At MSI’s DIY area, they were showing off some new motherboards as well as a new expansion card for Gen5 m.2 devices dubbed the MSI Xpander Aero Slider Gen5. Like with other previous Xpander series riser cards, the card can take in multiple M.2 devices, with this one being dual Gen5 capable. It plugs into a PCIe Gen5 x8 slot and splits the lanes to give each of the slider decks its own Gen5 slot.
The Aero Xpander Slider Gen5 resembles hot-swappable drive trays on NAS and server storage trays but depending on your system and configuration, this device may not have hot-swap capabilities.
We visited the booth and day 2 but of the two samples on display, one of them was broken due to another person from the media working the lock wrong. Sadly, the other working demo was pulled from display for the following days. The lock behind secures the trays and place and releasing it causes both drive trays to be able to freely swing open, allowing the drives to be pulled freely.
M.2 drives are installed in small caddies with heatsinks and slide in place, docking them to standard M.2 slots at the riser card. Its a cool idea but in my case (literally), the case back is up against the wall so taking out drives that way isn’t the most accessible way. Given the gaming pedigree of the product, while it will work with workstation towers, its application on most end-users may end up being limited.
2 Comments
si Linus ang salarin. hahaha
Mark Sevillejo yan din unang kutob ko ahha