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nvme - old vs new tech

While the latest releases may be all shiny and new, we find a lot of customers needing resources the new kit just can’t provide.

When it comes to meeting your requirements, we want to provide you with a complete solution. Not just new hardware that doesn’t fit the bill. 

New doesn’t always mean best. So, we’ve put together some videos highlighting the key features to keep an eye out for. Ensuring you’re aware of what you need when deciding which server suits your requirements best. 

NVMe

episode 1

A new Class of Memory -
NvmE vs 13th Gen r630

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Hi, I’m Mark and welcome to Bytestock.

Today’s going to be the first video in our series. Highlighting some of the key products that we have here, as well as introducing some of the technologies that you may be familiar with or may not.

One of the things that we have been asked for a lot for recently is NVMe drives. Now, don’t worry if you’re not up to speed with this. We do have an additional website which is extras.bytestock.com, here you’re going to find lots of different information and links to different datasheets. So, if you really want to delve into all of the kind of nuances that make NVMe drives fantastic. Feel free to click in there and you will find lots of different information.

So, NVMe drives. Very, very hot topic at the moment, and it’s something that customers are really trying to push the boundaries on. One of the things that we have here though is NVMe drives won’t fit into just every single server. So, with that as well, going back a generation which is one of the key aspects that we have here at Bytestock and finding that value for money and maximising budgets. You are going to find a few other little things which is going to stop you from actually utilising perhaps all of the kind of different configurations that you want.

So today we’re going to be looking at the R630. This is a 13th generation product. The NVMe drive itself can come in a 2.5-inch format or U.2 and here we’re going to look at just some of the little things that we just need to be aware of with the system.

So, I’ve taken a look inside. First thing we need to know about the R630 is that it has to be the 10-bay version. With this, the card expander is going to be in one of the riser slots, so we are going to lose that there. So, if you’ve currently got lots of network cards, there could be an issue with your connectivity. That’s then going to run through, to the backplane, and what this means here is that drive bays 6 through to 9, is where we’re going to be able to install our NVMe drives.

So, R630 has to be the 10-bay version, like I say, going back a generation, we’re still going to have lots of capabilities here using a V3 or V4 processor. We’ve got 12,14,16,18, 20 cores, we’ve 24 DIMM slots, that’s lots of opportunities to put lots of RAM in there too. But we do have to be aware that we are limited to just the 4 bays with the NVMe.

When we go through the series and we’re looking at something like the R640. Which is obviously the generation above this one, we are able to utilise up to all 10 bays of NVMe. So, depending on what you do or don’t need, there’s different options there. But don’t worry, with the account managers that we have here, give us a call. We can run through different specifications for you, different price points and like I say, our objective is to help you with your budgets and maximising them. So, let us do the hard work for you.

Thank you for your time. Hopefully, see you soon.

Discover our r630 range

episode 2

A nEw Class of Memory -
NvmE vs 14th Gen r640

Hi, welcome to Bytestock and our series of videos regarding NVMe drives.

So, on one of our previous videos, hopefully you would have looked at the R630 and we would have gone through some of the details about that and the technology from the 13th Generation.

Today we’re going to be looking at a 14th Generation server, it’s the R640. So, it’s the successor to the R630 and just explaining some of the differences in the technology that we have, some of the advancements that have been made as well.
So, if you are looking for a server that holds a little bit more NVMe drives, this potentially could be the right one for you. So, just removing the lid here on the R640 and just a reminder going back to our R630. We had the card that was in the riser here, and we had 4 cables that were coming down for ports 6 and 9.

So, similar type of environment that we’ve got with regards to the server. We’ve got the processors, the difference being here now is the actual architecture of the motherboard as well as some of the components.

Here we’ve actually removed some of the cables so that we can actually see a bit clearer. The ports now on the NVMe, they are slightly different compared to the ports that were available on the R630. You can see here that they’re also into the motherboard. What this means is with the R640, we’ll have one cable running here, which will identify bays 6 to 9. We’d have another cable that would be plugged into here, coming here, which will identify bays 2 to 5.

So, this configuration in itself would allow us to have 8 NVMe drives. Which is obviously double the capacity to the R630. Additionally, if we wanted to now with the 10 bays, we can actually do complete NVMe drives.

This will follow the similar process to the R630, we’re going to have a card in here, we’re going to have a cable running around and this is going to be to bays 0 and 1. So this is going to enable us to have 10 bays here. So, what this does mean for you is whilst we always look to provide value for money for every single customer and give them all the details that are available. Whilst the R630 is fantastic, it’s going to be great value for money. We did discover that it was limited to only 4 drives.

With the R640, we are now going to be able to have up to 10 drives, giving us that versatility in both performance as well as functionality. So, it’s a great option to go for if you are looking to invest in NVMe. We have got the new generation of series coming out as well which is going to be the 15th Generation.

There are also other servers available which we will be in this series discussing and how they work with NVMe drives.

Thank you very much for your time and if you’ve got any questions, please get in touch.

Discover our r640 range

episode 3

A nEw Class of Memory -
NvmE vs 14th Gen r740xd

Hi, welcome to Bytestock and our series of videos regarding NVMe drives. Previously we’ve looked at such servers as the R630 and R640’s and discussed some of the differences between the two servers and generations. So, here today I’ve got an R740XD. This is the 24-bay version, this is the one that is going to allow us to have NVMe drives.

So, as we’ve looked at before, first thing is, can actually the server take it? Yes it can, we know that NVMe drives are going to work on an R740XD. We also know that we have to have the right components. So, a couple of components that I’ve got here, we’ve got one of the NVMe extender cards and we’ve also got one of the cables here.

Just removing the lid, I’ve also removed a couple of other parts already so that you can see we don’t have any fans here. The extender is going to plug into our riser at the back and then the cable is going to run from the back to the front. What this is going to do, it’s actually going to enable us to have 4 drives that are NVMe.

So we’d have 20 drives that will be working with our PERC controller. So that’s just the H330 or the H740p and then we’re going to have the 4 drives available to us for NVMe. The R740XD can actually take up to 24. However, once again what we’ve talked about is, is my server capable of doing it? Whilst it can take up to 24 drives, it is a different configuration. It does require a different backplane and different cables. So, if you are thinking about upgrading and you do currently have an R740XD, chances are you probably won’t be able to utilise all 24 bays. However, you could utilise up to 12 bays.

Once again, with more cards and more cables. For more information, speak to your account manager or give us a call. We’ll be happy to run through all the different options available.

Discover our r740xd range

episode 4

A nEw Class of Memory -
NvmE vs dell precision t7920

Hi, welcome to Bytestock and our series of videos regarding NVMe drives. Today we’re going to be looking at workstations, so slightly different to the servers that we’ve looked at previously. So, if you’re in media production, architects, anything like that, especially within CAD design, this is a great piece of equipment to use. It’s a great way to add NVMe storage to either an existing workstation that you have or potentially a new one that you might be looking for.

So, NVMe drives and workstations. The way these tend to work is with an M.2. Now as you can see it’s a much smaller drive to the U.2’s that we’ve had in our servers. The way that we’re going to install this into the T7920 is via a card holder here.

Quite simply, we’re just going to lift up the card storage here and you can see that I’ve got 4, M.2 slots available. The drive itself is going to slot in and then we’re going to screw it in there. That will then keep it in place, closing the lid and then able to install the card into one of the PCI slots.

Now this does mean that I’m going to lose a PCI slot. So, if we are utilising lots of GPU’s and things like that, we do need to take that into consideration. The cards we already have installed, but if we’ve got one spare, it’s a great way to add NVMe storage to your system. And like I say, with the 4 drive slots available, you can have NVMe drives from 256GB to 2 terabytes.

It’s a great addition to any workstation.

Discover our t7920 range

NVMe DRIVES

If you’re looking for the best storage and memory solution for a server you already have, or you need the entire build, we can work with your requirements to find you a solution.

Find out more about NVMe drives and our best selling product on our blog.

nvme blog

WE'RE HERE TO HELP

We hope you found this series of videos useful and informative. 

While we’ve covered three serves and a workstation, there are plenty of others out there that you may need some support with. 

Our team are IT experts. If you need help with NVMe drives, or are not sure which server suits your requirements, speak to us today.

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