Installing the Sabrent M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe Gen5 x16 AIC
If you saw our recent Dell Precision 3260 Compact Review you may have seen this PCIe slot designed for Dell’s riser, so it is very close to the rear of the chassis:
Since this Sabrent card does not have an overhang towards the rear I/O bracket, we thought it might work. Instead, the card got stuck in two places, one which we did not anticipate which is the CPU socket latch. The way one could fix this is by removing this part of the card with a saw or dremel. That is not a solution for everyone.
While this worked in the Dell, the heatsink designed to cool PCIe Gen5 M.2 SSDs is fairly heavy so this does not feel super secure. It is too bad there is not a full-height and low-profile bracket option for this card to make it more flexible.
The next idea we had was to fit it into a 1U server. Here is a Supermicro 1U chassis with the Sabrent card installed in the riser. Here, the x16 latch is present on the riser slot, so this is locked into place.
That begged the question of whether we could do without the riser. Here is what that looked like:
Unfortunately this is a little bit too tall to fit here. Still, if you have a clear x16 length slot, it works well. We just wanted to show a few novel applications since if we thought about it, our readers may also.
Final Words
Overall, the adapter worked. We originally had a performance section, but we tried three different M.2 drives two PCIe Gen4 one Gen5 and they all ran within +/- 2% of being installed in a motherboard M.2 slot. While the performance was not a huge differentiator, which is a good thing, having the M.2 heatsink built-in was really nice and that can be less expensive than buying a SSD with a heatsink. Also, the tool-less operation of the heatsink latch and the M.2 retention was great. It really would have been nice to have an option for a full-height and low profile retention bracket though.
Overall this is a small M.2 card that can be put adjacent to a GPU and not block much airflow to the larger GPU. For what it is, it works very well. Some of our readers are going to balk at the $19.99 price and say there are options out there for $9.99. That is valid, but this works at PCIe Gen5 speeds and is tool-less with a tool-less heatsink which those $9.99 specials often lack. If this fits your needs, an extra $10 to get a nicer unit is not a huge splurge for a better quality-of-life option.
Where to Buy
We purchased this unit on Amazon. If you want to check current pricing or find the unit, here is an Amazon Affiliate link to what we purchased.
The inability to use this anywhere except an x16 slot or an open-ended smaller slot despite only needing an x4 is what makes this of little value. It eliminates the majority of home systems, although maybe most boards with PCIe 5 right now will also have an extra x16 slot even if it’s only x4 electrically. That’s still makes it unusable with older boards or any that don’t have a slot that size. In most systems with PCIe slot itself will be strong enough to hold this in place without a latch or a slot cover, especially if the card will be mounted vertically. I think that electrical doohickey at the end of the slot in the Dell is the first thing that would be blocking the card rather than the CPU latch. It would be neat if they made the tab and the additional PCIe pins able to be snapped off if you needed to fit it into a smaller slot that is blocked off past the end.
The Sabrent M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe Gen5 x16 AIC is a great budget-friendly option for adding an M.2 SSD to a PCIe slot, especially for users who need a simple, no-frills solution. Its unique features like the heat spreader and secure mounting mechanism set it apart from other low-cost adapters. However, its limited use case and reliance on a PCIe slot may not make it ideal for all scenarios. If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to expand storage, this adapter is a solid choice.
What kind of LLM spam is that comment?
I would rather get an adapter that fits in a physical x4 slot. the vertical ones are especially handy if you dont have much room behind the pcie slot.
@evermore, i see your point but that’s why the x16 connector is notched up. It probably won’t work in all scenarios, as shown in the fine article, but should*. Supermicros with their open-ended slots should generally be no problem as well, except for physical stability.
Also in the consumer mobo space, x4 slots (say from the chipset) are often physically x16. I have Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte boards around me now with that setup, and I frequently use some cards just like these but cheaper (Maiwo) that work really well in those ~x16-not slots.
It could have been double sided for 2 SSD’s with PCI-E bifurcation support.
is it possible to have an NVMe SSD that runs at full spec PCIe Gen5 x16 ????
not the m.2 pcie gen5 x4 speed.