Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent)
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IDDownload TitleDownload LinkPost Date
1101 Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent) Quick Start Guide [English]Oct-24-24
Description: This is the English language quick start guide for Sonnet's M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent).

This is revision H of this document.
 
 
FAQ (11)
IDArticle TitlePost Date
976 In a Mac Pro, the SSDs are seen as external drives, how do I prevent accidental ejects?Feb-14-23
1069 How do I configure RAID under Windows 10?Feb-14-23
1. In the Windows search box, type "Storage Spaces".

2. Select Create a new pool and storage space. Windows will check all eligible volumes and list them in the next window.

3. Select the SSDs you want to include in the RAID and click Create Pool.
Warning: All data on the drives you select will be erased, so back up any important data before continuing!

4. After creating a pool, you'll be prompted to configure your new storage space. Type a name for the storage space and select a drive letter. The storage space will appear with this name and drive letter in Windows. You can select either the standard Windows NTFS file system or ReFS, the new resilient file system. If you'll be using mirroring or parity to protect against data loss, we recommend choosing ReFS for its file integrity protection features.

5. Choose a resiliency type. Select Simple (no resiliency) for a large RAID 0 pool of storage that combines the speed of the included SSDs, but offers no protection from a single SSD failure. Select Two-way mirror (RAID 1) to store two copies of your data across two SSDs, or select Three-way mirror (RAID 1) to store three copies of your data across three SSDs. Select Parity (RAID 5) to be protected from a single SSD failure across 4 SSDs. Parity will offer protection with increased size (3/4 of the combined SSD size), but a parity space is noticeably slower than the other options.

6. Choose the size of your storage space. The default will be the maximum available amount of storage you have, which will vary depending on the type of space you create. SImple maximum should be a sum of the sizes of the included SSDs. Mirror should should show the size of a single SSD. Parity should show the combined size of three (of four) SSDs.

7. Select Create storage space when you are done configuring your storage space.

8. The storage space you created will appear as a standard drive under This PC, with the name and drive letter you configured. It appears no different from a normal, physical drive to Windows and the desktop programs you use.
 
1070 Option-boot doesn't function when a bootable Mac OS is installed on an M.2 4x4 PCIe CardMay-22-20
1073 How do I configure RAID under macOS?Feb-14-23
1077 Programming SSDs to 4k Block Size for Compatibility With macOS 10.13.6Feb-08-23
1082 I would like to use double-sided SSDs. How can I do this?Jul-04-20
Here is an guideline for users with some technical skills. Sonnet does not support this modification, but if you are up for it, here you go. Read the complete instructions before starting.

The thermal pad on the M.2 4x4 is pre-installed for single-sided SSDs. If you would like to use double-sided SSDs, you need to make a modification to the cooling system.

1. Remove the thermal pad pre-attached to the PCIe card. (Do not remove the thermal pad pre-attached to the heat sink!)
2. Get some thermal tape that is 20mm wide x 0.25mm thick. This is available on Amazon.
3. Cut four 70mm strips of tape, peel off the bottom covers from the tape, and stick a strip of tape under each M.2 position. This is the correct thickness for the two FLASH memory chips on the back end of the M.2 stick.
4. Peel off the top covers from the tape.
5. Cut four 30mm strips of tape, peel of the bottom covers from the tape, and stick a strip of tape under each M.2 position near the connector end. Two strips stacked is the correct thickness for the SRAM memory chip on the front end the M.2 stick.
6. Peel off the top covers from the tape.
7. Install the SSDs in their sockets and screw them down.

***Warning, the SSDs will be difficult to remove once stuck to the tape.***
If you need to remove and replace the SSDs, remove the SSD from the thermal tape carefully.
 
1087 Can I install macOS 10.15 (Catalina) on a Mac Pro 5,1 using the M.2 4x4 card?May-22-20
1122 Thunderbolt 3 NVMe volumes may experience a stop error under Windows 10 version 20H2Feb-14-23
1125 Can I start with one SSD and add more later?Dec-29-20
1136 How can I use my new SSD volume to hold my user folder on macOS?Feb-14-23
1183 The Write performance of my SSD is very slow under Windows.Feb-14-23