In last February we told you about an AIC by ASRock, the Blazing Quad M.2. Behind this name, is actually an M.2 expansion card allowing to plug up to four M.2 SSDs in PCIe 5.0 on a slot of the motherboard. The card now has a selling price, expressed in yen.
Blazing Quad M.2 : an AIC sold 16980 yens !
With this card, ASRock offers us an expansion card giving access to four M.2 connectors. However, the particularity of the latter is that they are interfaced in PCIe 5.0 x4. The card is therefore able to accommodate up to four M.2 SSDs in PCIe Gen5.
Of course, we find an active dissipation system consisting of two fans. Their management will go through the motherboard through a PWM cable. For their part, the SSDs have thermal pads to help with cooling. In addition, the card supports the M.2 2242/2260/2280/22110 and 25110 formats.
In addition, there is an auxiliary power connector in PCIe 6-pin and we have a system of diodes indicating the activity of SSDs. The card itself is in full-height format and will occupy a slot in your PC.
For the price, it will cost 16980 yen in Japan, or about 115 €. It remains to be seen what the European price will be.
Here is the ASRock datasheet !