> Do I build a PCIe 3.x based system now with DDR-4, massive i9's or thread ripper processors and put one of these in, or do I wait for the speed advantage of PCIe 4 or 5?
I would recommend waiting a few weeks for Highpoint
to officially release bootable RAID support for their
model SSD7101, and for prosumers to report success
installing that add-in card in a TR system.
A prosumer at another Forum experimented and
found that the driver software for Highpoint's SSD7110
does work with the model SSD7101, but that success
was "unofficial" (for now).
The specs for the Highpoint SSD7101 also state that
multiple add-in cards can be installed in the same motherboard.
So, you can scale a Threadripper system now and obtain
the same bandwidth which you will get by waiting for
PCIe 4.0 to become widely available.
Also, of significant importance is the relatively large
number of PCIe 3.0 lanes which TR brings to the table:
you don't want your chipset lane assignments
to assign only x8 PCIe 3.0 lanes to an add-in card
that has an x16 edge connector.
Also, remember that both ends of a data cable
need to oscillate at the same high speed:
it may be a while before NVMe SSDs reach
PCIe 4.0's clock speed of 16 GHz.
Moral of this story: there are good reasons
to wait for the x16 add-in cards to mature
and for motherboard BIOS/UEFI subsystems
to be optimized for these leading-edge devices.
I would recommend waiting a few weeks for Highpoint
to officially release bootable RAID support for their
model SSD7101, and for prosumers to report success
installing that add-in card in a TR system.
A prosumer at another Forum experimented and
found that the driver software for Highpoint's SSD7110
does work with the model SSD7101, but that success
was "unofficial" (for now).
The specs for the Highpoint SSD7101 also state that
multiple add-in cards can be installed in the same motherboard.
So, you can scale a Threadripper system now and obtain
the same bandwidth which you will get by waiting for
PCIe 4.0 to become widely available.
Also, of significant importance is the relatively large
number of PCIe 3.0 lanes which TR brings to the table:
you don't want your chipset lane assignments
to assign only x8 PCIe 3.0 lanes to an add-in card
that has an x16 edge connector.
Also, remember that both ends of a data cable
need to oscillate at the same high speed:
it may be a while before NVMe SSDs reach
PCIe 4.0's clock speed of 16 GHz.
Moral of this story: there are good reasons
to wait for the x16 add-in cards to mature
and for motherboard BIOS/UEFI subsystems
to be optimized for these leading-edge devices.