Potential M.2 slot at the bottom for GDC EXP egpu solution?

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I was watching Linus’s GDC EXP video and this idea struck me. Since framework systems are made to be open and easily diy-able with two m.2 slots, is there any way for us to use one of them as a way to connect to an GPU? Likemodifying the chassis a little? Any ideas and suggestions are welcomed.

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Sure you can but you hardly need to use the m.2 slot for it

Those ports are USB4 and Framework is seeking Thunderbolt certification

There are posts on the forum validating various Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures and docks

I think you lose a few percent in performance but the convenience can’t be matched

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yup, m.2 uses PCI x4 lines, the same goes for the thunderbolt (but as I remember previous talking here on forum left and right thunderbolt ports are separated, and it ends up in two PCIx4 lines for them) so it would end up in pretty close performance (unless in some model they would go without thunderbolt like with Ryzen CPU)

so when it’s still PCIx4 thunderbolt is quite better option I would say (and much cleaner to modify) unless they would provide some additional port like Asus laptops, where it’s PCIx8 for eGPU use

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Thank you all for the reply. It make much more sense to me now!

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