{"video_id":"uCXcqV31iZ8","title":"These are TOTALLY Different - Let me Explain. (U.3 Storage Comparison)","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2021-05-05T14:53:29Z","duration_s":705,"segments":[{"start_s":5.68,"end_s":9.84,"text":"they're the same picture except they're not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":8.96,"end_s":14.639,"text":"this is a boring old u.2 drive you can find","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":12.32,"end_s":19.52,"text":"these puppies with up to a four lane pci express gen 4 interface","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.48,"end_s":20.56,"text":"and up to about 8 gigabytes per second","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":19.52,"end_s":29.039,"text":"speed which is okay i guess but it's not nearly as cool as this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.0,"end_s":32.719,"text":"u.3 doesn't increase speeds","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":29.039,"end_s":36.559,"text":"at all and in fact it could even be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":32.719,"end_s":38.48,"text":"much slower but it could also be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":36.559,"end_s":42.16,"text":"the same speed which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":39.6,"end_s":46.239,"text":"doesn't really sound that great does it until i tell you that it also allows","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.64,"end_s":51.92,"text":"cross-compatibility with sas and even SATA drives in exactly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":50.48,"end_s":58.16,"text":"the same slot what that's right my friends this connector","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":55.12,"end_s":60.879,"text":"here is basically like putting a usb","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":58.16,"end_s":66.64,"text":"drive in a firewire port and we've got both a drive from kyoccia who sponsored","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":63.359,"end_s":69.76,"text":"this video and this server over here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":66.64,"end_s":73.4,"text":"from super micro and we are going to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":69.76,"end_s":73.4,"text":"testing it out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":80.0,"end_s":85.84,"text":"u.3 is super new so while the drives are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":83.2,"end_s":90.96,"text":"readily available hardware to actually plug them into is still pretty hard to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":88.479,"end_s":95.84,"text":"find our server for example only supports u.2 fortunately kyoccia","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":94.159,"end_s":99.6,"text":"provided us with everything we're going to need starting with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":98.64,"end_s":104.0,"text":"this now in the old days controller cards","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":101.84,"end_s":108.72,"text":"like this one usually had built-in specialty processors on board to perform","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":106.399,"end_s":113.6,"text":"the parity calculations that protected the attached raid array from data loss","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":111.36,"end_s":120.0,"text":"over time though hardware raid cards have given way to hbas or host bus","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":116.479,"end_s":122.719,"text":"adapters that simply convert your pci","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":120.0,"end_s":127.84,"text":"express slot into dumb storage ports leaning on the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":125.36,"end_s":130.959,"text":"general purpose CPU to do the heavy lifting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":128.879,"end_s":135.36,"text":"this kind of software raid is more flexible more cost effective and it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":133.84,"end_s":139.92,"text":"easier for administrators to troubleshoot and repair and these are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":137.92,"end_s":145.68,"text":"actually some of the big driving forces behind the u.3 standard so this broadcom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":143.84,"end_s":151.2,"text":"9516i is what's called a tri-mode storage","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":148.0,"end_s":154.64,"text":"adapter it uses a pci express gen 4x8","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":151.2,"end_s":158.72,"text":"interface and can address up to 1024","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":154.64,"end_s":162.72,"text":"SATA or sas drives using expanders or up","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":158.72,"end_s":166.08,"text":"to 32 NVMe drives now let's have a look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":162.72,"end_s":169.28,"text":"at the broadcom lrond yes that's right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.08,"end_s":171.2,"text":"my friends it's a custom external u.3","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":169.28,"end_s":175.04,"text":"testing enclosure that's designed for research and development of new drives","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":173.2,"end_s":179.12,"text":"and adapter cards to make sure that they interface with servers correctly in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":177.04,"end_s":184.56,"text":"other words this isn't something that you can just go out and buy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":181.68,"end_s":189.36,"text":"normally the way it would work is a u.3 backplane like the one that's built into","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":186.8,"end_s":193.519,"text":"this enclosure would just be directly in the server behind the bays at the front","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":191.519,"end_s":198.4,"text":"and you would plug right into them but as of right now we haven't found any","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":195.519,"end_s":202.319,"text":"servers with native u.3 support at least that we can get our hands on hp","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":200.4,"end_s":206.879,"text":"enterprise is one of the only brands that's shipping u.3 technology currently","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":204.72,"end_s":211.2,"text":"though lenovo has also expressed their support for it so here we go we just","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":208.959,"end_s":216.4,"text":"install our try mode card into our caddy here and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":213.84,"end_s":219.68,"text":"plonk that into our server oh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":217.599,"end_s":223.519,"text":"contact believe it or not we haven't even turned","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":221.04,"end_s":223.519,"text":"it on yet","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":224.799,"end_s":229.37,"text":"ah there it is here we go","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":228.48,"end_s":236.64,"text":"you're ready now one little trick is normally you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":234.0,"end_s":240.799,"text":"would run these cables internally to the back plane at the front of the device","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":238.56,"end_s":248.56,"text":"obviously right well that's not a try mode u.3 backplane","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":244.64,"end_s":248.56,"text":"so we're just going to kind of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":251.84,"end_s":256.959,"text":"yeah good it's good cooling gotta have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":255.04,"end_s":259.759,"text":"air holes on the side okay here we go","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.56,"end_s":262.72,"text":"very funny what am i putin","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":263.52,"end_s":269.919,"text":"i'm gonna be next level impressed if this manages like hot swap functionality","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":268.56,"end_s":276.4,"text":"now you might have noticed that even though we've only got an 8x card","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.96,"end_s":278.16,"text":"we've got four 4x capable cables coming","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":276.4,"end_s":282.24,"text":"out of here that's because that bandwidth can be shared it's in much the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":279.919,"end_s":285.04,"text":"same way that even if you did plug in a thousand","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":283.44,"end_s":288.32,"text":"sas drives obviously if you were actually hitting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":286.88,"end_s":291.68,"text":"them all at once they would have to share some of that bandwidth","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":290.56,"end_s":297.919,"text":"what do you think is this just gonna like magically","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":295.12,"end_s":301.6,"text":"hot swap pickup wait probably not because we don't have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":299.68,"end_s":307.44,"text":"a drive in it yet one moment please this just feels so wrong","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":305.12,"end_s":312.96,"text":"SATA port u.3 connector okay here we go","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":312.96,"end_s":320.88,"text":"just like that put it online initialize","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":318.08,"end_s":326.08,"text":"blah blah blah ouch","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":322.479,"end_s":329.919,"text":"60 megabytes a second reads","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":326.08,"end_s":333.68,"text":"not exactly impressive but of course the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":329.919,"end_s":335.12,"text":"performance of u.3 was never the point","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.68,"end_s":339.039,"text":"there's nothing you can do with an interface to make a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.88,"end_s":343.759,"text":"two and a half inch hard drive suddenly magically fast","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":340.88,"end_s":349.199,"text":"the point is that we can do this this is a sas SSD","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.88,"end_s":353.68,"text":"and theoretically i'm gonna pop that right in there hot swap","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":351.52,"end_s":356.96,"text":"and it's going to just like work wait for it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":356.96,"end_s":362.499,"text":"there it is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":362.72,"end_s":368.4,"text":"we can run a quick performance test here there it is you can see it's a lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":365.759,"end_s":373.44,"text":"faster of course it's an SSD it's not a mechanical hard drive but the point here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":371.199,"end_s":378.4,"text":"again is not the performance it's to demonstrate how just because you've got","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":376.0,"end_s":382.96,"text":"one physical connector doesn't mean that you can't use different protocols over","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":380.96,"end_s":386.8,"text":"it and that's really this is a much more appropriate analogy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.199,"end_s":390.96,"text":"for what we're doing today than the whole usb firewire thing because those","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.44,"end_s":397.36,"text":"are completely different physical connectors SATA and sas already used the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":394.56,"end_s":401.6,"text":"same connector just a different protocol so that's what we've looked at so far","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.84,"end_s":406.96,"text":"but now ah uh this one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":403.44,"end_s":408.4,"text":"now it's time to put in a gen4 pci","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":406.96,"end_s":414.4,"text":"express SSD using again the same u.3 connector this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":411.36,"end_s":417.199,"text":"is a cm6 from kyoxia which was the first","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":414.4,"end_s":423.52,"text":"available u.3 drive on the market and it's rated at up to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":419.08,"end_s":426.319,"text":"6900 megabytes per second nice","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":423.52,"end_s":431.44,"text":"just like our merch is nice like the CPU pillow lttstore.com now","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":429.199,"end_s":434.639,"text":"you probably noticed i just shoved that in there","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.319,"end_s":438.96,"text":"is hot swap gonna work i actually don't know because i've had some pretty bad","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":436.4,"end_s":444.16,"text":"experiences hot swapping pci express devices oh oh ouch","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":441.919,"end_s":448.319,"text":"but that's supposed to be one of the benefits as the technology has matured","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":446.96,"end_s":453.199,"text":"is we're supposed to be able to take any kind of drive we want chuck it in there","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":450.72,"end_s":457.68,"text":"hot swap cold swap let's see if it's in here there it is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":455.44,"end_s":462.319,"text":"online it and boom we've got our e drive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.759,"end_s":466.4,"text":"i'm expecting this to be a lot faster and it is now","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":466.479,"end_s":474.319,"text":"wait a minute you might say that's not 6 900 megabytes per second","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":472.8,"end_s":478.96,"text":"that's not nice but we're not actually reaching the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":476.96,"end_s":486.0,"text":"drive full speed because of two bottlenecks in our setup one this system","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":482.08,"end_s":488.56,"text":"has two epic 7702 processors pretty cool","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":486.0,"end_s":493.52,"text":"but although each of them has 64 cores and 128 threads they are single core","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":491.52,"end_s":497.12,"text":"performance isn't particularly impressive because of their low clock","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":495.199,"end_s":501.759,"text":"speed and with this setup on Windows server 2019 we're not taking advantage","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":499.759,"end_s":508.479,"text":"of the drive's full potential but we can still try out u.3 hotspot oh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":506.319,"end_s":512.479,"text":"interesting so okay we're taking it one step further","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":510.56,"end_s":517.44,"text":"with the hotting and the swapping apparently","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":513.599,"end_s":517.44,"text":"i'm just gonna pull out a SATA drive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":517.919,"end_s":522.479,"text":"i'm gonna pull out an NVMe drive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":522.8,"end_s":525.039,"text":"okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":530.32,"end_s":537.2,"text":"and theoretically they're just gonna come back my script says react to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":535.279,"end_s":540.16,"text":"hot swap just working we've got ooh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":538.48,"end_s":543.519,"text":"we've got e no the SATA drive is missing what if i","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":542.32,"end_s":550.959,"text":"rep seriously boom all three of them are there so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.04,"end_s":553.76,"text":"we've got SATA ooh and e","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":550.959,"end_s":558.16,"text":"okay then what does all this mean for me the average consumer for the time being","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":556.72,"end_s":563.12,"text":"probably not much i don't expect that u.3 is going to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":560.24,"end_s":567.12,"text":"sweeping in to replace the popular m.2 gumstick form factor in your home gaming","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":564.959,"end_s":571.68,"text":"pc anytime soon but in the data center it offers a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":569.44,"end_s":576.88,"text":"couple of clear benefits one of which is visible right on the face of it see","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":574.24,"end_s":581.6,"text":"these cooling holes i call them speed holes because adequate cooling allows","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":579.279,"end_s":586.88,"text":"these drives to perform their best even when they're under heavy load 24 7 like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":584.399,"end_s":591.76,"text":"they would be in an enterprise or data center setting the other thing that the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":589.2,"end_s":596.56,"text":"larger form factor does is it allows the drives to have more capacity because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":593.839,"end_s":601.44,"text":"they can physically solder more nand dyes to the thing than can fit on a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":599.04,"end_s":605.76,"text":"simple little gum stick so for the data center these are going to be huge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":603.36,"end_s":609.839,"text":"not just because they have a single connector that natively supports","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":607.44,"end_s":612.88,"text":"multiple protocols that's not anything new we already showed that with SATA and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":612.0,"end_s":618.72,"text":"sas the big deal is that it allows a single","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":616.0,"end_s":624.48,"text":"server with a single type of bay in the front to serve all kinds of different","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":621.68,"end_s":630.0,"text":"roles so manufacturers instead of having to have different skus for like a slower","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":627.2,"end_s":634.56,"text":"bulk storage box and then a faster all NVMe one are going to be able to have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":632.16,"end_s":638.959,"text":"just a single sku simplifying their product development and simplifying","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":636.64,"end_s":643.12,"text":"their product stack that data center administrators can just deploy however","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":641.04,"end_s":648.48,"text":"they want so i want this one to be all NVMe i want this one to be all sas i","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":646.0,"end_s":653.92,"text":"want this one to be you know NVMe accelerant over here and then sas mass","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":651.04,"end_s":659.12,"text":"storage over there it's totally up to the admin and that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":656.079,"end_s":660.8,"text":"is super super cool another fringe","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":659.12,"end_s":664.72,"text":"benefit actually that we heard from one of the techs that's working on this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":662.8,"end_s":668.959,"text":"that it makes uh trying out different hardware configurations and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":666.32,"end_s":674.8,"text":"troubleshooting way simpler because you can just use one machine for all of your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":672.24,"end_s":678.72,"text":"test benches instead of having to like move giant servers around as you're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":677.12,"end_s":682.64,"text":"testing out different drives and configs so that's uh that's another thing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":681.279,"end_s":686.48,"text":"thanks to you guys for watching thanks to kyoccia for sponsoring this one you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":684.64,"end_s":691.12,"text":"guys can get more details about their cm6 drives and the rest of their","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":688.56,"end_s":695.279,"text":"technology at the link down below if you guys are interested in the backstory","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":692.88,"end_s":699.279,"text":"behind my nightmare experience hot swapping pci express devices you can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":697.68,"end_s":705.64,"text":"check out the video that we have linked in the description as well this was a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":702.399,"end_s":705.64,"text":"much smoother","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"they're the same picture except they're not this is a boring old u.2 drive you can find these puppies with up to a four lane pci express gen 4 interface and up to about 8 gigabytes per second speed which is okay i guess but it's not nearly as cool as this u.3 doesn't increase speeds at all and in fact it could even be much slower but it could also be the same speed which doesn't really sound that great does it until i tell you that it also allows cross-compatibility with sas and even SATA drives in exactly the same slot what that's right my friends this connector here is basically like putting a usb drive in a firewire port and we've got both a drive from kyoccia who sponsored this video and this server over here from super micro and we are going to be testing it out u.3 is super new so while the drives are readily available hardware to actually plug them into is still pretty hard to find our server for example only supports u.2 fortunately kyoccia provided us with everything we're going to need starting with this now in the old days controller cards like this one usually had built-in specialty processors on board to perform the parity calculations that protected the attached raid array from data loss over time though hardware raid cards have given way to hbas or host bus adapters that simply convert your pci express slot into dumb storage ports leaning on the general purpose CPU to do the heavy lifting this kind of software raid is more flexible more cost effective and it's easier for administrators to troubleshoot and repair and these are actually some of the big driving forces behind the u.3 standard so this broadcom 9516i is what's called a tri-mode storage adapter it uses a pci express gen 4x8 interface and can address up to 1024 SATA or sas drives using expanders or up to 32 NVMe drives now let's have a look at the broadcom lrond yes that's right my friends it's a custom external u.3 testing enclosure that's designed for research and development of new drives and adapter cards to make sure that they interface with servers correctly in other words this isn't something that you can just go out and buy normally the way it would work is a u.3 backplane like the one that's built into this enclosure would just be directly in the server behind the bays at the front and you would plug right into them but as of right now we haven't found any servers with native u.3 support at least that we can get our hands on hp enterprise is one of the only brands that's shipping u.3 technology currently though lenovo has also expressed their support for it so here we go we just install our try mode card into our caddy here and plonk that into our server oh contact believe it or not we haven't even turned it on yet ah there it is here we go you're ready now one little trick is normally you would run these cables internally to the back plane at the front of the device obviously right well that's not a try mode u.3 backplane so we're just going to kind of yeah good it's good cooling gotta have air holes on the side okay here we go very funny what am i putin i'm gonna be next level impressed if this manages like hot swap functionality now you might have noticed that even though we've only got an 8x card we've got four 4x capable cables coming out of here that's because that bandwidth can be shared it's in much the same way that even if you did plug in a thousand sas drives obviously if you were actually hitting them all at once they would have to share some of that bandwidth what do you think is this just gonna like magically hot swap pickup wait probably not because we don't have a drive in it yet one moment please this just feels so wrong SATA port u.3 connector okay here we go just like that put it online initialize blah blah blah ouch 60 megabytes a second reads not exactly impressive but of course the performance of u.3 was never the point there's nothing you can do with an interface to make a two and a half inch hard drive suddenly magically fast the point is that we can do this this is a sas SSD and theoretically i'm gonna pop that right in there hot swap and it's going to just like work wait for it there it is we can run a quick performance test here there it is you can see it's a lot faster of course it's an SSD it's not a mechanical hard drive but the point here again is not the performance it's to demonstrate how just because you've got one physical connector doesn't mean that you can't use different protocols over it and that's really this is a much more appropriate analogy for what we're doing today than the whole usb firewire thing because those are completely different physical connectors SATA and sas already used the same connector just a different protocol so that's what we've looked at so far but now ah uh this one now it's time to put in a gen4 pci express SSD using again the same u.3 connector this is a cm6 from kyoxia which was the first available u.3 drive on the market and it's rated at up to 6900 megabytes per second nice just like our merch is nice like the CPU pillow lttstore.com now you probably noticed i just shoved that in there is hot swap gonna work i actually don't know because i've had some pretty bad experiences hot swapping pci express devices oh oh ouch but that's supposed to be one of the benefits as the technology has matured is we're supposed to be able to take any kind of drive we want chuck it in there hot swap cold swap let's see if it's in here there it is online it and boom we've got our e drive i'm expecting this to be a lot faster and it is now wait a minute you might say that's not 6 900 megabytes per second that's not nice but we're not actually reaching the drive full speed because of two bottlenecks in our setup one this system has two epic 7702 processors pretty cool but although each of them has 64 cores and 128 threads they are single core performance isn't particularly impressive because of their low clock speed and with this setup on Windows server 2019 we're not taking advantage of the drive's full potential but we can still try out u.3 hotspot oh interesting so okay we're taking it one step further with the hotting and the swapping apparently i'm just gonna pull out a SATA drive i'm gonna pull out an NVMe drive okay and theoretically they're just gonna come back my script says react to the hot swap just working we've got ooh we've got e no the SATA drive is missing what if i rep seriously boom all three of them are there so we've got SATA ooh and e okay then what does all this mean for me the average consumer for the time being probably not much i don't expect that u.3 is going to be sweeping in to replace the popular m.2 gumstick form factor in your home gaming pc anytime soon but in the data center it offers a couple of clear benefits one of which is visible right on the face of it see these cooling holes i call them speed holes because adequate cooling allows these drives to perform their best even when they're under heavy load 24 7 like they would be in an enterprise or data center setting the other thing that the larger form factor does is it allows the drives to have more capacity because they can physically solder more nand dyes to the thing than can fit on a simple little gum stick so for the data center these are going to be huge not just because they have a single connector that natively supports multiple protocols that's not anything new we already showed that with SATA and sas the big deal is that it allows a single server with a single type of bay in the front to serve all kinds of different roles so manufacturers instead of having to have different skus for like a slower bulk storage box and then a faster all NVMe one are going to be able to have just a single sku simplifying their product development and simplifying their product stack that data center administrators can just deploy however they want so i want this one to be all NVMe i want this one to be all sas i want this one to be you know NVMe accelerant over here and then sas mass storage over there it's totally up to the admin and that is super super cool another fringe benefit actually that we heard from one of the techs that's working on this is that it makes uh trying out different hardware configurations and troubleshooting way simpler because you can just use one machine for all of your test benches instead of having to like move giant servers around as you're testing out different drives and configs so that's uh that's another thing thanks to you guys for watching thanks to kyoccia for sponsoring this one you guys can get more details about their cm6 drives and the rest of their technology at the link down below if you guys are interested in the backstory behind my nightmare experience hot swapping pci express devices you can check out the video that we have linked in the description as well this was a much smoother"}