Apricorn Velocity X2 - 2 SSDs on 1 card (jerry rig)

[slughead]

So it seems there is just barely enough room for 2 SSD to be stuck on top of one another with a big piece of double stick tape with a few millimeters to spare so it doesn't short the card above it. I ran the power out of the case and back in again from a previous project.

I offset the drive a little to push up against a screw from the above card to make sure it kept its distance, also to ensure better ventilation.

Those are samsung evo 250 GB drives

 

[crjackson2134]

And this is a RAID 0 configuration, correct?

 

[theitsage]

This may sound crazy...how about modding a molex-SATA power cable by soldering the wires to the prongs of the SATA port on the PCIe card? These SSDs barely use any power at all from my experience. Therefore, I'm guessing that may work.

In my current setup, I draw power from the SATA port in bay 3 and run it to 5 SSDs using 2 different adapters (one Y splitter and one 1-to-4 adapter).

With x2 PCIe, we unfortunately hit the wall at around 700MB/s. Have you enabled TRIM?

 

[slughead]

And this is a RAID 0 configuration, correct?

Correct

This may sound crazy...how about modding a molex-SATA power cable by soldering the wires to the prongs of the SATA port on the PCIe card? These SSDs barely use any power at all from my experience. Therefore, I'm guessing that may work.

I believe you're right, there are even cards with 2 SSD on it. However I don't know if the Apricorn's voltage step-downs will support that amperage (probably will), so you'd probably want to make your own.

With x2 PCIe, we unfortunately hit the wall at around 700MB/s. Have you enabled TRIM?

Yes, trim's working great, even in yosimite thanks to the new Trim Enabler

 

[Gav Mack]

Apricorn Velocity X2 - 2 SSDs on 1 card (jerry rig)

I did my 840 evo piggyback like costabunny did last year with pics. She used Velcro but I used thermal sticky pads cut into 4 tiny squares!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1675846/

 

[slughead]

I did my 840 evo piggyback like costabunny did last year with pics. She used Velcro but I used thermal sticky pads cut into 4 tiny squares!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1675846/

nice! and here I thought I was being clever.

Thermal sticky pads are a great idea! If I redo it I'll change it to that.

I'm just surprised they didn't build the card this way, seems like they could trounce the tempo if they had. As ongnoi said, there's plenty of power in the PCIe bus. It also would've been nice to see an included power port. If they'd designed the card with this in mind, I'm sure they could have included a non-conducting shroud to protect the card above it from shorts.

 

[Gav Mack]

nice! and here I thought I was being clever.

Thermal sticky pads are a great idea! If I redo it I'll change it to that.

I'm just surprised they didn't build the card this way, seems like they could trounce the tempo if they had. As ongnoi said, there's plenty of power in the PCIe bus. It also would've been nice to see an included power port. If they'd designed the card with this in mind, I'm sure they could have included a non-conducting shroud to protect the card above it from shorts.

She had the idea and is due all the credit - but Velcro with all the static is generates is not a great idea lol! I used the Alphacool pads I mentioned in the thread.

 

[slughead]

She had the idea and is due all the credit - but Velcro with all the static is generates is not a great idea lol! I used the Alphacool pads I mentioned in the thread.

Aren't hard drives grounded through the power cable?

 

[Gav Mack]

Aren't hard drives grounded through the power cable?

Yes, but static discharges are very unpredictable and pulling that drive off the other would give a build up, though I use velcro for cabling no way would I want it close to a PCB. The Alphacool pads secure it pretty well, though it has been a while since I've had mine on the bench and laid it flat to test how well stuck it is after. As I somehow got it to dual boot with the bootcamp on the second port with the EVO which Apricorn said wasn't possible it's a case of if it aint broke, don't fix it!

Though when the Sintech PCIe card arrives and I get a nMP 1tb SSD blade the X2 is going into short term retirement till I get my 5,1.