 one. Go figure because that is where most people put the graphics card. Check the manual to see if that bifurcation is limited to certain slots.

By this time, I've moved on and ditched the 4 M.2 in favor of a SATA SSDs.

In the UEFI it shows the ability to bifurcate all the PCIe slots. Both PCIe slots, 1 and 3, which are full length, give the option of bifurcation to x16, x8x4x4 and x4x4x4x4. Each slot also has an 'Auto' option. Right now, slot 1, is set to x16, slot 2 is set to x4x4, slot three is set to x4x4x4x4, slot 4 is set to x4, and slot 5 is set tox4x4. Slot 1 has an RTX 3090 video card and slot 3, the second PCIe x16 slot, is set to bifurcate to x4x4x4x4, and that is where the Hyper M.2 card is located.

I had a Gigabyte X399 MB and went through the same troubles. After reading the manually multiple times I found a note that said bifurcate only worked on a single slot. That happened to be the main x16 one. Go figure because that is where most people put the graphics card. Check the manual to see if that bifurcation is limited to certain slots.

By this time, I've moved on and ditched the 4 M.2 in favor of a SATA SSDs.

The manual says that all of the PCIe slots are configurable and all can be set to auto, x8 or x4, depending on what you want to do with the slot. I have all of them set to x4 right now, even the ones with no card in them. I want to go with the PCIe slots and SSD's because of the greater speed.

Almost certainly already gone over but I'll throw my $0.02 in (since, I have experience with these and bifurcation)

On my X570, it will not 'auto' detect reliably. I had to go into UEFI and TELL the X16 slot the card was installed in to config as x4/x4/x4/x4. (Manually setting the PCIe gen is probably unnecessary but something I did anyway.)

I've gone into the UEFI and set the slots to the x4 settings except for slot 1 which has the RTX 3090 in it.

 

[Assimilator]

I'd suggest swapping the GPU and SSD card i.e. GPU in slot 3 and SSD card in slot 1, just to see if bifurcation really only works with the 1st slot.

Also, are you on the latest BIOS?

 

[freeagent]

On my boards bifurcation works on the two top slots for sure, haven’t tried the bottom, but don’t think it can do it.

 

[ir_cow]

@Comrade! Just given you ideas is all... If you tried all the slots and 4x4x4x4 is on, it's probably just not going to work with that MB.

 

[LabRat 891]

I've gone into the UEFI and set the slots to the x4 settings except for slot 1 which has the RTX 3090 in it.

the 3rd x16-length slot, is your 2nd true x16 slot

PCIEX16_2 Bifurcation Allows you to determine how the bandwidth of the PCIEX16_2 slot is divided. Options: Auto, x16, x4x4x4x4

From reading your previous posts, it looks like you're doing it right

Also, one other thing, I don't recall it mentioned...

If a NVMe has 'residual data/config' from a RAID or specific formatting, it may not be recognized. I had this issue w/ both my 'quaptane' experiment on the same quad-M.2 expander, and when I salvaged the 2 Gen4 drives that came with my Gen2x16 Amfeltec Squid PCIE-switched M.2 Expander.

I had to go into the RAIDXpert utility in UEFI, and initialize and set up the drives as 'volume' before they'd show up properly.

The MB / BIOS has to support 4+4+4+4 bifurcate or it won't see all the drives. I had the same problem with my old Threadripper. Only solution I found was either use a card designed for that specific motherboard or buy a enterprise card that has a onboard controller so it internally does the bifurcate.

There are more-affordable options than I'd originally thought, myself.
Here's some PCIe-Switched M.2 Expanders:

Note: I am *not* promoting or (implicitly) suggesting/endorsing these products, or reviews

Gen3 x4-Uplink

Fountain Pen, 4 mm, Grade 853 | eBay

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Sabrent 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter Card Review

SABRENT 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter is designed to add up to four NVMe SSDs to your computer with minimal fuss. Read on for our findings.

reviews.extremehw.net

Gen3 x8 Uplink

QNAP QM2-4P-384 M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD Expansion Card for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for QNAP QM2-4P-384 M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD Expansion Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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QM2-4P-384 | Hardware Specs

QM2 series PCIe cards add support for M.2 NVMe SSDs to a QNAP NAS, allowing users to configure SSD caching, a caching pool, or an auto-tiering volume to improve overall NAS performance.

www.qnap.com

Gen3 x16 Uplink

CEACENT ANM24PE16 4-Port NVME Expansion Card M.2 Expansion Card PCI-E 3.0x16 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for CEACENT ANM24PE16 4-Port NVME Expansion Card M.2 Expansion Card PCI-E 3.0x16 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

PEX 8748

The ExpressLane PEX 8748 is a 48-lane, 12-port, PCIe Gen 3 switch device developed on 40nm technology. PEX 8748 offers Multi-Host PCI Express switching capability that enables users to connect multiple hosts to their respective endpoints via scalable, high-bandwidth, non-blocking...

www.broadcom.com

Found the Aorus-branded quad-M.2 expander for ~$100

Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 PCI-E 4.0 4xSSD m.2 Slots AIC Adaptor 889523020302 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 PCI-E 4.0 4xSSD m.2 Slots AIC Adaptor at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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Since x8->x4x4 'seems' to be working/workable, the (Bifurcation-required) Dual-NVME expander cards are cheap. Last I looked, I think you could find them for $20/ea or so.
If you don't have your x8(x16)s filled, OP could go *that* route.

 

[Comrade!]

View attachment 311074
the 3rd x16-length slot, is your 2nd true x16 slot

From reading your previous posts, it looks like you're doing it right

Also, one other thing, I don't recall it mentioned...

If a NVMe has 'residual data/config' from a RAID or specific formatting, it may not be recognized. I had this issue w/ both my 'quaptane' experiment on the same quad-M.2 expander, and when I salvaged the 2 Gen4 drives that came with my Gen2x16 Amfeltec Squid PCIE-switched M.2 Expander.

I had to go into the RAIDXpert utility in UEFI, and initialize and set up the drives as 'volume' before they'd show up properly.


There are more-affordable options than I'd originally thought, myself.
Here's some PCIe-Switched M.2 Expanders:

Note: I am *not* promoting or (implicitly) suggesting/endorsing these products, or reviews

Gen3 x4-Uplink

Fountain Pen, 4 mm, Grade 853 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fountain Pen, 4 mm, Grade 853 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Sabrent 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter Card Review

SABRENT 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter is designed to add up to four NVMe SSDs to your computer with minimal fuss. Read on for our findings.

reviews.extremehw.net

Gen3 x8 Uplink

QNAP QM2-4P-384 M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD Expansion Card for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for QNAP QM2-4P-384 M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD Expansion Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

QM2-4P-384 | Hardware Specs

QM2 series PCIe cards add support for M.2 NVMe SSDs to a QNAP NAS, allowing users to configure SSD caching, a caching pool, or an auto-tiering volume to improve overall NAS performance.

www.qnap.com

Gen3 x16 Uplink

CEACENT ANM24PE16 4-Port NVME Expansion Card M.2 Expansion Card PCI-E 3.0x16 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for CEACENT ANM24PE16 4-Port NVME Expansion Card M.2 Expansion Card PCI-E 3.0x16 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

PEX 8748

The ExpressLane PEX 8748 is a 48-lane, 12-port, PCIe Gen 3 switch device developed on 40nm technology. PEX 8748 offers Multi-Host PCI Express switching capability that enables users to connect multiple hosts to their respective endpoints via scalable, high-bandwidth, non-blocking...

www.broadcom.com

Also found the Aorus-branded quad-M.2 expander for ~$100

Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 PCI-E 4.0 4xSSD m.2 Slots AIC Adaptor 889523020302 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 PCI-E 4.0 4xSSD m.2 Slots AIC Adaptor at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I never had a Raid array set up. The four drives I bought were all new and shouldn't have had any settings for them in the UEFI. I'll go into the UEFI and check though. I already initialized all four of the drives on one of the two working slots on the add-in card. I set them all to be simple, single partition drives. Since then, I have transferred the OS from the previous Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB drive which has been in the past couple of computers I've built. I downloaded a utility called MiniTool Partition Wizard to do the transfer from the 970 to one of the 980's, with all settings intact so I didn't have to reinstall Windows 11.

For the moment, I have two of the 980's installed on the add-in card and the other two are installed on the Gigabyte motherboard, which has three NVMe slots. (One of which is located so conveniently under the water cooled RTX 3090 video card. On the other two slots, they are covered by a double heatsink, but on removing that to install two of the 980's there, one of the stand-offs on the MB promptly snapped off, leaving no way to attach the heatsink back over those two, or to screw down the SSD for that matter on that slot. I may buy a couple of aftermarket heatsinks for them and try to 'super-glue' the one stand-off back to the motherboard. It might work for that, but I don't think it will hold the heatsink, since I'm not about to try and remove the thousand and one wires and connections on the motherboard to try and replace it. (I'm retired and it seems like I have less free time now than I did when I was working full time.)

Thanks for looking up possible replacements for the ASUS card, but many of the cards you show are PCIe 3, and one of the reasons for replacing the drives was to go to all PCIe 4, which is supposed to have twice the speed. I may look more closely at some of them though.

@Comrade! Just given you ideas is all... If you tried all the slots and 4x4x4x4 is on, it's probably just not going to work with that MB.

You're probably right. It may not. I have already set up an alternative arrangment which is working for now. It just seemed so simple to have one card with all four of the new drives on it. And..., the advertising for the card specifically pointed out that it was made to work with the TRX40 motherboards. The ads for it didn't list that it may only work on ASUS boards.

 

[LabRat 891]

The ads for it didn't list that it may only work on ASUS boards.

Correct.

I never had a Raid array set up.

I would have no idea why it wouldn't work otherwise but...

The manual for the Asus card says AMD mobos need PCIe RAID Mode enabled.

That's notable, since for Intel it shows both VROC/RAID and 'DATA'/non-RAID as seperate things. For AMD, it just says PCIe RAID Mode must be enabled.

 

[Assimilator]

The ads for it didn't list that it may only work on ASUS boards.

I have the exact same card and it works flawlessly in the primary (topmost) slot of my Gigabyte X570S AORUS PRO AX. Which is why I suggested that you try the same thing. Given that both of your fell-length PCIe slots are x16, you really don't lose anything by swapping the GPU and SSD card.

 

[SPDIF]

Just your GPU will now work in 8x instead of x16, can be a bottleneck for some heavy games.

 

[Comrade!]

Just your GPU will now work in 8x instead of x16, can be a bottleneck for some heavy games.

It shouldn't only work at 8X. Both of those sockets are full 16 lanes. The AMD Threadripper 3960x that I have supports 64 PCIe lanes. If I have bifurcate the top slot to x4x4x4x4 and reset the second 16 lane slot to auto or to x16 they both should work. I think I may try that when I get the chance. Been busy lately.

 

[freeagent]

I have the exact same card and it works flawlessly in the primary (topmost) slot of my Gigabyte X570S AORUS PRO AX. Which is why I suggested that you try the same thing. Given that both of your fell-length PCIe slots are x16, you really don't lose anything by swapping the GPU and SSD card.

You can get all 4 to work? How?

 

[thesmokingman]

I used the 3rd slot, no issues. Btw, remove the cover and mod on some heatsinks as stock cooling on these 4x cards suck hard, think throttle city.

Build: 3970x, dual 2080ti, 8TB m.2 RAID = Render Monster

I'm building a render machine for work on a variety of applications. It will be an investment in reducing completion times in rendering and content creation workloads. This is a build for an old college buddy who works in the industry. On to the component list. Also, going to start with two...

hardforum.com

 

[Belfaborac]

Hmmm. I have zero throttle issues or overheating with my ASUS M.2.