this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Is there anything you can do with the x8 in the expansion bay? Could I add a card to support an additional M.2 drive?

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[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, im fact since its x8, its theoretically possible to have multiple m.2 slots

[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And there's space for it in the bay?

[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

M.2 Ssds are very snall. The expansion bay is far large enough to fit 2 2280 ssds horizontally, multiple if smaller, and the expansion bay does not have a required thickness, so if a company was crazy to allow for 4x m.2 slots, on paper it could. Framework is not designing all of the options, but the spec exists so that anyone is free to design something.

For instance, something some people want that is not just storage is larger battery, or an occulink port (ehich will convert the bay to a port fpr external gpus)

[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

So I would just like unscrew the silvery bit on something like this and pop it in the expansion bay shell? Then I'd have room for two more SSDs on top of the one on the mainboard.

[–] LinuxSBC@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're confusing the PCIe protocol and the PCIe connector. The connector is the "default" option for carrying the protocol, but any connector with enough pins can serve PCIe. For example, M.2, MiniPCIe, Thunderbolt, U.2, and many more use the PCIe protocol but a different connector. Framework just made another connector that works with the PCIe protocol. You can adapt it to full PCIe or M.2 if you want, but PCIe or M.2 cards can't just fit in without an adapter.

[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its not a raw pci-e 16x lane, a 3rd party conpany would still have to design it based on the schematics that are open source on github. But the idea is yes, they would make something similar to that board, but instead of using a pci-e comnector, they would use the connector framework pushes, and then design their own enclosure to be able to fit into the expansion bay dimensions

[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the said topic though, at LTX, a prototype 2x m.2 slot up to 22110 (up to 110mm, basically any m.2 ssd) was shown. So I highly expect down the line, it will be offered for those who dont need a dgpu.

https://www.techpowerup.com/img/e9C8bHa4nQgdltq4.jpg

That is so cool!

I hope someone will make a trackpad that's a bit smaller and has physical buttons at the bottom. I wonder how hard that would be.