ASRock has released an add-in card (AIC) that will accommodate up to four of the highest quality SSDs on a single motherboard. As the name suggests, the Blazing Quad M.2 Card houses four extremely fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs.
ASRock’s M.2 SSD AICs have been on the market for some time. Ultra Quad M.2 Card for PCIe 3.0 SSDs and Hyper Quad M.2 Card for PCIe 4.0 SSDs were both introduced by the manufacturer in the past. However, ASRock had to make some changes to the new AIC so that it could support the Blazing Quad M.2 Card’s adoption of the PCIe 5.0 interface.
So far, ASRock’s largest M.2 AIC is the Blazing Quad M.2 Card. Although it maintains the single-slot format of its predecessors, this AIC is 13% wider at 4.97 inches. According to appearances, the expanded landscape is meant to house the more massive cooling fans.
The Blazing Quad M.2 Card. SSDs up to 110m in length can be installed in any of the four PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots. ASRock positioned the M.2 slots at an angle of 45 degrees to reduce the length of the signal traces, increase performance, and safeguard the signal’s integrity.
M.2 slots have thermal pads built in for passively cooling SSDs, which is a nice touch. As is probably already obvious, PCIe 5.0 SSDs are notorious for their high temperatures. There are two passively cooled aluminum fans that are small in size but big in impact. Since these are PWM fans, you’ll need to connect the Blazing Quad M.2 Card’s four-pin fan cable to a compatible fan connector on your motherboard.
The Blazing Quad M.2 Card, like its forerunners, must be powered separately because it cannot draw enough juice from the expansion slot. This means that the AIC uses the standard 6-pin PCIe power connector found on all other ASRock AICs. As a result, the Blazing Quad M.2 Card will require at least two cables. For users to keep track of whether or not their SSDs are being read or written to, ASRock included four status LEDs on the AIC.
ASRock’s newest W790 WS motherboard for Intel Xeon W Sapphire Rapids processors comes with the company’s Blazing Quad M.2 Card. The AIC can be purchased separately, but only in certain regions. As a result, interested buyers should check with their nearby retailer to learn the price and availability of the Blazing Quad M.2 Card in their area.
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