4 ms·

Don't new laptops only have one of those, for their hard drives?

agumonkey 8y ago
It's confusing me. wifi cards don't need m2 slot, I thought it was a standard made for SSDs. Usually wifi cards use basic mini pcie sockets, even on old (2006>) 12" laptops you can find 2, albeit sometimes only one socket is installed (the other is empty space with pins there, some people even soldered one manually)
- loa-in-backup 8y ago
  Directly from Wikipedia: Buses exposed through the M.2 connector are PCI Express 3.0, Serial ATA (SATA) 3.0 and USB 3.0, which is backward compatible with USB 2.0. As a result, M.2 modules can integrate multiple functions, including the following device classes: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite navigation, near field communication (NFC), digital radio, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig), wireless WAN (WWAN), and solid-state drives (SSDs).
- chx 8y ago
  M.2 slots come with different keys for different purposes. key B is used for WWAN and mostly SATA SSDs (although some slower NVMe drives ship with key B+M , the plus sign means it works in both slots). key M is used for x4 NVMe SSDs. And key E is used for wifi. And this card here.
rjsw 8y ago
Some laptops have two.
chx 8y ago
Most laptops have an m.2 key E slot for the wifi slot but it's rarely mentioned because noone ships a laptop without wifi and they don't want to confuse people. Yes, most laptops only have a single M.2 key M slot but that's not this card is after.
dTal 8y ago
The Lenovo Thinkpad T480 has an M.2 slot and a normal SATA bay. If you order with an NVMe SSD, it goes in a caddy with an adapter in the SATA bay. The M.2 slot is optionally used for WAN or a small secondary SSD. However is is only 42 mm long and PCIe only, so third party SSDs are difficult to find. I only know all this because I just bought one, and have been hunting for something useful to put in that slot...
- chx 8y ago
  Sigh. There is no such thing as an "M.2 slot". There is always a key and a size. The T480 has three M.2 slots: 1. Optional M.2 key M 2280 in the main bay via an adapter. 2. M.2 key B 2242, the Lite On T11 works there for an SSD. It's the only consumer M>2 key B+M 2242 PCIe SSD. This generation doesn't support SATA disks in this slot, the T470 did. 3. M.2 key E 2230 as practically all laptops do since Broadwell for wifi.
  - dTal 8y ago
    Bugger. So the FPGA card won't work then. Thanks for explaining. It's all very confusing and frustrating. So the chances of me finding anything useful to put in that slot are roughly nil, then? I can see no physical or technical reason why my slot should not support this card, except that the card only supports two out of the three possible PCIe-carrying configurations, and I was unlucky. Seems like a poorly designed "standard".
    - chx 8y ago
      Of course it will work! That's the point: remove the wifi card and use a USB dongle instead. Practically every laptop featuring a Broadwell or later CPU will work.
      - dTal 8y ago
        I meant in my spare, useless 'key B' slot, which will still be spare and useless if I take the wifi card out. It especially rankles because they devoted two whole PCIe lanes to that damn slot, which would be better put to use unbottlenecking my highly expensive Samsung P981 NVMe drive. The T480s does not suffer this problem.

It's confusing me. wifi cards don't need m2 slot, I thought it was a standard made for SSDs. Usually wifi cards use basic mini pcie sockets, even on old (2006>) 12" laptops you can find 2, albeit sometimes only one socket is installed (the other is empty space with pins there, some people even soldered one manually)

loa-in-backup 8y ago
Directly from Wikipedia: Buses exposed through the M.2 connector are PCI Express 3.0, Serial ATA (SATA) 3.0 and USB 3.0, which is backward compatible with USB 2.0. As a result, M.2 modules can integrate multiple functions, including the following device classes: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite navigation, near field communication (NFC), digital radio, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig), wireless WAN (WWAN), and solid-state drives (SSDs).
chx 8y ago
M.2 slots come with different keys for different purposes. key B is used for WWAN and mostly SATA SSDs (although some slower NVMe drives ship with key B+M , the plus sign means it works in both slots). key M is used for x4 NVMe SSDs. And key E is used for wifi. And this card here.

rjsw 8y ago

Some laptops have two.

chx 8y ago

Most laptops have an m.2 key E slot for the wifi slot but it's rarely mentioned because noone ships a laptop without wifi and they don't want to confuse people. Yes, most laptops only have a single M.2 key M slot but that's not this card is after.

dTal 8y ago

The Lenovo Thinkpad T480 has an M.2 slot and a normal SATA bay. If you order with an NVMe SSD, it goes in a caddy with an adapter in the SATA bay. The M.2 slot is optionally used for WAN or a small secondary SSD. However is is only 42 mm long and PCIe only, so third party SSDs are difficult to find. I only know all this because I just bought one, and have been hunting for something useful to put in that slot...

chx 8y ago
Sigh. There is no such thing as an "M.2 slot". There is always a key and a size. The T480 has three M.2 slots: 1. Optional M.2 key M 2280 in the main bay via an adapter. 2. M.2 key B 2242, the Lite On T11 works there for an SSD. It's the only consumer M>2 key B+M 2242 PCIe SSD. This generation doesn't support SATA disks in this slot, the T470 did. 3. M.2 key E 2230 as practically all laptops do since Broadwell for wifi.
- dTal 8y ago
  Bugger. So the FPGA card won't work then. Thanks for explaining. It's all very confusing and frustrating. So the chances of me finding anything useful to put in that slot are roughly nil, then? I can see no physical or technical reason why my slot should not support this card, except that the card only supports two out of the three possible PCIe-carrying configurations, and I was unlucky. Seems like a poorly designed "standard".
  - chx 8y ago
    Of course it will work! That's the point: remove the wifi card and use a USB dongle instead. Practically every laptop featuring a Broadwell or later CPU will work.
    - dTal 8y ago
      I meant in my spare, useless 'key B' slot, which will still be spare and useless if I take the wifi card out. It especially rankles because they devoted two whole PCIe lanes to that damn slot, which would be better put to use unbottlenecking my highly expensive Samsung P981 NVMe drive. The T480s does not suffer this problem.