Name: Sonnet Technologies M.2 4x4 PCIe Card. Features x16 PCIe bridge, 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth for each SSD installed
Brand: Sonnet Technologies
SKU: STIFUSSSD4X4E3

Sonnet Technologies M.2 4x4

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Add your own SSDs

Adds Ultra-Fast SSDs to Your System—Mounts four M.2 NVME SSDs (sold separately) in your computer’s, or Thunderbolt expansion chassis' x16 PCIe slot
High-Performance PCIe Interface—PCI Express 3.0 x16 host bus interface for high-performance applications
Great Way to Add Up to 8TB of M.2 SSD Storage to Computers with Thunderbolt—Perfect for use in Sonnet's Echo™ Express III-D, Echo Express III-R, xMac™ mini Server, xMac Pro Server, and Thunderbolt expansion systems
RAID Support—Supports macOS and Windows RAID 0; macOS supports RAID 5 with the addition of SoftRAID
macOS Boot Support—Supports booting from JBOD (non-RAIDed) attached SSDs
Concatenation (Spam) Support—Supports creating a single, large volume that spans all four SSDs under Mac, Windows, or Linux
NVMe Compliant SSDs—Typically no drivers required
S.M.A.R.T. Support—Supports S.M.A.R.T. data reporting
Smart Fan—The fan is temperature-controlled and spins only when and as fast as needed, minimizing audible noise
Sonnet Technologies 2 Year Limited Warranty

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Overview
Includes
Specs
Compatibility

High-speed Data Transfers

If you need to add internal storage to your computer setup and high-speed data transfers are critical to your work, don’t look to 2.5" SATA SSDs—you need an NVMe SSD-based upgrade. Today’s NVMe PCIe SSDs offer tremendous performance, easily outclassing 2.5" SATA SSDs. Sonnet’s M.2 4x4 PCIe card enables you to mount four M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs onto a single x16 card slot—it can transform the way you work.

With the Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe card installed in your Mac Pro® tower; Windows® or Linux® PC desktop or server; or Thunderbolt™ to PCIe card expansion system with an available x16 PCIe slot, you can use it for instant-access media storage or as a high-performance scratch disk. Mac® users can even install macOS® on one SSD to create an incredibly fast boot drive and create a RAID 0 set with the other installed SSDs without loss of performance. However you use it, this card’s performance is impressive.

Performance Oriented

Sonnet’s M.2 4x4 PCIe card is a full-height, full-length PCIe 3.0 card with a 16-lane (x16) interface. Featuring a unique Sonnet-designed x16 PCIe bridge, the card devotes four lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth to each SSD you install. When installed in a Windows PC’s PCIe 3.0 slot with four SSDs formatted in a RAID 0 configuration, the card is capable of 8,500 MB/s transfers. Aggregate transfer speeds from four non-RAIDed SSDs of up to 12,000 MB/s are possible!

No Slowdowns

Sonnet designed the M.2 4x4 PCIe Card with a custom cooling solution incorporating several components. These include a heatsink, and a smart fan that is temperature-controlled and spins only when and as fast as needed to minimize audible noise. Together, they enable your SSDs to operate for sustained periods—most importantly during large file transfers—without thermal throttling of the SSDs’ performance, a problem encountered by competing products.Thunderbolt Port? Connect Four SSDs Through One Cable. Got a Thunderbolt connection, but no PCIe card slot? Sonnet’s M.2 4x4 PCIe card is ideal for use in one of our Echo™ Express III-D, III-R, or xMac™ Thunderbolt to PCIe card expansion systems—the combo enables you to add up to four SSDs to any Mac or Linux computer with Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 ports, or Windows PC with Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Simple and S.M.A.R.T

Integrating a Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe card into your system is easy—just insert it into a x16 PCIe slot and then start your computer—NVMe compliance ensures the necessary drivers are installed automatically. macOS 10.14.4+, Windows 10, and Linux compatible; the Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe uses the operating systems built-in drive formatting utilities to format the SSDs. Drive health monitoring is supported through S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data reporting, too.

Includes

(1) M.2 4x4 PCIe Card
(1) Documentation
Sonnet Technologies 2 Year Limited Warranty

Specs

Boot Support

macOS Boot Support—Supports booting from JBOD (non-RAIDed) attached SSDs

S.M.A.R.T. Attributes

Standard attributes supported

RAID Levels Supported

RAID 0

RAID Features

Supports macOS and Windows RAID 0
macOS supports RAID 5 with the addition of SoftRAID (Software sold separately.)

Internal Connectivity

(4) m.2 "M" Key NVME sockets

Card Interface

PCIe

PCIe Bus Interface

PCI Express 3.0 x16

Mac OS Compatibility

macOS 10.14 Mojave

PC OS Compatibility

Windows 10 64-bit Edition

Other OS Compatibility

Linux Kernel 5.0+

Other Requirements

Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010 & Mid 2012) with available full-length x16 PCIe slot
Mac Pro 7,1 (2019) – Use x16 PCIe slot (slot 3, 4, or 5)
for full performance
Mac Pro 5,1 requires a recommended Metal-compatible graphics card for macOS 10.4 (Mojave).
PC desktop or server with available full-length, full-height x16 PCIe slot (PCIe 3.0 slot is preferred)
Mac computer with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 2 ports via a Thunderbolt 3 or 2 to PCIe card expansion system with available full-length x16 PCIe slot
Windows computer with Thunderbolt 3 ports via a Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe card expansion system with available full-length x16 PCIe slot
Linux computer with Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 ports via a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 to PCIe card expansion system with available full-length x16 PCIe slot

Dimensions

Height: 10.7 cm (4.2 in)
Length: 31.2 cm (12.3 in)
Width: 2.0 cm (0.8 in)

Weight

680.0 g (1.50 lbs)

Certifications

RoHS

Only 2280 (80mm—the most common length) length M.2 SSDs and with memory components on only the top side are supported. M.2 SSDs longer or shorter than 80mm don’t fit. M.2 SSDs with with components on both sides don’t fit.
Booting from an external SSD in macOS 10.14.4+ requires enabling external booting in the security preferences that can be set in a command-R (recovery system) boot.
This product’s performance will vary based on the type and number of SSDs used, the CPU speed (for RAID), and the PCIe architecture.
Use of Samsung SSDs in computers running Windows requires the download and installation of NVMe drivers from Samsung; Microsoft Windows inbox NVMe drivers do not support Samsung SSDs.
Performance in a Thunderbolt 3 PCIe expansion chassis limited by maximum Thunderbolt 3 PCIe bandwidth of 2800 MB/s. PCIe bandwidth of Thunderbolt 2 is about half of Thunderbolt 3.

Compatibility & Installation Videos

Mac Pro

Mac Pro (Mid 2012)

Mid 2012

Model ID: MacPro5,1

3.2GHz 4-Core Xeon & 3.3GHz 6-Core Xeon & 2.4GHz & 2.7GHz & 3.1GHz 12-Core Xeon

Detailed Specs Install Videos

Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

Mid 2010

Model ID: MacPro5,1

2.7GHz & 2.9GHz & 3.3GHz & 3.5GHz 6-Core Xeon & 2.4GHz 8-Core Xeon & 2.7GHz & 2.9GHz & 3.1GHz & 3.3GHz & 3.5GHz 12-Core Xeon

Detailed Specs Install Videos