Sonnet with Up to 64TB M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe Card Featuring 8 NVMe M.2 SSD Slots and Silent Operation

Sonnet Technologies, Inc. announced the M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card, the latest offering in the company’s family of high-performance storage adapter cards that enable the installation of multiple SSDs into a computer PCIe card slot.

The full-height, full-length, single-width x16 PCIe 4.0 card features 8 NVMe M.2 SSD slots that support the installation of Gen4 (and Gen3) PCIe SSDs.

What it does:
The M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card enables users to mount 8xM.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs (sold separately) into a single x16 PCIe card slot; using today’s highest-capacity SSDs, up to 64TB of storage capacity may be installed. OS RAID-0, -1, -10, and JBOD configurations are supported, providing users with flexibility in configuring the SSDs for the best performance or data safety, or both.

Why it’s important:
For users who require high-speed data transfer speeds for a smooth workflow and need added storage capacity for their computer – such as video editors working with 6K and greater resolution footage – an NVMe M.2 SSD-based upgrade is essential. Many computers do not include slots to support installing M.2 SSDs directly but do include PCIe expansion card slots. Other computers – such as the Apple Mac Pro with Apple silicon – use proprietary SSDs, limiting the maximum storage capacity natively supported. With the M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card installed, a user can mount up to 8 high-capacity SSDs in a single PCIe card slot for instant-access media storage or for use as a fast scratch disk.

How it’s distinctive:
Compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux, the M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card features a high-performance 48-lane PCIe 4.0 switch that provides 16 lanes of PCIe bandwidth to installed SSDs, ensuring the best simultaneous performance possible from 4 to 8 SSDs. As a result, when installed in a Mac Pro – which is equipped with PCIe 4.0 card slots – the company’s card can support sustained transfer speeds of up to 30,000MB/s read and 25,000MB/s write, respectively, with 4 or more SSDs formatted as a RAID-0 volume. To support their sustained high performance – most importantly during large file transfers – the card’s passive heatsink effectively prevents thermal throttling, enabling SSDs to maintain sustained peak performance without relying on fans that can get loud. (Thermal throttling is an SSD protection feature that prevents them from overheating by choking their performance until they cool down.)

The M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card supports an array of Gen4 (and Gen3) NVMe SSDs (visit the Sonnet website for a list of compatible M.2 SSDs). The card does not require a computer that supports PCIe bifurcation.

Availability:
The M.2 8×4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card (part number FUS-SSD-8X4-E4S) is available from the company and channel partners WW at the suggested retail price of $799.99.