Looking for a very specific motherboard

[Sonefiler]

Hey guys. 

 

I'm trying to find a tiny (smaller than mini-ITX) motherboard with two 4x chipset M.2 ports. I'm not sure if it exists anywhere, but if it does, I would really appreciate it. It's for a project I'm working on. 

 

I don't mind price, or age (as long as it's not ancient), and I also don't care if it's in a pre-built, I'm still interested. 

 

Has anybody seen anything like this? 

[Jurrunio]

motherboard no, expansion card yes

[Princess Luna]

Any Raspberry Pi + https://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/usb-m2-converter-raspberry-pi~PIB2M21

[Sonefiler]

1 minute ago, Princess Luna said:

 

Any Raspberry Pi + https://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/usb-m2-converter-raspberry-pi~PIB2M21

Raspberry Pi isn't powerful enough for my needs. I was thinking more along the lines of Mini-STX. My plan with the M.2 slots is to combine them into one 8x port and use them for a graphics card.

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, Sonefiler said:

.

What you want doesn't exist, make a normal Mini-ITX build.

[NunoLava1998]

Intel NUC boards have two M.2 options:

1. One M.2 2280 slot (SATA or NVMe depending on model)

2. One M.2 2230 slot (Type E, made for wireless cards and not compatible with SSDs)

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, NunoLava1998 said:

Intel NUC boards have two M.2 options:

1. One M.2 2280 slot (SATA or NVMe depending on model)

2. One M.2 2230 slot (Type E, made for wireless cards and not compatible with SSDs)

Also, Intel NUC boards have a PCIe x4 connector anyway

[Sonefiler]

1 minute ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Also, Intel NUC boards have a PCIe x4 connector anyway

Do any of the Intel NUC boards have PCIe x4 AND a M.2 NVMe slot? Because if so, that would work perfectly. 

 

[Sonefiler]

Another thing that would work is possibly a board with Thunderbolt? I know that there were those Razer laptops that had the capability to use external expansion cards with it, would using that be feasible?

 

[NunoLava1998]

1 minute ago, Sonefiler said:

Do any of the Intel NUC boards have PCIe x4 AND a M.2 NVMe slot? Because if so, that would work perfectly. 

 

Nope actually

Seems that the Intel NUC doesn't have x4 slots and i'm just dumb

 

[Sonefiler]

10 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

could you use a M.2 to sata or usb thingy ?

Do you mean the other way around? USB male to M.2 Female, or something like that? Because in that case: I'm interested in seeing what kind of effects that has on performance. I did a quick google search and haven't found anybody who's attempted something similar. But USB 3.1 only has a 10Gbps bandwidth, and PCIE x4 has a 40Gbps bandwidth, so I think there would be significant throttling (possibly more than just using x4 by itself). 

 

Thunderbolt, however, should be similar in bandwidth to PCIE x4. Makes me wonder if it's possible to combine that with a M.2 NVMe port.

 

That does mean that most external laptop GPUs run at around 4x bandwidth, which means that 4x shouldn't be much of a compromise anyways. So, maybe this whole thing isn't necessary and I can just run at 4x.

[Sonefiler]

4 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

I went from pcie1x to 4x on a m.2 card and did not see any difference. 

What about just getting a bigger M.2 drive?

I don't really know what you're trying to say. 

 

I'm trying to run a graphics card off M.2 with an adapter. That's why I need the bandwidth. I definitely can't do a 1x bandwidth.

[Sonefiler]

Okay, I know I'm bumping an old thread, but this is important. I've made a big discovery. 

 

https://www.asrock.com/nettop/AMD/DeskMini A300 Series/#Specification

 

This barebones PC has an AM4 Mini-STX motherboard with TWO (!!) M.2 PCIe Gen3 X4 slots. Combine these to make one X8 lane, and voila. Graphics card with no throttles (hopefully). Now, to see if a PCIe lane combiner thing even exists...

 

I'm so excited