
PCIE expansion cards on older hardware
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<quote>I know this is an old post, but this info may be helpful to those who is interested in this device. The device only supports PCs that utilize PCIe bifurcation (where it can split the PCIe bus, ie: PCIe 16x will become x4/x4/x4/x4). I have tried this card on a Dell T7600, but due to the machine's lack of bifurcation only one NVMe is showing.
Bear in mind there are other options out there that do support non-bifurcation PCs, but they are costly, but I did find one called a Syba SI-PEX40142 currently going for $55 on Amazon (the company do offer M-key variants that will boot from PCIe on older systems). However this model is a B-Key variant so performance will be halved, but at the same time still faster than SATA or SAS based mechanical drives.
Company's website is: https://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=64_205&product_id=1035
I did order two today and will post here if they work when I get them.
for those interested I'm posting the amazon listing below that feature all 3 variants.
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OK, I was finally able to try the CREST-SI-PEX40129 card and it does work with older machines such as the T7600. The expansion card does have a Micron SATA controller built-in and you can use any number of M.2 SSDs up to 5. While the Intel Optane M10 series didn't work, the generic Intel M.2 drives did. While it has an onboard controller, the expansion card did not show in the BIOS config so to confirm it cannot be used as a boot drive.
I do hope this may be of some help to those looking into getting this expansion card in the future.
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stormson weathers said:
The expansion card does have a Micron SATA controller built-in and you can use any number of M.2 SSDs up to 5.So just to clarify, if this device is populated by 5 SSDs, they will be seen as 5 different drives by the OS, correct?
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stormson weathers said:
OK, I was finally able to try the CREST-SI-PEX40129 card and it does work with older machines such as the T7600. The expansion card does have a Micron SATA controller built-in and you can use any number of M.2 SSDs up to 5. While the Intel Optane M10 series didn't work, the generic Intel M.2 drives did. While it has an onboard controller, the expansion card did not show in the BIOS config so to confirm it cannot be used as a boot drive*CORRECTION*
SI-PEX40142 is the correct part number for the 5-slot M.2 card. My apologies for the error.