It exists! Custom OcuLink adapter for the Dual M.2 expansion bay module

Update (Dec 12, 2025): I have opened up the list for responses again, but with the caveat that you may or may not be contacted, and I definitely won’t have the capacity to contact new additions to the list before 2026.

Update (Dec 11, 2025): I have stopped collecting responses for the adapter. Couple of reasons.

  1. It is the holiday season, and the management of the communication, payments, and shipping in addition to my own personal and professional obligations are getting to be a little much.
  2. Most of the adapters I ordered have already been paid for, sent, or delivered. Some more people that I responded to have said they plan to pay shortly, and there are more that I have emailed fairly recently (within the last day or two) that I have not heard from yet.

I still need to respond to the most recent responses to the form, so if you did just submit a response, you should get an email soon.

I appreciate the excitement around this project, and am grateful that nearly everyone who filled out the form followed through. Original post follows.


I shared a post already in the OCuLink eGPU works with the Dual M.2 expansion bay module thread, but wanted to create a new thread specific to the custom OCuLink adapter.

The original thread has multiple posts that mostly detail the history of how this custom adapter came to be.

I have had the adapters for about a week and have tested a couple of them, with testing on a third one underway.

If you want to get one of these, there are a few things you need to know. I will quote some text from my post in the other thread (with some minor edits).

First, I want to make sure some things are as clear as I can make them. I am an individual. I have family commitments and a full-time job. There are some things about the process that you might not like, but I just don’t have the time or resources to go out of my way to do anything “above and beyond”. I need to prioritize the simple stuff first, such as limiting shipping to the US and Canada early on. I am exploring that a little, but again, I am just one person. Please be patient

Second, I cannot fully test every piece, nor do I have a wide range of docks/equipment to test on. I will be testing a few pieces on a single Framework 16 (Ryzen 7 7840HS motherboard) with the dual M.2 expansion bay. Testing is happening with a custom eGPU enclosure (no redriver and not working at this point), an Aoostar AG02 800W, and an RX 9070 XT. I do plan on trying some more testing with the custom enclosure, but it is lower priority. I will also be doing some basic testing with a PCIe to M.2 riser with an SSD, but that too is lower priority.

I cannot accept any liability if something goes horribly wrong. All I can say is that I installed 3 of the initial batch pieces that just didn’t work, 1 updated prototype revision that did work with the AG02, and 3 of the final version (that also work with the AG02). The single working prototype was in my laptop the longest (roughly 2 weeks). None caused any issues with my FW16. I shipped one of the original non-working pieces and the working prototype piece to OVER_CL0CK as well. He has confirmed the original design piece did not work and the revised version does work with his DEG1. It seems highly unlikely that something catastrophic would go wrong, BUT if you decide to acquire one of these, you are doing so at your own risk.

The price per piece will be $60 USD. Shipping in US and Canada will be $10. I do not have information about shipping to other countries yet. Depending on demand to those countries, it might actually be better if someone wants to buy multiple and redistribute.

If you are still interested in getting one of these, I have started a list.

This thread can also be used for people to share their experiences, thoughts, questions, etc about this custom adapter. I plan on posting more details about the testing too.

Edit: Forgot to include the link to the IO shield model, and to give some instructions.

I will be sending a black IO shield with the adapter. The model is just in case you want to print a different colour.

You will need to remove the dual M.2 adapter module to install the OCuLink adapter. If you need something to reference, the installation guide for the dual M.2 adapter should have enough information. It should be obvious, but install the OCuLink adapter in the M.2 slot closest to the back of the laptop. Be sure to remove the screw holding in the IO shield and remove the shield. Re-install the dual M.2 adapter, attaching the ribbon cables and screws, then put the custom IO shield in place and secure it with the screw.

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These are the testing details for the adapters.

I have an AOOSTAR GEM10 Mini PC with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and 32GB LPDDR5(6400MHZ) RAM that has a built-in OCuLink port. This is what I have used to compare against my FW 16 with the Ryzen 7 7840HS and 64GB of DDR5-5600 memory. Even though there are differences, the results are (mostly) surprisingly close.

I have tried testing with a custom eGPU based on a cablecc board that does not have a redriver. I have tried a few different methods to get it working, but it just isn’t recognized.

My successful testing has been with an Aoostar AG02 800W using an RX 9070 XT. GPUz reports the connection at PCIe 4.0 x4.

The differences between the 3 tested pieces definitely fell within margin of error, so when I reference % differences, I took the median of the 3 pieces.

In Steel Nomad, Port Royal, and Time Spy Extreme, the variance was from 0.38% to 1.12%. Basically, margin of error. Sometimes this was in favour of the FW, sometimes the Mini PC.

The single largest difference in any of the testing was in the PCIe bandwidth test in 3D Mark. The Mini PC scored 6.55 GB/s while the FW 16 with the adapter scored 7.20 GB/s. The 7.20 GB/s result was consistent across the 3 tested pieces.

In the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark, the FW 16 had 1.7% advantage average FPS, 3.4% advantage minimum FPS, and 1.8% advantage maximum FPS.

All of the above tests were in Windows.

I tested some runs in Ghost of Tsushima in Linux (I actually run Linux as my daily) using MangoHud. The difference between the Mini PC and the FW was within margin of error, especially considering there isn’t a built-in benchmark and you get variance between runs anyway. Ghost of Tsushima is the game I am currently playing through. I haven’t experienced any strange behaviour during testing/playing; no crashes or performance issues.

Looking forward to hearing the results from others!

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Dude, that’s a sweet looking oculink adapter!

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I’m in Europe, wondering if more people from that region are interested? Like collectively get it over and redistribute in Europe/EU?

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I’m interessted.

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I have the Expansion dev setup and few FPGA boards, so I can do some eye digrams over some different connections. This should give a idea of what Gen you can acheieve and if you need a retimer or something.

The first batch of adapters just got sent out today for those who had paid by yesterday (with one exception)! If that’s you, check your email!

Some updates.

First, to those of you from Europe. It looks like shipping there is roughly $28 USD (with tracking number) and it takes about 2 weeks. I’m not sure how to organize folks who might want to get multiple shipped at once and then redistributed. Thoughts?

The other group who are interested are from Australia. Looks like that would be roughly $30 USD. Again, not sure if y’all want to organize something? Also, not exactly sure how long it would take.

Finally, I’m taking some vacation so the next batch for the US won’t ship until the second week of December (earliest).

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For those looking to do this, just remember that European and UK VAT is paid at the border. In the UK this is 20% on the total value of the imported package, so includes content value PLUS shipping cost. The UK will let packages under £135 slip in without paying VAT, so this would allow two boards to be sent in one package, but more than that and you will almost guarantee to need to pay an extra 20%.

I understand similar rules apply in Europe, but I don’t know what value they will allow in without needing to pay VAT equivalent.

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For Australia, it would be considered low-value items under $1,000 and therefore GST exempt, so that makes it easier - I’m in Perth so could take a bunch of them under that threshold and AusPost them out, which would be about $9AUD each parcel…

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At these prices, and considering forward shipping costs, it is only going to make sense if 3+ people want to order in EU/Europe to see any significant cost reduction from the shipping/tariff/tax fees and costs.

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AFAIK same story in the EU. VAT varies depending on the country (France: 20%, Luxembourg 17%, etc.) but packages under 150€ are exempt.

BUT on December 12 there will be a vote to suppress this. If it passes this exemption would be suppressed during the 1st quarter of 2026 (no specific date provided). Moreover, a 2€ management fee would be applied. Apparently, the justification for the exemption was done to foster private & small businesses but ended up being massively abused by big players - there are even talks of VAT frauds by under estimating the value of parcels.

Well currently, as long as you ship 2 adapters max, you should be fine with the customs. So 60$ or 120$ plus shipping costs

And maybe at some point in 2026, buyers will have to factor in their TVA even for one adapter. In France that would be 72$ plus shipping costs. If it’s 28$ as written above that would be 100$ => still willing to buy it :slight_smile:

Dual Oculink for the Framework! I testing out a second m.2 oculink adapter.

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Haha! I hadn’t thought about people wanting to run dual. I guess for those self-hosted AI scenarios. Happy to see one of my adapters “in the wild”. Several got delivered to folks today and I’ve been checking here for updates. :joy:

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Really looking forward to folks sharing their experience both in terms of communication with me and with the adapter. Tell us everything (whether good or bad)! :grin:

Installation, performance, aesthetic, general comments, etc. Eagerly awaiting your feedback!

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I just installed and tested out the oculink adapter I got from Kyle Tuck. It’s working well so far with a Minisforum DEG1 paired with an AMD RX 9070. I’ve only played a few games, but haven’t run into any issues. I’m able to get pcie 4.0 speeds. When I was using the ribbon cable adapter I usually only got pcie 1.1 or wasn’t able to detect at all. So far I’m quite happy with this setup.

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With the Morefine G1 rtx 4080 mobile egpu gpuz only showed pcie 2.0 and the whole system crashed a few times before I could finally get into windows and even then the whole system wasn’t very responsive. While the Morefine G1 worked well using usb 4 on the Framework 16, it didn’t really work with oculink. The Minisforum DEG1 and RX 9070 are still working great with no issues though.

Edit: The Morefine G1 works with oculink on another mini pc I have.

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Good information even if it’s not ideal. So it seems the best solutions so far are the DEG1 and AG02.

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Evening Kyle…. I am curious if you are shipping (selling) the adapters yet? I did place my name on the google doc a couple of weeks ago.

I just received and installed my dual m.2 adapter in my FW16 standard shell (dual fan only). I also purchased a M.2 to Oculink cable from Amazon and installed it in my FW16. Everything works – I am using a DEG1 with an RTX5070. I would really like to get your M.2 to Oculink device - mine currently works, but would ranther not have the oculink cord hanging out the back of the FW16.

I can do testing.. I have the following devices I can test with:

RX460 (old AMD)

RX580 (old AMD)

RX 9060 XT (new AMD)

RTX 5070 (new NVIDIA)

ARC A310 (1st Gen Intel)

GTX 1070 (old NVIDIA)

And an assortment of old QUADRO and older AMD and NVIDIA cards.

I have two (2) DEG1’s - One for my minisforum MS-A1 (Desktop) and One (NOW) for my FW16 w/Oculink.

I am able to test with W11 and Linux (Currently Daily Drive CachyOS)

I can add another m.2 SSD and test other Linux Distros (Deb 13, Ubuntu 2x.xx, Fedora distros, OpenSuse and the every popular Arch distros).

If you have already contacted me on how to purchase the unit, I apologize that I haven’t seen it come through my e-mail.

Thank You in advance.

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Hey!

I just returned from vacation this past weekend and started working on a draft email to send to folks in Europe who have filled out the form. Look for an email in the next day or two.

For those who filled out the form in the US, if you did not receive an email from me, check your spam folder. I am pretty sure I have responded to all of you.

Kyle

Edit: For those of you who have already received your adapter, please share your thoughts/comments/pics/experiences with the adapter, and please feel free to share your experience with dealing with me too. :slight_smile:

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I bought my adapter from Kyle and am slowly working on the review, but I just want to say that he’s been very nice to deal with!

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