GIGABYTE Intros CMT403x Series M.2 PCIe Riser Cards

[btarunr]

GIGABYTE introduced the CMT4034 and CMT4032 M.2 PCIe riser cards, which convert a PCI-Express gen 3.0 slot to M.2-22110 slots with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring. Your motherboard needs to support PCI-Express lane segmentation, as the cards have no switching logic of their own. Both cards are built in the half-height (low-profile) add-on card form-factor. The arrangement of the M.2 slots is where the two slightly differ. The CMT4034 has four M.2-22110 slots and takes in PCI-Express 3.0 x16, while the CMT4032 only has two M.2 slots, plugging into PCI-Express 3.0 x8.

While the CMT4032 features a single PCB with two M.2 slots on the obverse side of the PCB, the CMT4034 is designed with two PCBs such that a smaller PCB features the x16 host interface, while a larger second PCB is elevated from the main PCB, and has two M.2 slots on each of its side. The idea here is to provide clearance on the reverse side of the card, lest the M.2 drives installed there intrude into the space of the adjacent add-on card. Both cards include metal heatspreaders. You also get thermal sensors and link/activity LEDs for each individual slot. The company didn't reveal pricing.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Prima.Vera]

Questions:
- supported chipsets?
- bootable drives?
- RAID supported and which?
- price?

 

[CheapMeat]

Darn. I'm hoping someone comes out with a 2xM.2 that has a switch on it for older mobos; most can't do lane bifurcation, like my X79. I really want a dual or quad M.2 card in a slot. Aside from that, nice to see dual NVMe adapters coming out. Oddly enough, none existed, at least from what I could find, even on Aliexpress; they're all mixed NVMe + SATA or quad NVMe.

 

[natr0n]

This is a nice product.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

I think there's a native controller that enables older board to communicate & recognize the riser card + M.2 SSD installed to it. On top of that, there's gonna be a software that enables/emulates NVMe protocol on older boards.

 

[Xajel]

Darn. I'm hoping someone comes out with a 2xM.2 that has a switch on it for older mobos; most can't do lane bifurcation, like my X79. I really want a dual or quad M.2 card in a slot. Aside from that, nice to see dual NVMe adapters coming out. Oddly enough, none existed, at least from what I could find, even on Aliexpress; they're all mixed NVMe + SATA or quad NVMe.

This will require a PLX switch, a very expensive piece of tech. the maker of these switches increased the price because most of it's usage is in the server market. so consumer products suffers now.

But it seems this opened the way for other makers to start making consumer friendly switches.

This one should be coming in the next few months if all things went good.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13022/asmedia-preps-asm2824-pcie-30-switch

 

[TheLostSwede]

This is a server accessory.
As per Gigabyte's website "Dedicated for GIGＡBYTE Purley generation server system use only" (don't ask about the weird font thingie)
https://b2b.gigabyte.com/Accessory/CMT4034-rev-10#sp

 

[Aquinus]

Your motherboard needs to support PCI-Express lane segmentation, as the cards have no switching logic of their own.

Is there a way to identify if a board supports this or not?

 

[Bytales]

Isnt there a list of Gigabyte Motherboards that Support this lane segmenetation ?

 

[Assimilator]

Beautiful, I've been hoping for a double-sided quad-M2 card!