cangelini :
I didn't try plugging anything else in to the full-sized slot, army, but Intel lists the two slots as full- and half-sized mini-PCI Express. The fact that mSATA works in the full-sized slot suggests to me cross-compatibility. Not 100% on this, though.
Thanks for the reply Chris! Just making sure.
Well, if Intel says so, then it probably is both an mSATA and mini-PCI-E slot with their implementation on that board.
Just remembered something. There was a recent review and a few news releases here on TH about Thunderbolt external GPU's (eGPU). Maybe Intel should've included a Thunderbolt port on this board, especially when you take into consideration the fact they co-created it (as I remember).
I think there's also a way to connect an eGPU via connector to a mini-PCI-E slot, like those found on laptops as well, though you'd probably have to find a way to get the wire(s) to go inside the AIO chassis, and leaving the back panel open doesn't seem too appealing to me. (http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-external-graphics-discussion/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html I found this on that review of the Thunderbolt to PCI-E enclosure, just to give credit.
)
Anyway, I think it would be up to the user to consider if having something (the eGPU, possibly in an enclosure) similar to a tiny nettop beside their AIO is alright. I doubt there are nettops the size of a Mac Mini or Sapphire's EDGE HD3 that have better graphics power than the latter of the two. Maybe if there's one with an Ivy Bridge CPU with HD 4000 graphics (though I'm not sure what the or how big the difference is between that and the E-450's HD 6320 or (if there are or if there will be nettops with this, which sounds probable) the E1-1800's HD 7340). I think the Best Graphics hierarchy chart put the HD 4000 a few tiers above the HD 6320, but it's safer to check if interested.
Those two nettops seem like they'd be smaller and more compact/space-efficient than a decent eGPU would be, but an AIO with an eGPU is most likely more powerful (and a monitor with a nettop and and eGPU just seems silly. Hehehe...)
Sorry, just let my mind drift off... :lol:
Oh, and having an eGPU with an AIO sort of makes an oxymoron i.e. an
all-in-one with an
external GPU. Hehehe... Though I think the points I showed still hold.
But, like some have mentioned, a thicker AIO chassis to allow for a graphics card sounds better, performance-wise (without the latency of Thunderbolt which I'm not sure really manifests with performance numbers). (I had something like a daughterboard attached to a PCI-E slot to allow the graphics card to be mounted parallel to the motherboard, just like some compact desktop makers do I think.)
Chris did mention:
cangelini :
Supposedly, Gigabyte has a version able to take dual-slot graphics cards, but I don't have it yet.
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