HP Z Turbo Quad Pro - per slot capacity limit?

[lkjasdfkjasdfkl]

Hello, I have a Z840 and am considering purchase of a used HP Z Turbo Quad Pro.  I understand that I'll be limited to PCIe Gen 3.  That said, can the newer Gen 4 Nvme drives with large capacity (2TB, 4TB and up) be used with this card?  If not, what is the maximum per-slot capacity?  I.e., max. capacity for each of the four Nvme slots in the Turbo Quad Pro card?

Thanks!

[lkjasdfkjasdfkl]

I think I found a partial answer to my first question.  User Fiendish reports in this post successfully mixing 1 x SM981 1TB (PCIe Gen 3) and 3 x PM9A3 3.84 TB (PCIe Gen 4) with no problems.

I'd still welcome additional info that others may have, esp. if there's a max capacity for each slot.  Thanks!

[DGroves]

when used as a DATA DRIVE, any current and forthcoming SSD or spinning Mech drive has no practical capacity  limits on the drive(s) total size when used with  any modern operating system, which for windows means using the "GPT" format instead of the older Legacy "MBR" format that had/has a 16TB limit for non booting and 3TB partition for a boot drive

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/support-for-hard-di...

[lkjasdfkjasdfkl · Accepted solution]

Hi DGroves, thanks for the reply.  It's good to hear the views of experienced and esteemed forum members such as yourself.

I understand the GPT principle you mentioned, in terms of OS compatibility.  But I've had too many surprises over the years, when particular pieces of hardware haven't lived up to the specs of what an OS can handle.  Bifurcated PCIe carrier cards still aren't exactly common, in terms of hard drive interfacing, and the Z Drive Quad is also a bit long in the tooth.  The only published specs I could find were these from 2020, indicating that 2TB modules were the max available from HP.  Which, for me, doesn't clearly answer the question of compatibility with 3rd-party modules of larger capacity.

But again, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.  It does give me some confidence and if I do take the plunge and purchase a Z Quad drive, I'll post with my findings.

Thanks.

[DGroves]

at the time HP tested ssd's for compatibility with the turbo quad, 4tb ssd's were quite rare and extremely expensive

the turbo quad card splits the x16 lanes into four x4 pci-e lanes using bifurcation the card simply combines four x4 M.2 pci-e cards into one common carrier

as such the same ssd capacity specs apply when comparing it to a single slot m.2 ssd