PCI-E X4 To M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Card

Tigger · August 25, 2018, 8:51am

Can Edge support a PCI-E X4 To M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Card ?
(Like ROCK960 and ROCKPro64.)
With being able to boot it by BROM or U-boot would be great, and best the other two boards. But if not, just having the kernel and file system on NVMe is also OK.

tkaiser · August 25, 2018, 1:46pm

There’s an M.2 slot at the bottom of the Captain carrier board: ‘4 full-duplex lanes PCIe 2.1 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD Supported’

Then there’s something called ‘Edge V’ being ‘VIMs Form Compatible’ and also providing an M.2 slot: ‘Edge-V designed with extra GPIO pins including STM8S MCU IO on the M.2 Socket for additional connectivity options’

I doubt there will be NVMe support in primitive bootloaders so all you could do is chainloading Linux kernels (there’s 16 MB SPI NOR flash on each Edge variant)

tkaiser · August 25, 2018, 1:47pm

You forgot NanoPC-T4, there’s also an M.2 key M slot on the lower PCB side.

Tigger · August 26, 2018, 10:34am

Thanks for the info. Looks like I also need to get the Captain or “Edge V”. Chain loading the kernel and file system from U-boot will have to do.

No, you’re wrong. I didn’t even know that that board existed. There are so many now.

Tigger · August 28, 2018, 6:30pm

Will the PCIe expansion card (used to screw the NVMe drive onto) be connected through a short flat cable, or will the NVMe drive be plugged directly in the M.2 slot of the Captain board ?
(I can’t spot any M.2 mounting holes for a M.2 mounting screw in the photos though.)

Gouwa · August 29, 2018, 7:41am

Yes, M.2 2280 mountable directly

Tigger · August 29, 2018, 10:32am

Cool!
Will there eventually also be a case for the Edge + Captainboard + NVMe drive ?
For example 2 acrylic panels with stacked with spacers.

Gouwa · August 29, 2018, 11:19am

Thanks for the suggestion, and actually, we just complete the 1st acrylic case days ago:

PS: we have another acrylic top cover version which leave the buttons area blank.

tkaiser · August 29, 2018, 12:31pm

I hope you don’t want to sell this? Heat dissipation is nothing that has been thought of, right?

@Tigger: you know how much heat fast NVMe SSDs generate so heat dissipation is not only a challenge with powerful SoCs like RK3399 but also with those SSDs? Not only SoCs will throttle down when overheating but those SSDs too (all the better flash memory products in general). Last year I tried to fit a tiny M.2 SATA SSD into a an also tiny USB3 enclosure just to realize that this simply can’t work. From 500 MB/s down to 30 MB/s while running some boring drive benchmarks within minutes and SMART reported drive temperatures well above 85°C.

Gouwa · August 29, 2018, 1:13pm

absolutely not, you might missed the comments in this topic

balbes150 · August 29, 2018, 1:24pm

It is a suitable case. Only it is more correct to call it, a set of parts for the Assembly of my version of the housing when using my version of the cooling system. For example, I plan to use my version of the optimal radiator and fan (balanced under my conditions). And this set of parts for the body is quite suitable for me.

Tigger · August 29, 2018, 3:26pm

I can’t see 2 acrylic panels (top and bottom) and 4 open sides cause overheating issues. Especially with taller standoffs so that heat sinks can be fitted.

Tigger · August 29, 2018, 7:50pm

Looking at the photo with the beautiful acrylic case. Could you specify the M-size and length for taller standoffs in the docs. For those like me, who want to install a heatsink and buy taller standoffs for the heat sink to clear ?

Gouwa · August 30, 2018, 2:06am

The mounting holes of Captain is M3
Currently, in the picture I posted above, the length is 10mm and there are 5.5mm height available for heatsink. We haven’t finially confirm the standoffs length at the monment, still wait to the Edge heatsink to be completed first.

Tigger · August 30, 2018, 3:36am

Did you mean 5.5cm height?

Another option would be to keep the standoffs at 10mm and cut a hole for the heatsink in the top acrylic plate. But not everyone might like this.

Gouwa · August 30, 2018, 3:39am

Nope, it’s MM not CM. We designed a cooling fan to better heat spreading.

Tigger · August 30, 2018, 3:59am

Thanks for clarifying that. This is getting better and better. Although, to me, a cooling fan is less . The noise I mean.

Gouwa · August 30, 2018, 4:08am

We are talking with our team that we want to design a specify cooling fan for Edge with following specs:

Procotype as follow:

Have to claim that our team still haven’t confirm whether we chose the one, as we have to design and open a mold for the fan, we want to but money says no to us

Tigger · August 30, 2018, 6:39am

The 12.3 dB at 50cm, of the 4505 would be excellent.
And it delivers more air pressure and air flow too.
But it’s up to the team.

balbes150 · August 30, 2018, 7:17am

I would suggest variant of the cooling system.
Use as the entire top cover of the case (completely instead of the top acrylic plate) a metal plate with an adapter, in the form of a metal cube, to contact the processor. You can use two configuration options.

Without fan (for operation of the system with medium loads or at low ambient temperature).

2 . With additional fan on the top side of the cover (for maximum load or high ambient temperature).