Too many M.2 slots on the motherboard.
Too many M.2 slots on the motherboard.
I understand more individuals who customize their PCs with several drives than those using numerous PCIe devices. Still, the absence of boards that assign lanes to PCIe ports feels really frustrating. It appears every board—from the affordable to the high-end—is built around the most common options these days, which doesn’t align well with the idea of offering diverse SKUs. That said, I’m satisfied with my Epyc Milan motherboard; running it hard is definitely exciting. With two M.2 bays, eight SATA ports, and a comprehensive set of x8/x16 PCIe slots, it’s a lot of fun—and surprisingly affordable compared to many PCIe 5 boards on the market.
A few boards handled it in the way I was thinking about. Not every single one did, but there were a couple. The first thing that comes to mind is the X99-Deluxe II Spoiler. It seems the only ones doing it like that were X99 boards, which is why I called it "X99 style."
We should consider a unified component for things like DIMM.2. Maybe even design other PCIe devices to fit the M.2 size. I really appreciate how HP's Z-series riser cards are proprietary yet functional. It feels better not having to take apart my whole system just to reach storage. If more of the industry understood this, we could all save on costs and effort by focusing on practical solutions instead of niche parts.
It seems you're referring to your MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon setup. You mentioned having limited PCIe slots—only two x16 and one x1, plus a physical x16 slot—and you prefer using an M.2 add-in card. This makes sense because it gives you flexibility to swap out the SSD easily and move it around as needed.
Mhmm. Options vary from basic flat PCBs to robust cards with heatsinks, likely designed for 4.0 drives. The connector covers the entire card length and includes side supports at both ends, indicating a strong connection. Like PCIe cards, it can be easily removed for additional drives or swaps. Hope more manufacturers adopt this approach (or something similar). Interesting! I’ve probably seen these on server boards too. It seems concerning with large NVMe drives, as they’d need to stay securely mounted without looking awkward. The only vertical M.2 setup I noticed was on my X299 Dark for a Wi-Fi module, which uses a bracket instead of hanging freely and is already compact.