Question Will External Storage Devices be Limited to Motherboard Max Detectable Storage Drive Capacity?

[Gamefreaknet]

Basically the title. I know that my Internal SSDs are limited to 2TB per SSD (SATA or NVMe) as the max my mobo (Alienware 03R2RY) can detect per storage device however will this be limitation also apply through external storage devices considering itd still be using the PCIE link through the Thunderbolt port (I intend to use) to the mobo?

Also I did note that through this link here trying the solutions others used to check Thunderbolt compliance/enabled that my PC didn't come up with any note of Thunderbolt through Hwinfo, Device Menager or System Info despite Thunderbolt being listed on the Alienware site for my PC

Note: I intend to get these devices to expand available ports on my PC: (The port according to the Alienware site is TB3 not TB4)
Thunderbolt 3 Dock
Thunderbolt 4 Cable (will probably get a longer cable later on)

I am going to check in the BIOS Settings if I can Enable the Thunderbolt Port myself however will update if I can't (either by not finding the setting or something else)

 

[USAFRet]

I know that my Internal SSDs are limited to 2TB per SSD

That is not a certainty.

External drives, even less of a limitation.

 

[Gamefreaknet]

That is not a certainty.

External drives, even less of a limitation.

Motherboard: Intel HM370
CPU: i7 8750H with UHD 630
GPU: 2070MQ
I have been told by some that they doubt my PC will detect 4TB drives by either internal storage port (the M.2. and SATA slot)
External SSDs I figured would follow the same "rules" due to the PCIE connection via the Thunderbolt connection to the motherboard

 

[USAFRet]

Motherboard: Intel HM370
CPU: i7 8750H with UHD 630
GPU: 2070MQ
I have been told by some that they doubt my PC will detect 4TB drives by either internal storage port (the M.2. and SATA slot)
External SSDs I figured would follow the same "rules" due to the PCIE connection via the Thunderbolt connection to the motherboard

No.

My previous PC, i7-4790k, so 4 generations older than yours...

An 8TB external was seen with no problem.

 

[fzabkar]

Any motherboard limits are due to the BIOS (or hardware RAID controller). That said, I suspect that Windows will see the full capacity of larger storage devices as long as you don't boot from them.

USB mass storage devices are not limited in this way.

I tried to find an appropriate BIOS update, but now I'm not sure which, if any, apply to you. Take care.

Alienware m15/m17 System BIOS update, ver 1.4.1, 11 Feb 2019:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-il/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=yxkgw

This one is more recent:

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER05570824M/1/Alienware_m15_m17_1.6.2.exe

Even more recent:

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06291943M/1/Alienware_m15_m17_2.5.0.exe

This one is for R5 and R7 hardware:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-il/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=r0npr

More choices ...

https://www.google.com/search?q=alienware+m15/17+system+bios+update

 

[MWink64]

Motherboard: Intel HM370
CPU: i7 8750H with UHD 630
GPU: 2070MQ
I have been told by some that they doubt my PC will detect 4TB drives by either internal storage port (the M.2. and SATA slot)
External SSDs I figured would follow the same "rules" due to the PCIE connection via the Thunderbolt connection to the motherboard

I find it unfathomable that such a new machine would not be able to recognize a drive over 2TB. I've connected a 16TB hard drive to the motherboard's SATA port on an ancient AM2+ machine (Athlon 64 era). That's probably a solid decade older than yours. As others have mentioned, motherboard size limitations would generally not apply to external drives, however I'm unsure about Thunderbolt.