M.2 drive backplane cable routing

This section provides cable routing information for the M.2 drives.

• Based on different drive types, the M.2 drive backplanes differ. Thus cables, connector layout and the cable routing are also different.

• For the locations of M.2 connectors on the processor board, see System-board-assembly connectors for details.

• The server supports the following M.2 drive backplanes (enablement kits):

  1	ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit
  2	ThinkSystem M.2 NVMe 2-Bay RAID Enablement Kit
  3	ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/x4 NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit
  4	ThinkSystem M.2 RAID B540i-2i SATA/NVMe Enablement Kit

• The following displays the cable routing of different M.2 drive backplanes:

  • 1. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit

  • 2. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 NVMe 2-Bay RAID Enablement Kit

  • 3. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/x4 NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit

  • 4. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 RAID B540i-2i SATA/NVMe Enablement Kit

Figure 1. SATA cable routing

Figure 2. NVMe cable routing

Figure 3. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 NVMe 2-Bay RAID Enablement Kit

3. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/x4 NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit​

Figure 4. SATA/NVMe cable routing

From	To
1 M.2 signal connector	1 PCIe connectors 8 and 9 on the system board assembly
2 M.2 power connector	2 M.2 power connector on the system board assembly

Figure 5. RAID cable routing (with a Gen 3/4 SFF RAID adapter)

From	To
1 M.2 signal connector	1 C0 on the SFF RAID adapter note
2 M.2 power connector	2 M.2 power connector on the system board assembly

Note

The SFF RAID adapter here can be installed in slot 1 or slot 2.

4. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 RAID B540i-2i SATA/NVMe Enablement Kit​

Figure 6. Cable routing for ThinkSystem M.2 RAID B540i-2i SATA/NVMe Enablement Kit

From	To
1 M.2 signal connector on the M.2 kit	1 M.2 power connector and signal connector on the system board assembly