This morning I discovered that I am screwed. Yesterday I plugged in just one of the two Sonnet cards, and it went in fine. After finishing my morning coffee today I put the other card in, only to discover that it wouldn't go all the way down. Further investigation revealed the following:
Slot 1 x4 Closed Slot 2 x8 Closed Slot 3 x8 Open (this is the one I put the card in) Slot 4 x4 Closed (and contains the TB3 card) By sheer coincidence when I put one of the cards in yesterday I put it in Slot 3. But the second one has to go in Slot 2, and it is closed. WHY??? Linh is absolutely correct. I can think of no reason why all slots should not be open. This should be the default. Upon discovering that Slot 2 was closed my first thought was to open it up. A Dreml with a small bit would do the job, except that my hands are not the steadiest. Plus, I don't know if the wiring for Slot 2 dictates that it be closed. I can't think of any reason why it would have to be closed, but what do I know? I could get a different case, except that from my research I am betting that all three-bay TB3 cases use the same 'motherboard.' I recall that Sonnet told me that their three-bay (four slots, one with the TB3 card) can take only one of their sonnet cards, and now I bet I know why. The Netstor TB3 case looks identical to my Magma case, save for the logo on the side. There do exist TB3 PCIe expansion cases that are designed to be rack mounted. I disregarded them previously, but later today I'll do some research. There exist single-bay TB3 PCIe expansion cases, and if the slot is open I could buy two of them and daisy chain them. More shopping research. It's kind of a clunky solution, but it may be all I can do. There is one more option. I could return the Sonnet cards and buy a four-port U.2 card from Highpoint. It is x16 and you can get it with four U.2 cables for about $450. The problem is that then I need to mount the drives someplace, and my Magma case has no drive cage. I'm thinking of acquiring an old used and dead full size x8 card, and drill four sets of holes in it. And the Highpoint card may be x16, but if I put it in an x8 slot it probably won't work, or just two of the ports will work. A card for four U.2 drives is probably wired to use all 16 lanes. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd be thrilled to hear them. On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 20:43:29 -0700 Linh Pham <[email protected]> dijo: >re: dangling connector > >The PCIe standard allows for open ended slots and the key in the slot >should prevent any movement of the card along the length of the >connector. Here should be a little bit of buffer between the last pin >and the end of the slot. > >The primary power pins are on the first section of the slot anyway. > >Personally, I think open-ended slots should be a standard for slots >shorter than x16. That gives you the option of slotting in a card with >a longer connector anywhere in case you need to use a specific link >back to the CPU vs I/O hub or PCIe switch. > >On 2020-10-20 19:09 -0700, John Jason Jordan <[email protected]> wrote: > >> OK, I think the case I bought has two x8 slots, plus there is another >> shorter slot that is probably x4. None are long enough to be x16 >> slots. I know the Sonnet cards are x16, so that explains why their >> connectors are so long. >> >> Now, from the beginning I thought that Sonnet engineers failed first >> grade arithmetic, because U.2 drives can only use four lanes, and >> each card can hold only two drives. The Sonnet cards wouldn't be any >> slower if they were x8 cards, so why bother making them x16 cards? >> And if my Magma case has two x8 slots, that I know are open ended >> (because I could push the cards all the way down), then I could just >> use these cards in this case. >> >> That is, if not having all the card's connectors into the slot is OK. >> It bothers me, though. Sort of like plugging a 20amp plug into a >> 15amp outlet. Of course, the case connects by Thunderbolt 3, which >> is also just four lanes, so TB3 is the real limiting factor. I just >> want to avoid smoke and melted electronics. >> >> Add the fact that the case that I bought is one of three possible TB3 >> PCI expansion cases, and as far as I know, none have more than one >> x16 slot, plus most are on back order until the end of the year. The >> one I bought is a used one from eBay. >> >> >> On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 18:27:23 -0700 >> Linh Pham <[email protected]> dijo: >> >> >PCI Express cards typically come as x1, x4, x8 and x16 (number of >> >lanes) and the connectors correspond to the number of lanes and the >> >same with PCI Express slots. >> > >> >Some, but not all, PCI Express slots have an open end to accept >> >cards with more lanes than the slot is wired up for. But, the >> >majority of the slots are not open-ended and can only accept cards >> >for that connector's length or shorter. >> > >> >For instance, a close-ended x4 can only accept a x1 or a x4 card. >> > >> >What's even more fun is that a slot can be wired for fewer lanes >> >than it can actually physically handle. Thunderbolt docks are >> >commonly that way due to TB3 supporting a maximum of a x4 >> >connection. >> > >> >Based on what I found on B&H, one slot is a x16 slot that's wired up >> >for x8 and two x8 slots. How that's wired up to the controller/PCIe >> >switch, I'm not sure. >> > >> >- Linh >> > >> >On 2020-10-20 18:18 -0700, John Jason Jordan <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> >> My two PCIe 3 cards got here a week ago and I mounted the four U.2 >> >> drives on them while waiting for the case to show up. It finally >> >> made it today. (Fedex has put it on a truck for delivery every >> >> day since last Wednesday, and the driver finally decided to >> >> deliver it today.) >> >> >> >> The case is a Magma EB3T-V3 which the vendor assured me could take >> >> the two Sonnet Dual Fusion PCI cards. Well, I can push them down >> >> into the connectors, but some of the connectors on the cards do >> >> not make contact. That is because the connectors in the case are >> >> about 2.25" long and the connectors on the cards are about 3.25" >> >> long. >> >> >> >> I think I've been had, but I'd like some education about what >> >> kinds of connectors PCI cards are supposed to use. And what are >> >> the different connectors called? So far Duckduckgo hasn't come up >> >> with anything. _______________________________________________ >> >> PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org >> >> PLUG mailing list >> >> [email protected] >> >> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> >> >> > >> >-- >> >Linh Pham >> >_______________________________________________ >> >PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org >> >PLUG mailing list >> >[email protected] >> >http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> _______________________________________________ >> PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org >> PLUG mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> > >-- >Linh Pham >_______________________________________________ >PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org >PLUG mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug _______________________________________________ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
