Summary

It is recommended that drives be connected directly to the motherboard. 

If you are connecting a drive through an adapter or enclosure (USB to SATA, USB to M.2, Thunderbolt™), keep in mind that the BIOS, motherboard, backplane, and tools may not recognize the drive correctly. 

Third-party cables or adapters can and do work, but it is important to keep the following in mind: 

• Does the adapter or enclosure export the correct model string to the operating system? 
  • If the tool does not receive the correct model string, the various tools may not work or have unexpected results. 
• The adapter or enclosure must supply power to run the drive. 
• Protocols supported by the adapters need to convert the protocols properly between the drive and adapter. 
  • For example, a USB 2.0 enclosure will not work with an NVMe* SSD, the adapter should be USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt™
• Solidigm™ (formerly Intel®) does not provide support for these cables or adapters.

Also note that there could be a performance impact. For the best performance, connect directly to the motherboard. 

Questions?
Contact Solidigm™ Customer Support.