StarTech.com U.2 to M.2 Adapter - for 1 x U.2 PCIe NVMe SSD - M.2 PCIe x4 Host Interface - U.2 SSD - M.2 PCIe Adapter - U.2 Drive , TAA (M2E4SFF8643)

U.2 may be dead in the consumer space, but using this adapter we're able to convert the port to a standard M.2 port, since both use PCIe protocol natively. Now I can have 3x M.2 drives on my system natively!I'm pleasantly surprised to see full PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds through this adapter. My U.2 slot goes through the chipset (AMD WRX80), so 6.4 GB/s is about the max we can get. PCIe 4.0 U.2 ports connected directly to the CPU can get up to 7.5 GB/s. This adapter is simple and gets the job done.I do wish some kind of heat sink material was included with this adapter, as PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives tend to run hotter. But probably a non-issue unless you're hammering the M.2 drive with constant IO. Just mount this somewhere near the front of the case so the drive can get some airflow.

I thought I'd save some money by buying a $10 Other-brand card. This connected to my 400GB Intel 750, meant to be the OS drive for my home server. After initial install, during the setup and "getting ready" phase my system would freeze, and I'm forced to hard reboot. I couldn't get past initial setup, and it took some time troubleshooting. It was either the cheap SFF-8643 card, or my drive (my drive was pulled from my working system prior). Switched to this StarTech card, everything works fine.

a bit quirky to put together but works well with the drive once installed.

I have a bunch of 250GB NVMe SSDs pulled from Dells. I figured I'd repurpose them for some older computers that don't have NVMe slots, so I bought one of these to test, with the intent to connect the NVMe drives to the older computers' SATA ports. Lo and behold, these don't have standard SATA connectors, they have SFF-8639 connectors, which are typically used by SAS drives (server-oriented). So, forget about connecting these to standard SATA controllers; you need to connect a RAID controller with a SFF-8639 breakout cable. The especially irritating thing is that SATA drives are compatible with SFF-8639 cables, but SFF-8639 drives are not compatible with SATA cables. IE, if this adapter had a SATA connector, you could use it with SFF-8639 cables AND SATA cables, but since it's SFF-8639, it will only work with SFF-8639 cables.Now, to be fair, it is entirely my fault for not being positive that this adapter was the right thing for my needs. My one-star rating is because I can't think of any practical reason to make an adapter that simply doesn't work with SATA cables and only SFF-8639.

Maybe I just got unlucky. I have a spare 1TB M2 drive. I got a refurbed Dell R740XD server. Bought this adapter to use the NMVe drive. It worked fine for a while but I noticed when I booted up after installing that the fans on my server were running higher than usual and then after about an hour my server "shut off" the hard drive. Diagnostics said it was overheating. I pulled the drive out. Barely above room temp. Plus my fans went back to idle speed.

Here is a fine product...even better if you get the right one. My point here is be careful to buy the correct adapter (and probably the SSD for it). I bought the listed unit before I opened the case on my laptop to check the plug type I had. I bring this up because I am a tech and should have known better ! My own machine, for Pete sakes and I messed up. These adapters are great, replacing the old mechanical drives. Of course it’s gotta be the correct one. The moral to the story ? This is an excellent adapter, nice and fast...a perfect compliment to the SSD assuming you get a nice fast SSD. Look ma ! No moving parts except for the fans.

Since the world has conspired to bring us motherboards packed with several M.2 slots and NVME which is piggish with PCIe lane usage, this adapter allows one to use these pre-allocated lanes for something more sophisticated than the simple, low-endurance M.2 SSD. The average user would be shocked to learn that M.2 SSD drives are expensive, low endurance, and low capacity compared to the u.2 offerings. Why the world is going along with this fisher-price technology, M.2, is beyond me. At least with this adapter we can leave the children, and their child-like SSDs behind.

YMMV but my Alienware R5 running Windows 10 Pro did not recognize a Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 drive attached using this adapter. The Alienware has two U.2 connectors but the drive was not visible when attached to either one.The adapter seems very simple so it may be an issue with the computer -- all I can say is that the drive works great connected to the PCIe bus using Aquacomputer KryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter.