Review on 🔌 SI-PEX40142: 5-Slot M.2 B-Key SATA Base SSD Expansion Card with PCI-e 3.0 x2 Bandwidth, Requires x16 Slot by Zack Block

Summary I'd give this a 4.5, but Revain only allows me to select whole numbers and I can't justify perfection. In the end I am satisfied with the product and would buy it again. I think the manufacturer could have easily fixed the problems I was having. The support team was SUPER responsive and helpful and played a direct role in keeping me happy with the product. Installation - Requires 4 included screws. 2 to attach the NVMe stick mounts and 2 to screw into the mounts to hold the NVMe sticks. There are 2 of these and 1 screw that was MUCH thicker. Luckily the 4 screws to remove the heatsink/screen were the same so I was able to steal 2 of them and only use 2 on the screen until I found a replacement. That being said, the manufacturer was quick to answer my questions about screw size here and referred me to their support team. Your support team was excellent and got me the 2 missing screws straight away with no problem. I couldn't wish for a better solution to the problem. It also came with a small screwdriver so you don't have to take it out or look for it. Always a nice plus. Windows 7 picked up the card and loaded the drivers without any action on my part. No, I don't boot from floppy disks, so I don't have any information there. Management. The "Manual” that comes with the product is not a manual, just a small piece of paper that lists features, system requirements, and package contents. No support url or any hint. When I went to the support site for the screws the rep sent me to, there was nothing but documentation either. While I'm considered an expert and handled it fairly easily, other people might have trouble. I totally understand that I don't want to spend money on a big manual to keep production going and thus reduce MY costs and I totally agree, but at least put the PDF on your website for users. System Compatibility - I am using MSI x99s Gaming 9 AC with a 40 channel processor. When I first bought it I wasn't sure if it would work in a x16 slot that only has 8 PCIE lanes allocated. Now I can tell you that it WORKS. However, I can also tell you that on my MB at least, when I put it in the top slot with two groups of 8 lanes, all 16 lanes were blocked even though it only needed 8, stopping my card which was in a different slot and these other 8 tracks did not work. This was not the case with the x8 card that I previously had in the slot. So I had to put it in a slot that had a second set of 8 and only 8 lanes and put an NVMe drive in a 16 lane slot with a standard PCIE adapter. After that it worked like clockwork. I would suggest contacting your MB manufacturer and asking for a diagram of how PCIE lanes are switched to slots on your MB. A x16 slot does not necessarily mean that 16 lines are available for it. Final slot configuration - Slot 1 - Lycom PCIE NVME adapter with Samsung 950 Pro. (Uses the front 8 lanes. The back 8 lanes are shared with slots 2 and 3.) Slot 2 – This card with 2 Samsung Evo 970 NVMe drives (Uses the same 8 lanes as slot 3 and the back half of slot 1) Slot 3 - empty ( Has the same 8 lanes as slot 2 and the back half of slot 1) Slot 4 - 1080 Ti (has 2 sets of 8 lanes, not separated anywhere else) Slot 5 - Lycom PCIE NVME adapter with Samsung xp941 ( shared tracks with a built in M.2 slot) And if you've read this far, here are my benchmarks. All tests were performed using a brand new Samsung Evo 870 M.2 NVMe 1TB drive with Samsung Magician. I first tested it in a Lycom single M.2 slot adapter and then tested it in this product. While I can say that this adapter's performance was a bit slower, you'll have a hard time noticing. Users who MAY notice this will spend MUCH more to install than this card. Generally not a factor, but in the interests of full disclosure I'm including information. In the Lycom adapter - Serial (MB/s) - Read 3545 / Write 2440, Random (IOPS) - Read 412 109 / Write 300 781In. this product with a drive in both slots - Sequential (MB/s) - Read 3490/Write 2420, Random (IOPS) - Read 390,625/Write 286,621