• Happy holidays, folks! Thanks to each and every one of you for being part of the Tom's Hardware community!

News Silverstone Turns One M.2 Slot Into Five SATA Ports

Interesting idea. So with PCIe x 16 to four M.2 adapter you could end up with additional 20 SATA ports per PCIe. Plus say three M.2 onboard for extra 10 (keep one for boot drive) and you end with 34-38 SATA ports (depending on what board starts with).
 
(panic-tinged voice) . . why do you need 30+ SATA ports?!?
No idea. But I'm sure there is someone out there who just shouted "Eureca!".
imagine connecting 30 HDDs, each making different sound while platters spin, and then making a app that spins them in such way to make it sound like orchestra playing your favorite song 🤣
 
  • Like
Reactions: King_V
No idea. But I'm sure there is someone out there who just shouted "Eureca!".
imagine connecting 30 HDDs, each making different sound while platters spin, and then making a app that spins them in such way to make it sound like orchestra playing your favorite song 🤣

Perfect for those running Unraid or other NAS based solutions
 
Take one of those mining motherboards with 18x PCIe x1 slots, add a corresponding pile of PCIe to m.2 adapters, and connect a frankly obscene 90 HDDs to a single system. And probably discover new and interesting SATA addressing bugs, I guess.
 
This is actually a great solution to eliminate SATA ports altogether on some motherboards going forward. Many motherboards have two m.2 ports, well one of those m.2 can be for the "optional" SATA.

I'd be happy to buy a new motherboard with zero SATA knowing this was in the box.
 
There's already a similar product on Amazon, I picked one up when I upgraded my motherboard. They're pretty great, a lot more compact than a card and you can keep the cables lying flat against the motherboard for neatness. I also no longer have to deal with the SATA PCIe card blocking access to the rear ports on my hard drive bay, which is nice.