ASRock has launched AICs (Add-In Cards) that allow you to use up to 4 of their best SSDs on the same board.of Blazing Quad M.2 Card (opens in new tab) As the name suggests, it provides housing for four ultra-fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs.
ASRock has been making AICs for M.2 SSDs for quite some time. The company previously released Ultra Quad M.2 cards for PCIe 3.0 SSDs and Hyper Quad M.2 cards for PCIe 4.0 SSDs. However, the Blazing Quad M.2 card adopts the PCIe 5.0 interface and ASRock had to do some upgrades with the new AIC.
As a result, the Blazing Quad M.2 card will be the largest M.2 AIC ever produced by ASRock. Although it remains a single-slot design, at 4.97 inches wide he is 13% larger than the previous AIC. From the looks of it, the enlarged landscape could house a larger cooling fan.
The Blazing Quad M.2 card slides into a PCIe 5.0 x16 expansion slot. Under the hood are four PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots for SSDs with a maximum length of 110m. ASRock has mounted the M.2 slot at a 45 degree angle to shorten signal traces, maximize performance and improve signal integrity.
Additionally, the M.2 slot has a thermal pad to provide passive cooling for your SSD. In case you didn’t know, PCIe 5.0 SSDs tend to get hot. Two small aluminum cooling fans are responsible for active cooling. Since these are PWM fans, the Blazing Quad M.2 card comes with a 4-pin fan cable and should be plugged into the corresponding fan connector on the motherboard.
Like its predecessor, the Blazing Quad M.2 card requires an external power supply as it can’t get all the juice it needs from its expansion slot. As a result, the AIC utilizes the same 6-pin PCIe power connector as ASRock’s other AICs. So there are at least two cables coming out of the Blazing Quad M.2 card. ASRock also embedded her four status LEDs into the AIC to allow users to monitor the read or write status of each SSD.
ASRock includes the Blazing Quad M.2 card with the latest W790 WS motherboard for Intel Xeon W Sapphire Rapids processors. AIC is available as a standalone accessory, but not globally. As such, pricing and availability of the Blazing Quad M.2 card is unknown, and interested buyers should contact their local retailer to see if it’s available in their area.
