LP ALPHA Ideas for M.2 key-E Socket

One solution I tested it out is this:

1) get a NGFF type-E to mPCIe adapter (about $12 to $15), for example, this one
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/M-2-NGF ... 29345.html
This bring out 1-lane PCIe. The FPC cable has to be short since it's a high speed bus.

2) get a mPCIe SATA controller card e.g., MPE40095
It's using an ASMEDIA ASM1061R (RAID) controller with OPROM.
This card has two SATA data connectors.

3) Get a 12V to 5V DC-DC step-down converter to supply power to ...

4) an external 2.5" SSD drive

This is not without issues...
1. Can't get the Option RPM working (thus probably no hardware RAID possibility.)
2. BIOS seems not be able to see it.
3. If UEFI boot, can't see the new drive as a boot disk.
4. In BIOS if turning on CSM (on storage) and set Legacy mode, then [F7] boot menu will see the drive
5. Even you don't do (3) or (4), and boot Windows (or OSX) from other drive, with post-boot (SATA controller) kernel driver loaded, the new SSD disk will then show up.
6. Since it's using unshielded FPC cable, I dare not to use PCIe ver 3, but limited to ver 2.

In my case, It's using one PCIe lane and shown as 6 Gbps bandwidth.

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