Layout, design and features …
The Icy Dock ToughArmor MB842MP-B Dual NVMe to PCIe adapter is very solid and cleanly built. The housing of the single-slot card is sturdily built from metal and is complemented by black plastic. The interface to the PC is mechanically designed as a PCIe x16 version, so the expansion card can even be locked in the PC. Electrically, however, it is only designed with 8 lanes, as the two SSDs are each connected to the CPU via 4 PCIe lanes. Of course, the card can also be used in an x8 slot, which is rarely found on motherboards, though. The ToughArmor MB842MP-B cannot be used in a PCIe x4 slot.
There are two 2-pin headers on the back. LEDs from the PC case can be connected to them to display drive accesses in a more visible place than would be the case via the LEDs on the back of the card. An external power connection is not necessary, as the power of a PCIe slot is perfectly sufficient.
As is common with servers and other hot-swap drive bays, pressing on the left side releases the bay and the locking lever springs forward.
Opening the lever even further releases the electrical connector in the rear and the drive tray is ready for removal.
Now the drive tray can be pulled out without force.
The cartridge is completely made of metal and is connected to the PC’s ground when inserted, so that static discharges are safely dissipated and the SSD is protected in the best possible way. The metal also serves to dissipate heat, as high-performance NVME SSDs produce a considerable amount of power dissipation that must be dissipated from the SSD to prevent it from overheating. A sticker on the stainless steel lid of the bay shows that a small pressure in the left area is enough to open it.
In the Icy Dock MB842MP-B removable frame, NVMe SSDs with a frame size of 2230 to 22110 and PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 standard can be used. Depending on the used mainboard and SSD, a maximum transfer rate of 64Gb/s (8000MB/s) can be achieved, which is about 10x faster than the maximum SATA data transfer rate.
Icy Dock ToughArmor MB842MP-B removable frame Installation …