DIY M.2 chassis for Unraid

[ughhgu6]

Just messing around with some ideas. What's the best and cheapest way to get to as many M.2 slots on a regular motherboard as possible? Use case is probably Unraid, but this could apply to a ZFS system as well.

 

[mashtub651]

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=303

Would something like this work or an add in pcie card?

 

[Ranulfo]

From the storage showoff thread, Sata m.2 slots:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-2-5...SAT32M225/dp/B00VNVMKCG?th=1&tag=hardfocom-20

https://hardforum.com/threads/h-ard-forum-storage-showoff-thread.1847026/page-9#post-1044140135

Or for nvme

https://www.amazon.com/SEDNA-Hyoper...sprefix=m.2+to+sata+adapter+4+,aps,225&sr=8-1

 

[Maxx]

Depends on the motherboard.

If you mean X570 for example, it's possible to get up to 8 on one motherboard with napkin math:

1. M.2 socket using CPU lanes (1)
2. Two M.2 sockets over the chipset (3) or one on ASUS WS ACE (2) unless you count U.2 (3)
3. 4x4 adapter like the ASUS Hyper M.2 in the primary GPU PCIe slot (7)
4. With the ASUS WS ACE board you could use a 2x4 adapter with on-PCB bifurcation in a PCIe chipset slot (8, or 9 with U.2) or a regular adapter in another board (8)
5. Could theoretically get another using a X1 slot

This is not counting USB as you could get more that way of course.