4 ms·
Looking at the bandwidth numbers a PCIe 3 x4 slot (like those used for M.2 slots) should be good for 4x SATA 3 ports, no "serialization" required. There's this
by lmz 3y ago
Looking at the bandwidth numbers a PCIe 3 x4 slot (like those used for M.2 slots) should be good for 4x SATA 3 ports, no "serialization" required.
There's this https://www.tomshardware.com/news/silverstone-turns-one-m2-slot-into-five-sata-ports-ecs07-adapter https://www.tomshardware.com/news/silverstone-turns-one-m2-s... but it's only x2 and theoretically a bottleneck.
- ggm 3y agoThats my hope. So I may be "meh, we've moved on, M.2 is the universal glue" about this now.
- adrian_b 3y agoYes, ASUS makes one-liter small PCs with two M.2 PCIe 4.0 sockets, e.g. PN53 (AMD) or PN64-E1 (Intel Raptor Lake; the -E1 is essential, PN64 is a very different worse computer). Beelink, Minisforum and others also make similar small computers with two M.2 2280 sockets. If the bottom cover is removed, one can add two of these adapters from M.2 key M to five SATA ports: Delock Converter M.2 2280 Key B+M male to 5 x SATA with heat sink https://www.delock.com/produkt/64051/merkmale.html?g=1818 https://www.delock.com/produkt/64051/merkmale.html?g=1818 In this way one can connect up to eleven SSDs/HDDs to such a small computer (it already has one SATA port). Making an improvised support for them is easy, e.g. one can reuse the removable cage from an old computer case. One can make a cut through the bottom cover for passing the SATA cables and the internal SSD/HDD cage can be removed if it gets in the way.