Reddit reviews StarTech.com 2x M.2 SATA SSD controller kaart - PCI Express kaart

I'm quite interested in whether the aforementioned Silverstone adapter or similar might work in your R710. I have an 8-bay R510 that I'm filling with shucked BestBuy 8TB WD Reds. I'm using UnRaid and hoping to put in an addon card with dual m.2 SSD drives for array cache. I've been eyeing [this card] (https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Controller-Card-Adapter-PEX2M2/dp/B017IM54GM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8), one reviewer wrote:


> "This 2-port (B-key SATA) card worked out of the box in my FreeBSD 10.3 system (presumably Linux support is just as easy). No problems with running it in an old system's PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, despite the vendor website specs calling for PCIe 3.0.

> The BIOS identifies this card as Asmedia 106x, and FreeBSD sees it as a 12-port 6Gbps Port Multiplier (presumably it's the same chipset as the version with the SATA passthrough). FreeBSD dmesg output:
kernel: ahci0: <AHCI SATA controller> mem 0xf9ffe000-0xf9ffffff irq 28 at device 0.0 on pci1
kernel: ahci0: AHCI v1.31 with 12 6Gbps ports, Port Multiplier supported

>Although the card has a 4-pin (floppy style) power connector, it seems to run fine without the extra juice. The manual indicates it can run on either PCIe bus power or external power. In my case, bus power seems to be enough.
> I'm currently running it with a pair of Crucial MX300 m.2 drives, no problems so far, though the PCIe 2 bus bottlenecks when both drives run flat out. Either drive can read at 450MB/s, but both together top out at 360MB/s each (I think the bus, could be the controller). It's likely the performance would be higher in a PCIe 3.x slot.


The StarTech card appears to have a SATA controller which may help with being able to boot from plugged in SSDs.

Please update this post with your findings if you can.

Because it's a sata m.2 drive, you either need a pcie card with a sata controller onboard like this one: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-M-2-Adapter-PCIe-Express/dp/B017IM54GM?th=1

Or cheaper if you don't mind longer shipping: https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCIe-2x-M-2-SSD-Adapter-PCI-express-Dual-NGFF-B-B-M-Key-SATA-SSD-ASM1061-/112108844193

 

The other option is a pcie card, with a sata connector on it. You put the ssd in the card, and then run a sata cable from the card to a spare sata connector on your motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-advanced-solution-Controller-Expansion/dp/B07JKH5VTL/ref=pd_sbs_147_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07JKH5VTL&pd_rd_r=ca985b47-d027-42e0-b97a-28255f795bb2&pd_rd_w=lUOGL&pd_rd_wg=DpZhN&pf_rd_p=1c11b7ff-9ffb-4ba6-8036-be1b0afa79bb&pf_rd_r=2P1D5XPHC8S0CYZBZ1WE&psc=1&refRID=2P1D5XPHC8S0CYZBZ1WE

The only thing that differs these adapters is built-in VRM module which is required when the adapter has more than 1 M.2 port or if source power isn't 3.3v

Most modules are fine but 3 is on the borderline,

The bad reviews are probably people who purchased before looking into their motherboard support

In your case if you have a graphics card in first x16 slot then the second one will run @ 2.0 x2 which is horribly limited

I don't advise to install any more NVMe into this motherboard as the PCIe lanes is limited, sata has no issues but cables

You can also use built-in sata controller to minus cables This, there is controller overhead + bus limit which gets you around 400MB/s sata performance

Bottom line :

• cheapest option 2.5" SATA SSD
  
  
• 2nd cheapest M.2 SATA with M.2 SATA adapter
  
  
• 3rd cheapest the post
  
  
• 4th cheapest sell current board + pay for ATX x370 board as they will provide more lanes

Amazon search revealed this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017IM54GM/

Edit: not what you are looking for. I doubt such a thing exists, at least not that i can find

I actually ended up buying this - https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-M-2-SATA-Controller-Card/dp/B017IM54GM

And populating it with two cheap 32GB M.2 SATA SSDs. Works great out of the box :)