topic Re: External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series in Solid State Drives (NAND)

External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series

Clay_D_Intel — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 23:21:34 GMT

I looking for a single-bay drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700. I need to pull 1 drive for our server and ship an external drive enclosure that a off-site computer can access the SSD via a USB connection.

The Intel SSD connector appears to be keyed slightly different that a normal internal SSD. I have tried a couple of external enclosures but the connectors do not match up:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MG9GNC5/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Amazon.com: StarTech.com 2.5" USB-C Hard Drive Enclosure – USB 3.1 Type C – with USB-C and USB-A Cable – USB 3.0 HDD Enc…

Can you recommend an external drive enclosure?

Thank you.

Re: External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series

idata — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:44:24 GMT

Hi cwdavis4,

We understand your situation regarding the Intel® SSD DC P3700 Series with the USB enclosure. We would like to inform you that the enclosure you informed does not support NVMe* and that is why you can't see the SSD.We can not recommend you a specific USB enclosure. However, you need a USB enclosure that supports NVMe* and also supports the U.2 SSD's connector. Please let us know if you have further questions. Regards,Junior M.

Re: External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series

Clay_D_Intel — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:50:19 GMT

Hi - thank you for the reply.

Do you know of any industry solutions for a "USB enclosure that supports NVMe* and also supports the U.2 SSD's connector" ? Not a recommendation - but does this exist?

If so - I will continue to search. I contacted a couple vendors (Startech, etc) - but they do not have a solution for this.

Re: External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series

idata — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:16:05 GMT

Hi cwdavis4,

Thanks for the reply. Since this is not a common configuration, we are not aware of any such adapter. Regards, Junior M.

Re: External Drive enclosure for Intel SSD DC P3700 Series

SPolk — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 18:52:56 GMT

Hi,

I'm no expert, but NVMe drives are basically PCI express devices. No company to date has developed a PCIe to USB bridge chip. However, you can uses a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure to achieve something close to what you want. If your customer can get a Thunderbolt 3 laptop or desktop then this will work.

U2 to PCIe adapter:

https://www.startech.com/ca/HDD/Adapters/u2-pcie-adapter-nvme-ssd~PEX4SFF8639 U.2 to PCIe Adapter for 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD | HDD Adapters | StarTech.com Canada

Thunderbolt3 enclosure:

https://www.akitio.com/expansion/node-lite Node Lite - Thunderbolt 3 PCI Express Expansion Chassis | AKiTiO https://www.akitio.com/expansion/node-lite

If you want something smaller, a SONNET fusion drive is pretty nice:

http://www.sonnettech.com/Product/fusiontb3pcieflashdrive.html Fusion Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Drive | Sonnet

Cheers,

Stephen