On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 19:19:32 -0700 Linh Pham <[email protected]> dijo:
>As far as why Sonnet chose to go with the full x16 connector on the >card, my guess is to use the connector and locking portion to carry the >weight of the two U.2 drives? I can't quite tell if it's long enough to >slide into the slots that found on cases that support full length >cards. > >It could also be to allow for more power to be pulled from the slot >than what a typical x8 slot could provide per PCIe standards. > >If the card can make do with the power delivery limits of an x8 slot >and only make use of 8 PCIe lanes, then it doesn't make quite as much >sense outside of the mechanical support. OK, it must be just for physical support because I followed Wes' suggestion and looked for traces on the card for the extra connectors, and there are none at all. So the card can't be using the extra connectors for data or power. That leaves just support. In fact, they are probably really x8 cards built on an x16 size card, although I might question the truth of Sonnet's advertising, calling them x16 cards. And inside my enclosure there are three clips, each designed to hold the long end of a full length card, and when I pushed one of the cards into its connector the clip held the end of the card quite firmly. And the other end is secured by the mounting bracket and screw, so it looks pretty solid. And besides, my U.2 drives are 7.68TB, but they weigh very little. At this point I'm only really concerned by heat. The enclosure has a fan that looks pretty good, but the cards have to be in adjacent slots, and there's going to be only a quarter inch or so between them. U.2 drives don't get as hot as M.2 drives, but they still put out heat. I wonder if Smart data includes heat, and if I'll be able to get at the Smart data when they are in a RAID0 array. We shall see. Tomorrow morning I'll mount the cards and plug everything in, fingers crossed. In fact, I'll try to sleep all night with my fingers crossed. _______________________________________________ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
