No hot swapping, but no performance penalty
ICY Dock’s new ToughArmor MB842MP-B is a PCIe 3/4.0 card that can accommodate a pair of NVMe drives. It utilizes PCIe splits to provide four PCIe lanes per drive, so you’ll need to install it in a PCIe 8x or 16x slot to get full speed. The drive slides in and out easily, similar to how old SATA docks worked, and the ToughArmor MB842MP-B comes with a heatsink, so there’s no need to worry about extra steps when mounting the drive into the dock. It also has a cable that allows you to connect it to the motherboard’s header so you can get a blinking light on your case if you want.
Nikktech saw impressive performance from the drive they tested, but was a little disappointed with the roughly $230 price tag. At least it has good compatibility, 2230, 2243, 2260, 2280 and 22110 all fit the ToughArmor MB842MP-B. On the other hand, your PCIe 5.0 SSD won’t hit the maximum bandwidth, and you’ll need to make sure your motherboard supports PCIe splitting.
If you don’t mind the price, you can check out the full review here .