Add 2nd nvme to M75Q gen2

[DEVisions]

Hi, I'd like to know if it's possible to add a 2nd
Nvme the the unpopulated slot of the M75Q gen2 board like how it's been done here to the m720q/m920q motherboard.

[a-little-wifi]

Hiya, this is a fun one, and also not quite as straightforward as with the m720q/m920q. That second NVMe slot has 2 PCIe lanes running to it, but not directly. It's wired through a few mux chips, first one from the slot muxes the first PCIe lane with a SATA port, so that the slot can also support SATA SSDs, and after that the 2 PCIe lanes go to another mux that switches those lanes between the M.2 slot and the last 2 lanes of the unpopulated PCIe riser slot.
In theory, if the firmware is set up to enable those PCIe lanes, you'd have to solder some jumper wires across the 2 mux footprints on the board as well as solder all the other components required for the M.2 slot to work.
If you want I can send you the schematic for this board, then you can take a look yourself, or I can try writing up some more detailed instructions (might take a while though). Wish I had an m75q Gen 2 to try this myself now lol.

edit: almost forgot, there's also a PCIe clock buffer in front of the clock signal for this slot, it duplicates one of the limited amount of clock outputs from the CPU to supply the unpopulated WWAN slot and that SSD slot. You'd have to jump the clock signal over to the SSD's signals on that footprint too.

[besseddrest]

hi i'm new to all this system stuff but I did notice this as well; while it might be obvi to others I do think you can go w/o the WiFi card, and install a shorter nvme ssd m.2 (2230 i think?) you'd have to commit to using the ethernet port or maybe a USB wifi card

just found this repo, thank you for putting all this info together as I've had to figure a lot of things out by myself over the past 2 months!

[a-little-wifi]

It's possible to install an SSD in the slot meant for the wifi card yeah, but you'll need to use an adapter for it to fit since the wifi card slot is M.2 E-key while most NVMe drives are M-key. Adapters for this are readily available but you'll need to find one that fits in the limited available space inside these small machines. I'm pretty sure there's a number of people on the servethehome forum thread who have done this, you might be able to find an example there.

[besseddrest]

a-ha! okay, seem still learning about all this

I just wish i didnt' have to sift through 127 forum page replies