First post, by Ozzuneoj
- Rank
- l33t
I could take this to reddit, but I feel like I'm constantly misunderstood there, so I'll ask the reliable and knowledgeable folks here on VOGONS. 😀
I frequently do PC repairs\diagnostics for people and it is finally becoming common to deal with NVMe drives on a fairly regular basis. In some cases I need to attach the drive to another PC either to retrieve data, to perform a disk clone, disk image, etc.
I have an IcyDock Dual SATA 5.25" bay in my tower, as well as several USB 3.0 SATA enclosures\adapters. Sadly, my only option for NVMe drives is to use the single NVMe USB-C enclosure I picked up a couple years ago. I've never been impressed with the reliability, speed or consistency of it so I am hesitant to get more of these. What I would greatly prefer is a direct NVMe (PCI-Express) external connection of some kind.
I have looked at some of the odd-ball stuff that has been released for GPU mining, since that has lead to lots of strange risers and adapters being made, but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. I am totally okay with it being limited to PCI-E x1 speed, as that should still provide at least the same throughput as SATA, if not twice as much (according to Kieran here).
Although I don't like the risk of someone ever possibly plugging something into the wrong place, I do really like that most of the mining risers\adapters use USB 3.0 cables for extensions to pass the PCI-E signal from one place to another. Like this kit, which seems to be for the exact opposite of what I want.
What I would like to find:
*Tiny PCI-E x1 card with the lanes wired to a "USB 3.0" port on the back plate.
*Either an enclosure or a simple card with an NVMe M.2 slot and a "USB 3.0" port (wired for PCI-E x1)
(If this exists using something other than USB ports for the extension, that would be fine as well)
If I had that I could just attach NVMe drives (obviously not hot swapping) to the back of the PC without having to open it and insert a card internally.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
