# Multiple SSD drives on a PCIe card: is this a good idea?



## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

I reached a point where I need more SSD estate for my samples, and all my drive ports are already taken. I had a quick look on Amazon to have an idea what my options were, and I saw that via PCIe, you could add more internal drives to your computer.

Sedna, for exemple, are offering cards able to hold one, two, or four drives!... Is that option any good?


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## Technostica (Sep 2, 2020)

As long as you check compatibility and limitations then you will be fine.
If you want to run 4 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 drives from a single X16 slot then I think you need to check that the slot supports bifurcation.
Also if you need to boot from it then check your system supports that.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

Technostica said:


> As long as you check compatibility and limitations then you will be fine.
> If you want to run 4 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 drives from a single X16 slot then I think you need to check that the slot supports bifurcation.
> Also if you need to boot from it then check your system supports that.


Actually I was looking for only one SSD at first, but then I saw you could add up to four drives. No booting, it's only for reading samples. If I take the model with two drives, will they automatically appear like two different drives? I'm on Windows 10.


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## Technostica (Sep 2, 2020)

Robo Rivard said:


> If I take the model with two drives, will they automatically appear like two different drives? I'm on Windows 10.


Bifurcation might still be an issue so what card do you want?
You can buy inexpensive cards that only support a single drive and they will usually work in either a 4x, 8x or 16x slot as bifurcation is not required.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

I think I will go for the single card option. I don't want to run into technical issues. I already have a 2Tb SSD for samples, but it's full, and loading libraries from HDD is an absolute pain. An extra 2TB via PCIe should get me going for a while.


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## Technostica (Sep 2, 2020)

If you have more than one free PCIe x4/x8/x16 slot you can always add a second card or upgrade to a 4TB drive when they become more affordable/available!


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

Yes, it's a good option. 2TB will be just fine for the next year or two. Thanks for your help!


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

My computer is a three years old Dell XPS 8910, so I guess it should run OK with a 2TB Crucial MX500.


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## Technostica (Sep 2, 2020)

Robo Rivard said:


> My computer is a three years old Dell XPS 8910, so I guess it should run OK with a 2TB Crucial MX500.


That's a SATA drive so you will need to get an NVMe drive to use with a PCIe card.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

https://www.amazon.com/Sedna-Express-Adapter-Connector-Included/dp/B01452SP1O/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2QB26E21KTMQL&dchild=1&keywords=sedna+pci+express+pcie+dual+2.5+inch+sata+iii&qid=1599092116&sprefix=Sedna%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-2 (Things have changed.)

But I think PC users have to use power connectors to feed the card.


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## Technostica (Sep 2, 2020)

Robo Rivard said:


> https://www.amazon.com/Sedna-Express-Adapter-Connector-Included/dp/B01452SP1O/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2QB26E21KTMQL&dchild=1&keywords=sedna+pci+express+pcie+dual+2.5+inch+sata+iii&qid=1599092116&sprefix=Sedna%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-2 (Things have changed.)


It's much cheaper to buy a basic PCIe SATA controller so unless this has an extra feature that you require I would take that route.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

I'm not sure what you mean. Can you post me a link to show me?


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## mgnoatto (Sep 2, 2020)

HYPER M.2 X16 CARD｜Motherboards｜Motherboards / Components ｜ASUS Global


ASUS offers different kinds of motherboard accessories including Thunderbolt™ expansion cards, M.2 add-on cards, and fan extension cards give DIY PC users better choices when it comes to building their perfect workstation or gaming rig.




www.asus.com




with this one, you can add up to 4 pcie ssd that are at least 4 times faster than SATA and prices are similar. It may improve a lot the loading times of bigger patches


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

OK, I get it! This is quite enlightening!

"Musicians helping musicians"... Thanks!


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## mgnoatto (Sep 2, 2020)

you have to check with your motherboard which gen of pci you can use, the ASUS one is gen3, so you can use ssd pcie gen3 that can go like 7 times faster than the SATA. Like this one:








ADATA


ADATA Product




www.adata.com


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

Technostica said:


> It's much cheaper to buy a basic PCIe SATA controller so unless this has an extra feature that you require I would take that route.


This is what I needed from the start, but I was totally ignorant of that option ( I was totally ignorant of everything, in fact). But I guess that if you put more than one drive on that SATA controller, they will compete for bandwidth?... I guess it's alright, if you connect drives with different purposes, that are not meant to be used at the same time.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 2, 2020)

Thanks Technostica and mgnoatto, you really opened my eyes to fresh new options.


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## gsilbers (Sep 3, 2020)

I got a single micron 8tb ssd drive and it’s been great. 
I still have to test it w very large templates but for normal wear seems fine. Even my loop libraries that was on hdd was a hassle with how slow it was. 
The 8tb (7.56) was about $755 so for me was great as that’s a lot less than 2tb on external or w peripherals.


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## Paul Jelfs (Sep 3, 2020)

What about a SATA Pcie card ? Have you run out of inputs (Sata) for drives ,or actually spaces to put them. 

You can get SATA Pcie cards with 4- 8 extra ones on, then you can have more internal SSDs ? 

Sorry if i am missing the point here


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## richardt4520 (Sep 3, 2020)

I probably should just build a new PC but thought I'd ask in case anyone knows.... Anyone know of a PCIe x16 sata card that's somewhat inexpensive? My old i7 HP8200 is still chugging along without hitting many bottlenecks at all. I can upgrade to larger SSDs for samples, but I have 2 500GB SSDs laying around. The HP is PCIe 2.0 so it wouldn't do me any good going with x8 on that with a couple of SSDs since it's only 4GB max at 8 lanes, but I think I'd do ok with 8GB at 16 lanes. Probably just build a new system in a few months but if I could get in for less than $100, I might stretch it for a while longer.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 3, 2020)

Maybe this is obvious, but you need a PCie 16 slot for a PCie 16 PCie card. There is usually only one or two of these on most motherboards, and the first one is used for the graphics card. So you need to see if you have one free. 

PCie 16 cards will fit into PCie 8 and 4 slots, they just won't have the speed.


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## richardt4520 (Sep 3, 2020)

I may not be communicating what I need very well. I have 2 PCIe x16 2.0 slots open on my PC. Since it's PCIe 2.0, it only gets something like 500MB per lane so I'd need the full x16 to get 8GB transfer. Running x8 lanes only gets me 4GB transfer or x4 lanes 2GB, if I understand correctly, which would be a bottleneck since SSDs do 6GB? Maybe I'm just confusing myself. :/


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## richardt4520 (Sep 3, 2020)

If it were PCIe 3.0 I could get away with less lanes since it's faster than 2.0. I know PCIe cards are backwards compatible but the 2.0 bottleneck gets me. So I was trying to find out if anyone was aware of any old 2.0 PCIe to SATA cards out there that were the full 16 lanes. Don't want to blow hundreds of dollars on a 3.0 card since I'd lose the speed anyway, which is why I was asking.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 3, 2020)

mgnoatto said:


> HYPER M.2 X16 CARD｜Motherboards｜Motherboards / Components ｜ASUS Global
> 
> 
> ASUS offers different kinds of motherboard accessories including Thunderbolt™ expansion cards, M.2 add-on cards, and fan extension cards give DIY PC users better choices when it comes to building their perfect workstation or gaming rig.
> ...


Do you have this? It says it has a "blower fan." Does it make any perceptible noise?


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## Technostica (Sep 3, 2020)

richardt4520 said:


> I may not be communicating what I need very well. I have 2 PCIe x16 2.0 slots open on my PC. Since it's PCIe 2.0, it only gets something like 500MB per lane so I'd need the full x16 to get 8GB transfer. Running x8 lanes only gets me 4GB transfer or x4 lanes 2GB, if I understand correctly, which would be a bottleneck since SSDs do 6GB? Maybe I'm just confusing myself. :/





richardt4520 said:


> If it were PCIe 3.0 I could get away with less lanes since it's faster than 2.0. I know PCIe cards are backwards compatible but the 2.0 bottleneck gets me. So I was trying to find out if anyone was aware of any old 2.0 PCIe to SATA cards out there that were the full 16 lanes. Don't want to blow hundreds of dollars on a 3.0 card since I'd lose the speed anyway, which is why I was asking.


What exactly do you want to achieve?
You mention SATA but you also talk about 6GB which is in the realm of PCIe 4.0 x4 so it's not clear what you want to do!

A PCIe 3.0 x4 SATA card offers ~3.6GBs which can be split over 4 SATA ports for 900MB/s per port which is well above the requirement.
So even used in PCIe 2.0 x4 slot that offers 450 MB/s per port which is not that much below the SATA limit of 550 MB/s.
Note: I'm not sure if such a card exists so that is just an example for bandwidth calculations. 

If you say exactly what combination of drives you want to use that would help.
E.g. 2 SATA drives etc.
Once that has been established it makes it easier to source a card.


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## Technostica (Sep 3, 2020)

Robo Rivard said:


> But I guess that if you put more than one drive on that SATA controller, they will compete for bandwidth?... I guess it's alright, if you connect drives with different purposes, that are not meant to be used at the same time.


If the controller uses a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot then that is only about 900 MB/s in total which is not enough for 2 SATA 3 ports at full bandwidth as they can hit ~550 MB/s per port.
Not sure if they split the bandwidth dynamically or its a simple 50/50 split which seems more likely!


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## Technostica (Sep 3, 2020)

Notes:

1. For people wanting to use an old system which only has PCIe 2.0 slots with PCIe drives, check if the card and system both support the NVMe protocol as older systems may be AHCI only. Modern PCIe drives are NVMe only although there were a few AHCI PCIe drives released years ago. Samsung for example released some. This doesn't impact SATA drives or controllers.

2. PCIe drives are faster than SATA not just because of the increased bandwidth but because the NVMe protocol is much more efficient at handling multiple I/O requests than AHCI.


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## mgnoatto (Sep 3, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> Do you have this? It says it has a "blower fan." Does it make any perceptible noise?


no, I don't. I found it first on a list though. I have space for 1 m.2 more, so for now, I'm good. But eventually I will have to buy one of those or maybe the Aorus ones that are gen4


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 4, 2020)

So I finally bought a PCIe 3.0 x 1 SATA card and a 2TB Crucial MX500 drive, and installation went well.

But the drive doesn't show in my Windows 10 File Explorer. I can see it in the Device Manager, with the proper name, and I can also see it in my Crucial Storage Executive utility, along with all my other drives.

Inside Device Manager, under Properties, if I click Events, it says "Device Not Migrated". I'm not sure what it means... Do I have to format the drive in some way before I can use it? How do we make it "migrated"?

I feel tired. There is something rotten in my kingdom.


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## Technostica (Sep 5, 2020)

If it doesn't come pre-partitioned then you will need to create one for it to show up in Explorer.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 5, 2020)

Technostica said:


> If it doesn't come pre-partitioned then you will need to create one for it to show up in Explorer.


Thanks Technostica! It worked! It is now showing in Explorer.


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## richardt4520 (Sep 5, 2020)

Technostica said:


> Notes:
> 
> 1. For people wanting to use an old system which only has PCIe 2.0 slots with PCIe drives, check if the card and system both support the NVMe protocol as older systems may be AHCI only. Modern PCIe drives are NVMe only although there were a few AHCI PCIe drives released years ago. Samsung for example released some. This doesn't impact SATA drives or controllers.
> 
> 2. PCIe drives are faster than SATA not just because of the increased bandwidth but because the NVMe protocol is much more efficient at handling multiple I/O requests than AHCI.



Hey Technostica, thanks for the info. I think I'm getting myself confused about transfer rates. I get that NVMe is faster and I will be building a new system sometime next year. I'll take advantage of that then. I haven't maxed out SSD space yet so it's not a priority, but I have 2 SATA 500GB 2.5" internal SSDs and 2 open PCIe 2.0 x16 slots open on my motherboard. Since the drives were just lying around collecting dust, I thought I'd see if there was a fairly cheap card or cards I could use to connect those SSDs through the PCIe slots. I'm confused about the transfer speeds since the SSDs state they have a max transfer of 6Gb/s. I think I may have been confusing bits and bytes, reading on some of the sites I was researching. lol So you're saying a PCIe 2.0 to SATA card should be fine for a couple of those SSDs at x4 or x8? If not, maybe a card each? If so, that's all I needed to know. Thanks for the help!


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## Technostica (Sep 5, 2020)

richardt4520 said:


> Hey Technostica, thanks for the info. I think I'm getting myself confused about transfer rates. I get that NVMe is faster and I will be building a new system sometime next year. I'll take advantage of that then. I haven't maxed out SSD space yet so it's not a priority, but I have 2 SATA 500GB 2.5" internal SSDs and 2 open PCIe 2.0 x16 slots open on my motherboard. Since the drives were just lying around collecting dust, I thought I'd see if there was a fairly cheap card or cards I could use to connect those SSDs through the PCIe slots. I'm confused about the transfer speeds since the SSDs state they have a max transfer of 6Gb/s. I think I may have been confusing bits and bytes, reading on some of the sites I was researching. lol So you're saying a PCIe 2.0 to SATA card should be fine for a couple of those SSDs at x4 or x8? If not, maybe a card each? If so, that's all I needed to know. Thanks for the help!


The problem is that the cards seem to lack bandwidth even when used with a PCIe 3.0 slot. 
They seem to pack more SATA ports than the PCIe bandwidth can support so I'm not sure how the bandwidth is allocated. If it's dynamic then you may be okay but at most you will get 450MBs on one channel only. 
Not sure if PCIe 2.0 cards will support more than SATA 2 even! 
I would contact the manufacturers to get precise details on how they work. 

As you are building a new system next year, why not sell the SATA drives and put the money towards an NVMe drive and a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 adapter. 
You'll still get 1.8GBs on a PCIe 2.0 slot. 
Plus you can use the drive and even the card in the next system.


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## richardt4520 (Sep 5, 2020)

Technostica said:


> The problem is that the cards seem to lack bandwidth even when used with a PCIe 3.0 slot.
> They seem to pack more SATA ports than the PCIe bandwidth can support so I'm not sure how the bandwidth is allocated. If it's dynamic then you may be okay but at most you will get 450MBs on one channel only.
> Not sure if PCIe 2.0 cards will support more than SATA 2 even!
> I would contact the manufacturers to get precise details on how they work.
> ...



That is actually a much better idea than bandaging up an old PC! Thanks for all the insight. Definitely appreciated!


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