M.2 Expansion Card With PCIe Switch Recommendations

TrueNAS General
1

Hey guys.

I have the Asus WS C621E motherboard which used to support PCIe Bifurcation. However it looks like (from reading and my own BIOS searching) that this function was removed in newer BIOS updates.

So. To simplify things im lookin for an expansion card that has onboard switching.

I found a Startech product as per: PCI Express 3.0 M.2 SSD Adapter Card | For PCIe NVMe and PCIe AHCI M.2 SSDs

However I would have liked a card that supports 4xm.2 drives.

Any recommendations?

2

I would choose a card that uses the PEX 8747 chipset instead. I just trust Broadcom more than ASMedia.

3

I have no useful opinion, but just wanted to chime in that I’d have never expected that such a feature would be REMOVED in a bios update. Can’t begin to imagine how broken it must have been that they simply disabled it…

4

If so, don’t upgrade BIOS…

5

Thanks for the advice. Agreed regarding broadcom being somewhat more reliable than asmedia. I will take a look at the broadcom chip. Looks like this is available on Amazon, on the surface it looks like a good option.

6

Unfortunately I had already upgraded but considering they removed it makes me question the possibility of poor reliability, so rather than using flashback to go back and find a BIOS that supports it, getting an add in card with PLX seems less hassle.

7

Hey guys,

Just as an FYI, I got the Kalea Informatique M2 Adapter card and it works well and as expected, so if anyone else is in my situation, this card is a decent solution, all be it you might have to wait a little longer from delivery as it is a french product and is usually shipped from France if purchased on Ebay or Amazon.