SFF.Network [SFF Network] Intel to bundle 750-series U.2 drives with M.2 adapter

It has been about a year since Intel released the 750-series of solid state drives and it is still the only U.2 drive on the market. A few U.2 drives were shown at Computex but when those will be available is currently unknown and the other SSD manufacturers are currently hesitant to invest in the form factor.

While a few high-end motherboards exist with the built-in SFF-8643 (Mini-SAS HD) connector needed to connect directly to a U.2 drive and some were announced at Computex, it's a rare sight on Mini-ITX and microATX boards. On the other hand, M.2 slots are common on most any mid-range to high-end Intel Skylake mobo. Perhaps in recognition to the current state of the market, PC Perspective is reporting that Intel plans to offer a SKU of the U.2 version of the 750-series drives that comes bundled with a M.2 to U.2 adapter.

Read more here.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Your link is broken Abio
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This is some good news; with where M.2 slots usually are, a low profile solution is appreciated. That said, I still don't understand why more motherboards don't have the mini-SAS connector on them

 

[jeshikat]

Your link is broken Abio

Fixed.

That said, I still don't understand why more motherboards don't have the mini-SAS connector on them

Lack of U.2 drives I would guess. Also, a M.2 port can be converted to U.2 but going the other way defeats the purpose of the M.2 form factor.

 

[BirdofPrey]

The latter is why I was confused by the ASUS Impact having a U.2 rather than an M.2.
I'm not as sold on the former reason though. Manufacturers put SATA Express on their boards (often two of them) despite a lack of drives for that (though I have seen a couple other stuff that takes advantage of that port, eg. USB3.1 bays). Aside from that, the port can carry either 4 PCIe lanes or 4 SATA links, and given the presence of SATA Express on recent boards, multiplexing the SATA and PCIe isn't something manufacturers find an undue expense. It would be simple to replace a pair of SATA Express or quartet of normal SATA ports with a mini SAS HD connector and supply a Mini SAS to 4x SATA cable with the board like how they always ship a superfluous SATA cable. The only thing I can think of is that they assume users are morons and couldn't deal with a port they haven't seen before.

 

[Phuncz]

It amazes me no manufacturer has yet combined the U.2 connector with power on the motherboard, even ThinITX has had onboard SATA power for years. That clunky Y-cable is just sad-panda for the entire concept and is only a non-issue for the backplanes with "that SAS-port with some numbers attached to it".

 

[jeshikat]

I'm not as sold on the former reason though.

I think we saw a plethora of boards with SATA Express because it can be added with little cost and effort since each port is backwards compatible with 2x SATA ports.

U.2 on the other hand would be more complicated, requires a relatively expensive breakout cable, and requires more education.

 

[EdZ]

Cost is definitely a factor too. U.2 (nee SFF-8643) was designed for enterprise use. Compact, robust, reliable, but not cheap, and with dictated signal integrity requirements. m.2 is just a card-edge connector.

 

[Phuncz]

M.2 is slightly more as it also specs for a few soldered boards:

Ain't it cute ?

 

[Dyson Poindexter]

Sorry, off-board SSDs are dead to me. M.2 all the way.