Data server. U2 connections - eviltoast

I was thinking the Ryzen Threadripper 7945WX (or equivalent 5000WX) Pro (smallest, 12 core) might make a great platform for a data server. The motherboards don’t have many u2 connections though (only one slimSAS). With 128 PCIe lanes I should be able to drive around 20 x4 NVMe drives. But how do I connect all the drives to the board? Are there dedicated u.2 expansion cards? Do I use 4x m2 x16 cards and m2 to u2 cables? I am interested in connecting it eg with some 100Gb/s connection to another server for deep learning.

    • charlesGodman@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I didn’t realise there were Epyc cpus that are actually cheaper than threadripper. small epyc 7003 are the clear choice. Do you know any epyc boards that are made for storage systems?

      • nolo_me@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Generally speaking the important functions on storage systems are on add-in cards. HBAs, RAID cards etc.

        • charlesGodman@alien.topOPBEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Thanks. From what I read, on a system with such a powerful cpu, it’s advisable to use software raid over hardware raid cards