New PCIe 4.0 NVMe AIC from AORUS Coming Soon!

[Peter_Brosdahl]

We’ve been hearing about PCIe 4.0 storage options coming from Aorus over the last few months. One such item has been their new AORUS PCIe 4.0 Quadro NVMe AIC. This add in card will allow you to have up to four NVMe SSDs to take advantage of those incredibly fast PCIe 4.0 x16 speeds. Poised for pairing with the soon to be released Threadripper 3 series these could be just the thing for content creators or those simply wanting a fast and convenient place to provide storage as the TRX40 chipset only as two x16 slots.

As we’ve learned in recent years, SSD’s can actually generate substantial heat. Gigabyte has addressed this issue by using a cooling solution comprised cooling fan, copper heatsink, thermal pads, and a mid-loss pcb encased in a design very similar to GPU solutions. Eteknix has reported the card to be priced at approximately $130 and also hinted that it may actually be included with some new Gigabyte Motherboards.

With the holiday around the corner a number of builders may be eyeing new tech for their next build and new mobo/AIC combo could be a great way to start.

 

[Zarathustra]

...as the TRX40 chipset only as two x16 slots.

Is this confirmed? So Threadripper 3's with the TR4X0 chipset will not have the 64 lanes of previous gens? That is a huge bummer.

Can anyone point to the source?

 

[Riccochet]

Is this confirmed? So Threadripper 3's with the TR4X0 chipset will not have the 64 lanes of previous gens? That is a huge bummer.

Can anyone point to the source?

lanes |= slots

It'll have 64 lanes, but only two 16x card slots.

 

[Zarathustra]

lanes |= slots

It'll have 64 lanes, but only two 16x card slots.

That seems like a motherboard implementation thing, rather than a chipset limitation.

For my purposes, that is fine. I only really need one 16x slot for the GPU. Everything else I have is 8x or lower. Most Enterprise stuff (SAS controllers, high bandwidth Ethernet cards, etc) seems to always wind up being 8x...

My ideal board would have one 16x slot, and 6 8x slots. I wouldn't have a problem with one of those 8x slots being one of those thaylt is 16x, unless a nearby slot is used in which case it becomes 8x.

That leaves enough leftover lanes for two full 4x m.2 slots, 4 if you drop them down to two lanes when the second slot in a pair is populated.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Is this confirmed? So Threadripper 3's with the TR4X0 chipset will not have the 64 lanes of previous gens? That is a huge bummer.

Can anyone point to the source?

From eTeknix "The new add-in card is mostly geared towards the 3rd generation Threadrippr and the TRX40 chipset. Those come with two PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slots ".

They're staying mum on their source due to probably a non-disclosure until release. I think it may also depend on the motherboard tier because I also found this from TechPowerUp.

"We now got a hold of the first picture of what appears to be GIGABYTE's AORUS motherboard based on TRX40 chipset. Coming in with the E-ATX form factor, this motherboard is similar in size with the previous X399 AORUS Xtreme model. It features four PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and eight slots that support four-channel DDR4 memory, so it is likely that TRX40 chipset is meant only for such configuration"

As you, and others, have also noted there will be variations due to chipset and motherboard implementations.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

That seems like a motherboard implementation thing, rather than a chipset limitation.

For my purposes, that is fine. I only really need one 16x slot for the GPU. Everything else I have is 8x or lower. Most Enterprise stuff (SAS controllers, high bandwidth Ethernet cards, etc) seems to always wind up being 8x...

My ideal board would have one 16x slot, and 6 8x slots. I wouldn't have a problem with one of those 8x slots being one of those thaylt is 16x, unless a nearby slot is used in which case it becomes 8x.

That leaves enough leftover lanes for two full 4x m.2 slots, 4 if you drop them down to two lanes when the second slot in a pair is populated.

I agree. Whether two or more, all I really need anymore is something for my drives and something for the GPU since Mgpu is dead and gone for gaming.

edit: At this point for gaming PCIe 4.0 is reported to have limited returns for drives anyway but I believe a AIC like this could saturate it under the right conditions.