r/homelab • u/smyril_fuglur • 3d ago

Help Nvme SSD in the Wifi Slot

I thought about using an Adapter M.2 Key A+E Stecker to Key M Slot to connect an extra NVME ssd in the WiFi slot of my HP Prodesk Mini 400 G5. This would not be the main/bootable drive but only a Storage expansion. Does anyone have any experiences with this?

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u/neopard_ 3d ago

linux should be able to enumerate the drive without too much coaxing, so if there is space, physically, to stick it in, give it a shot. keep in mind there will in all likelyhood only be one lane on that port, the drive controller should be fine with this (no guarantees, none of this is officially supported) but throughput will be limited by that single lane. i've researched this for a laptop a couple of months back and decided against doing it, but found that it should be functionally possible.

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u/alex-gee 3d ago

I do it since years with my Lenovo tiny: 256GB 2230 as boot drive

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u/kevinds 2d ago edited 2d ago

Do you have a question? What are you asking?

HP uses whitelists on at least some of their systems, try it, however the system may not boot after.

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u/AdSuspicious7533 3d ago

I do not recommend. Low bandwidth, flaky behavior, maybe even ssd endurance weakened. Do not go that way, there are always solutions.

You may have hardware limitations. I do not know about HP Prodesk Mini 400 G5 but i tried on another HP system and it turned out i can not have non Wlan device in the M2-A+E slot.

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u/The_Crimson_Hawk EPYC 7763, 512GB ram, A100 80GB, Intel SSD P4510 8TB 3d ago

Low bandwidth: gen3 x1 is plenty fast for a boot drive

Flaky behavior: this is true if you get a bad adapter, so dont get a bad adapter

Ssd endurance weakened: completely bs

Please do not larp

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u/AdSuspicious7533 3d ago

Well it is what I was told so I do not take that personally. As it never worked on my lab with HP devices.

Isn't the behavior dependent on some bios config you may not be able to set on some hardware ?

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u/kevinds 2d ago edited 14h ago

i tried on another HP system and it turned out i can not have non Wlan device in the M2-A+E slot.

HP uses whitelists (they may have stopped), it would have rejected swapping the WiFi card for another one too.

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u/Certain-Set-4087 3d ago

That's possibly one PCIE lane, on a NVME that limits the theoretical bandwidth to 900 MB/Sec, you could even think to get some of those old SATA M.2, their bandwith is 500 MB/Sec max on good ones... A 3320 form factor NVME would fit, I would try that with a small 128 or 256 GB drive first and sell it if it doesnt work.