Hello,
I would like to purchase a Blade 3 to build a portable NAS. Can I connect two nvme 2.5" drives (like intel D7-P5520) to the u.2 interface? Will they need an external power supply?
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Hello Sergio92, the U.2 interface on the Blade 3 has been modified for cluster use and does not support standard U.2 NVMe SSDs.
Thanks for asking @Sergio92 ! I was wondering if I could use Blades with OWC U2 Shuttle.
The Shuttle uses an ASMedia PCIe switch like the Cluster Box backplane btw (CES 2021: OWC Introduces 3.5" U.2 SSD Carrier)
@bobby so that’s really a SFF-8639 backplane connector… What’s been modified actually?
For example, the P1 and P10 pins are empty in our SFF-8639 backplane connector. P3 and P4 are used for customized IOs to detect the correct role of the Blade 3s’ daisy chain connection. These are different from a standard U.2 SSD. The below screenshot shows the general P1~P10 pinout of SFF-8639 connector.
