Adding Mini PCI Express USB 3.0 card

Hi All,

Just purchased a M11x R1. I removed the cover to replace the HDD with an SSD and noticed the WWAN slot. A web search showed that there are a couple companies that make mini PCI express to USB 3.0 cards. Has anybody investigated the possibility of adding one of these cards. Would Windows7 recognize it as any other PCI express device or is there something in the BIOS that would disable it? I know it would take some modification but might be worth the effort.

1. COMMELL Launches MPX-7202 PCI Express Mini Card Supporting USB 3.0

2. Mini PCI Express USB 3.0 Card - 2-port | StarTech.com



Any thoughts???

Thanks

Brock

 

If there was a bios whitelist on that port, you could try a bios mod to get around that. As long as there are PCI lanes going to the WWAN miniPCIe slot, I think this could work.

 

I was thinking about the mini pci-e earlier today as well. They make ssd cards that plug in these (usually from netbooks) but it would be nice to plug in a 16gb ssd just for booting speeds and they only cost $40 on ebay ect.
I havent tried anything in the minipci-e but i do know that people were adding 5520 wwan cards to use 3g (it is a wann port but its still not what comes standard on m11x)

 

It has been successfully done on a HP 8710p which has whitelisted mPCIe slots. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...sb3-mini-pcie-card-hp-8710-a.html#post7243607 .

 

I believe that the WWAN slot uses a usb bus with a mpci-e slot so you couldn't get usb 3.0 speeds out of it. I believe the WLAN card slot uses a true pci bus though.

 

So find a wlan card that can work in the wwan, and put a usb3.0 or pcie sata in the wlan slot?

... just re-read that, does that even make sense?

 

Yeah that seems like it would work.

 

I am very interested in seeing if this works. Please post if you have accomplished this and your read/write speeds.

 

I had a similar idea earlier on and have successfully gotten a mPCIe sata controller card to work in the wlan slot. Didn't test speeds but it did recognize a standard 2.5in x 9mm HDD (power was being provided by an external PSU.)

I switched out the mPCIe sata card for a usb 3.0 card (again power was being provided by an external PSU.) My goal was to add a second 9mm HDD to the system, which would necessitate a reworking of the bottom plate. (which has proven to be expensive so far) I got windows to recognize the card and the drive plugged into it, but i didn't test anything beyond that.

The USB 3.0 card had two headers, the plan was to use one for the HDD and one for a wlan dongle in order to replace the lost wlan card due to the slot being used up by the usb card. That's as far as i got. I ended up switching my focus to my screen bezel mod, and it seems like reworking the bottom plate will prove to be expensive. That and i'd have to find a place to take power for the card from (a thought would be to wire it to one of the USB ports but i haven't tried at all yet.)

I get a POST error whenever anything but a wlan card is in the slot. Error aside it makes it through POST and the card is recognized by windows, as are the drives connected to it.

The wwan slot on the other hand is pretty much gimped. I couldn't get either card to work in it even after downgrading my BIOS as suggested in the wwan thread. Which isn't altogether unsurprising seeing as how the wwan slot doesn't seem to be a true pcie slot.

 

Silicon-PowerProducts

Can I even use this on my lappie? Just wondering :x

 

No. We don't have an Express Card slot.

 

ooowwhhh...... *facepalm*
i thought the card reader is express card slot xP