[Raion]

I was looking on eBay and saw this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133360074570

Looks a bit too good to be true. What's that white connector for? Furthermore, I guess this is a sort of m.2 SSD on a PCIe card? Any thoughts guys?

[pcar]

I used some of these several years ago as dedicated SQL tempdb devices in some 4U Cisco UCS C460M2 nodes. That white connector is for adding another 500gb board to get 1TB/card.

I don't think they are bootable, but i never tried it either.

[Raion]

How fast are they? Are they on the level of m.2 or other options?

[pcar]

Best info I could find -

https://www.storagereview.com/review/vir...view-2-2tb

I do remember them being fast (for 2014) but that we seemed to "wear them out" rather quickly (6mo of hard tempdb use)

[Raion]

Ordered two of them on a whim. Lets see what I end up getting.

[callahan]

Many of the PCIe SSD's are just PCIe SATA controllers with attached M.2 SATA connectors or integrated NAND modules. My guess is that's what this is. I think I even see a SATA connector on the card?

If so, that's about $30-40 more than the average economy 500GB SSD (in 2.5" SATA form factor). I just snagged a 480GB WD Green for $55 as my 512GB 970 Pro is filling up (thanks EA/COD).

[commodorejohn]

You may be right on the overall point, but that's not a SATA connector; it's keyed wrong and I think it's substantially larger.

[Raion]

Suffice to say I didn't pay full price, and I'm willing to pay a little bit of a premium because I am putting this into a small form-factor desktop that doesn't have a lot of space.

[callahan]

Good catch on the black connector. I didn't see the high-res top shot at first, it's definitely something else.

[Raion]

The main goal for one of these is as a secondary SSD against the other three SSDs inside the system. Mostly for backups of crucial files, though I'm considering trying an installation for documentation purposes. The other one will either be stockpiled as a spare or go inside a server eventually.