MB699VP-B V3 performance and quality issues for Creator machine

[Sijmen]

Hi,

I've got a Asus Proart Z790 Creator motherboard computer with 3 of 4 TB Samsung 990 pro M.2 NVME drives. When installed directly in the motherboard, in different M.2 slots, I'm getting well over 7000MB/s sequential read on all drives.

One of the drives will remain on the motherboard as my O/S drive, but the other 2 need to be easily removable. With only M.2 slots on the motherboard, I'd done a lot of research trying to figure out how to make this possible, when I came across a video from Level1Tech on Icydock products.

The Good news
Long story short, I experimented putting the samsung drive into a M.2 to U.2 enclosure. The enclosure was then plugged directly into a cable with a matching socket and power on one side and a 4i Occulink plug on the other end. The occulink end was then plugged into a occulink socket on a M.2 riser board which I put into the M.2 slot on the motherboard. To my great joy the drives still performed as expected with sequential read speeds well over 7000MB/s. This proved occulink was a workable solution, and I could then progress to the next step of making the drives easily removable.

The Bad news and the issues
I looked around for all the U.2 removable drive bays, and finally settled on the Icydock MB699VP-B V3, which came with occulink sockets on the back and 2 x 40mm cooling fans. On first impress the drive bay looked very well built and was quite heavy. I ordered 2 occulink cables with occulink plugs on both ends and conected up the drive bay. On starting up the machine, 2 things became very evident:

1. Sequential reads are about 4000MB/s, far slower than I expected and needed
2. The fans on the the back of the drive bay scream like a turbine.

This is a machine built for creator work, and the 2 key requirements are that it have fast disk IO, and that it be very quite so it can be used in a studio.

The noise issue I can solve by installing some new Noctua silent fans, but considering the price of the drive bay, I'm incredibly disappointed that I even have to.

My main concern is the performance. How can I get the drive back up to full PCIe 4.0 speeds? Why am I not getting 7000MB/s when using the U.2 drive in the Icydock drive bay, but I do when connected directly to a cable which is connected to the M.2 riser board?

I would appreciate any assistance.

Regards,
Sijmen.

 

[Sijmen]

Hi,

I've had some great new.

After playing around with the oculink cables, I'm now getting full speed. I suspect, on my first test, the oculink plug might not have been inserted correctly and things dropped down to PCIe 3.0 speeds by only using 2 lanes in the cable.

I've now got a 60cm cable and 50cm cable connected with 2 drives in the IcyDock drive bay and getting full speed in both drives, which is what I expected.

For your reference, the M.2 riser card in the motherboard is a standard non active riser. It is NOT a Redriver card, which at one point I thought I might need to use. I think a Redriver card is only needed if the cable is over 1 meter in length, but not sure.

Now I need to solve the noise issue of the fans. When the fans are turned on, even a low speed, they sound like a turbine, which means it's not possible to use it in my studio.

This might need to be a RTM issue to get it fixed or returned.

Regards,
Sijmen.

 

[Icydock Tech Support]

Hello Sijmen

Thank you on the follow up on the cables and glad you able resolve the specific issue related to the cables and connection speeds.

In regards to the issue you have with the noise from the fans. The noise level for stock fans for MB699VP-B V3 is 35.10 dBA. As there are two fans, there would be two fans making this amount of noise. Unfortunately, if the fans are to move air effectively in the unit, the fans would have to rotate at a higher speed and that results into louder noise. You could replace the fans with lower speed fans, but then the issue would be lower air flow, which would likely result into higher drive temperatures.

If your planned usage of the MB699VP-B V3 is within a location where noise is a concern, unfortunately this model might not work out, unless you completely power off the fans. Unless the fans are making specific grinding noises or are non-functional, I cannot suggest going with a RMA on this.

 

[Sijmen]

Hi,

To provide some further context of the noise generated from the MB699BP-B V3, these were my findings, using my sound meter from about 1 metre from computer:

1. Computer on and at idle, with no MB699VP-B V3 fans on - 20dbA.
2. Computer on and some doing work, with no MB699VP-B V3 fans on - between 20dbA and 25dbA
3. Computer on and at idle, with MB699VP-B V3 fans on low speed - 31 dbA
4. Computer on and at idle, with MB699VP-B V3 fans on high speed - 46 dbA (this is higher than the Runda specs suggest it should be)

I then replaced the supplied Runda fans with Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX fans as suggested in the Icy Dock site, and got these noise reading:

1. Computer on and at idle, with Noctua fans on low speed - 24 dbA
2. Computer on and at idle, with Noctua fans on high speed - 26 dbA (this is higher than the Noctua specs suggest it should be)

As you can see the Noctua fans are much quieter, but I found that even at high speed the Noctua fans were still too noisy so I've set them to low speed.

To be fair with the tests, there are some other things to consider with all this, primarily the air flow rate.

1. The Runda fans at maximum speed of 9500 RPM move 22.8 cubic metres per hour of air.
2. The Noctua fans at maximum speed of 5000 RPM move 9.4 cubic metres per hour of air.

Unfortunately, the Noctua fans did not performs as well as I hoped both in terms of noise and especially air flow. From my perspective, I think the Runda fans are great performers and I like the quality, but the noise is just too high. Interestingly, both Randa (and by extension Icy Dock) and Noctua reported much lower noise levels that they actually were.

Overall, I think Icy Dock could have made some better design choices and still use the Runda fans. When you consider that every other fan in a modern computer unit, from case fans, powers supply fans, CPU fan, and GPU fans, all spin up only as required, and remain quite when not needed, it's surprising that Icy Dock have not adopted the same design. It shouldn't be hard for the MB699BP-B V3, or a future enhancement to include thermal sensors in the unit and to use PWM fans to do the cooling. In this way, when the SSD drives are idle and doing nothing, the fans might be barely moving, but as the temp increases, the fans ramp up, and then down again as the temp drops.

Since selecting the MB699VP-B V3, I've found several competing products that I would have considered, and which were lockable. (Something I really wanted). If Icy Dock wants to stay competitive, then enhancements like the one I've suggested would be a great step in the right direction.

Regards,
Sijmen.

 

[Icydock Tech Support]

Hello Sijmen

Thank you for your feedback. With the nature of small fans that are 40mm, it would be very hard to get good airflow with low noise, simply because good airflow for small fans require higher rpm speeds, which results into higher noise.

I have passed on your suggestions to our development team to consider the feasibility of your suggestions. As for future development of our products, we are considering water cooling as the cooling option instead of air based cooling.

If you are requesting lockable trays for the MB699VP-B V3, you can obtain compatible trays with key locks, MB994TK-B (https://global.icydock.com/product_163.html). The MB994TK-B has a keylock on the tray itself that would prevent ejection.