Question 1

Are the drives recognized individually, or are they seen as one large PCI-e storage device?

Accepted Answer

They are recognized individually. I don't believe this supports RAID. I'd also do some research to make sure your motherboard has enough PCI-e lanes to support this.

Question 2

can this card go into a PCIE 2.ox16 slot?

Accepted Answer

It technically would physically fit but you would not get the full features of this card. Each NVME drive needs 1/4th or x4 of a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot. I'm not sure you would even be able to address each individual NVME drive on it but you would definitely not get the benefit of NVME on PCIE Gen4 and it would be a waste of money until you have a newer system that does support PCIe Gen4.

Question 3

Any challenges with raid 1 or 5?

Accepted Answer

If you are using *software* RAID, no issues. It works fine in Linux with both ZFS and traditional 'mdraid' functionality from the Linux kernel. 
I *assume* it works in Windows (usually needs Pro or better), but I left Windows literally decades ago, so YMMV.

Question 4

Does the card work with Proxmox systems?

Accepted Answer

NOTE: I only use AMD motherboards; so my experience is limited to B550, X570 and Threadripper systems. 
Subject to the caveats below, the card simply allows you to have 4 more NVMe drives in the system. There are no "compatiblity" issues, per se, *from a software perspective*. The drives sit on the PCIe bus and show up in Linux (assuming 2 drives on the motherboard) as /dev/nvme2n1, /dev/nvme3n1, /dev/nvme4n1 and /dev/nvme5n1, the first 2 on the system board being /dev/nvme0n1 and /dev/nvme1n1.
HOWEVER:
1) This card ONLY works in the PCIe x16 slot, where most people put the video card. On a AMD desktop board, this means the video card would have to go in the PCIe x4 slot (or even an x1 slot with an adapter), cutting down the bandwidth to the CPU by 75%. In most cases, the GPU*will* work, but this may not matter depending on your use case for Proxmox.

2) This will NOT work with AMD "G" series desktop CPU's (5600G, 5700G, etc).

3) The BIOS and chipset ABSOLUTELY MUST support "PCIe bifurcation". Assuming it is supported, you have to configure the slot to 'x4x4x4x4' mode, because you are taking the x16 slot and allocating (4) PCIe lanes lanes (= x4) to each of the NVMe drives.
Hope this helps someone.

Question 5

Does this expansion card require a PCIE bifurcation capable motherboard to function?

Accepted Answer

YES. 
And ONLY In the primary x16 slot on AMD B550/X570 boards. This means the GPU can only be in the x4 (or an x1) slot
I have no experience with Intel boards.
Set to "x4x4x4x4" mode.
Will not work with AMD "G" series CPU's.

Question 6

could this product inprove read and write speeds compared to the m2 slot on the motherboard?

Accepted Answer

The Asus HYPER M.2 X16 GEN 4 CARD supports 4 NVMe M.2 drives with PCIe 4.0 bandwidth, which can provide data transfer rates up to 256 Gbps. This can potentially improve read and write speeds compared to standard M.2 slots on motherboards that do not support PCIe 4.0.

Question 7

Will this work with a Haswell-E CPU?

Accepted Answer

There are compatibility issues with certain motherboards and the documentation is lacking. It is best to check with the specific motherboard's compatibility list.

Question 8

does this work with msi z170m mortar?

Accepted Answer

There are compatibility issues with certain motherboards, and the documentation is lacking.

Question 9

Does this work with the ASRock x570 Phantom Gaming 4 mobo?

Accepted Answer

The Asus HYPER M.2 X16 GEN 4 CARD supports AMD TRX40/X570 Series Motherboard models with PCIe 4.0 support.

Question 10

Would the SSDs be treated as 1 drive or as 4 by the computer?

Accepted Answer

The Asus HYPER M.2 X16 GEN 4 CARD supports 4 NVMe M.2 SSDs, but it does not specify whether they are treated as 1 drive or as 4 by the computer.

Questions & Answers