HP launches the Z Turbo Quad Pro workstation storage solution

[HEXUS]

Claims it offers 16x performance (9.0GB/s) of a standard SATA SSD at a similar cost.

Read more.

[qasdfdsaq]

This just looks like a glorified M.2 <=> PCIe adapter - 4 4-lane M.2 slots into a 16-lane PCIe slot. The fact only one drive can be booted from and the others must be used independently suggests there's no on-board logic (e.g. RAID'ing) and it's literally JBOD.

[crossy]

This just looks like a glorified M.2 <=> PCIe adapter - 4 4-lane M.2 slots into a 16-lane PCIe slot. The fact only one drive can be booted from and the others must be used independently suggests there's no on-board logic (e.g. RAID'ing) and it's literally JBOD.

Not entirely correct. According to HP Z Turbo Quad Pro Quick Specs

Raid Support
For RAID support, there are some specific differences and thus restrictions as compared to SATA/SAS HDDs or SSDs, because software RAID is used.
 Windows® RAID with Boot Configuration: Limited support for RAID 1*, No support for RAID 0, 5, 10
 Windows® RAID with Data Configuration: Support for RAID 0, 1; No support for RAID 5, 10
 Linux® RAID with Boot Configuration: Functional for RAID 0, 1*; No support for RAID 5, 10
 Linux® RAID with Data Configuration: Functional for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10**
*RAID 1 can be set up, yet will not provide complete, redundant protection as the boot partition is not replicated on both drives. An OS boot partition cannot be protected by software RAID 1.
** Limited testing has been done with Linux® to confirm RAID support and performance characteristics.
Note: When using more than one HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro in a system, please ensure that the card ID switches are set up correctly. See installation guide for complete details.

(highlighting is mine)

That said, surely one with HW RAID (and I agree with you that this would be a more desirable unit!) would also be a lot more expensive - after all this is HP's "Professional" line we're talking about!

Interesting to see that the DataSheet and FAQs links on the Turbo Drive Quad Pro web page go to Z series workstation info, not that for the drive. Think someone messed up at HP Central... (I'll try and get around to reporting it)

[LSG501]

I like the idea for scratch disks if it had hardware raid and came in a shorter case... no idea why it needs to be so long, they could have just had an 'extender' for the server brackets.

For those liking the idea it's basically 'two' of these addonics cards which cost like $30. The addonics uses a 4-Lane PCIe 3.0 with upto 40gbps bandwidth and has 2 slots (plus 2x sata 3 ports) but it's little different in terms of features like raid. I suspect we might even see a 4 slot on an gen 3 8x pcie slot at some point.

[shaithis]

No hardware RAID? Good for a ZFS pool then /drool

[mjgr33n]

I like the idea for scratch disks if it had hardware raid and came in a shorter case... no idea why it needs to be so long, they could have just had an 'extender' for the server brackets.

For those liking the idea it's basically 'two' of these addonics cards which cost like $30. The addonics uses a 4-Lane PCIe 3.0 with upto 40gbps bandwidth and has 2 slots (plus 2x sata 3 ports) but it's little different in terms of features like raid. I suspect we might even see a 4 slot on an gen 3 8x pcie slot at some point.

The Addonic card though only allows 1 PCIE M.2 card though the other slots are for SATA M.2 which actually use the motherboards internal SATA connectors to host them.

The HP card allows upto 4 M.2 PCIE cards, which for example on my Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 WIFI-BK motherboard would be awesome as I currently have 2 M.2 PCIE cards with adapters in and 2 GPU's and 1 Soundblaster ZXR card.

So am out of slots and could really do with some more, so with a card like the HP I could claim back at least one of the x16 slots, one day will have to upgrade to one of the new motherboards with a couple of M.2 PCIE 3.0 x4 slots already on board.

[LSG501]

The Addonic card though only allows 1 PCIE M.2 card though the other slots are for SATA M.2 which actually use the motherboards internal SATA connectors to host them.

My bad, clearly had issues reading that page earlier lol

[ALIAKSANDR]

I want .

[mapesdhs]

I know someone who's been testing a Z turbo Quad Pro for uncompressed 8K,
he gets approx. 4.6GB/sec write and 8.2GB/sec read sustained. Not quite
the advertise specs, but reasonable.

Ian.

[qasdfdsaq]

Not entirely correct. According to HP Z Turbo Quad Pro Quick Specs(highlighting is mine)

That said, surely one with HW RAID (and I agree with you that this would be a more desirable unit!) would also be a lot more expensive - after all this is HP's "Professional" line we're talking about!

Interesting to see that the DataSheet and FAQs links on the Turbo Drive Quad Pro web page go to Z series workstation info, not that for the drive. Think someone messed up at HP Central... (I'll try and get around to reporting it)

But that's basically what I said?

It's literally JBOD. To get RAID, you use the software RAID built in to the OS. That's no different from connecting a bunch of random SATA drives, several M.2 drives to different slots or hell, two USB sticks if you were feeling masochistic.

[qasdfdsaq]

The Addonic card though only allows 1 PCIE M.2 card though the other slots are for SATA M.2 which actually use the motherboards internal SATA connectors to host them.

The HP card allows upto 4 M.2 PCIE cards, which for example on my Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 WIFI-BK motherboard would be awesome as I currently have 2 M.2 PCIE cards with adapters in and 2 GPU's and 1 Soundblaster ZXR card.

So am out of slots and could really do with some more, so with a card like the HP I could claim back at least one of the x16 slots, one day will have to upgrade to one of the new motherboards with a couple of M.2 PCIE 3.0 x4 slots already on board.

You won't get more slots because your CPU doesn't have any more lanes to use. The HP card would be useless in your system.