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I've been a bit annoyed by the proliferation of dual NVMe Intel ITX motherboards and the lack of the same on the AMD side (logical due to the PCIe layout, but still annoying). So I got an idea, which is more than likely both unrealistic and uninformed (I like to use the word "optimistic"), but I'd still like to toss it out here as it seems people on this forum have both incredible technical knowledge and surprising resources to bring niche devices into existence: since (AFAIK) both X3/470 and B3/450 support bifurcation, could a riser cable be made using a thin flex ribbon cable (think: the cables used inside of smartphones) that wraps under/around the last 8 lanes of the PCIe connector of a GPU while it sits in the motherboard slot, thereby allowing for either two GPUs (don't know where the 2nd would go, unless you go single-slot with water cooling) or an NVMe SSD, but not requiring a custom case (at least for the latter)?I suppose the questions here are: how thin can a sufficiently shielded flex cable be made (I'm guessing it'd need at least two layers due to the pin density of the PCIe connector), and are PCIe slots wide/"roomy" enough that you could fit it between the card connector and the slot pins/sides without breaking the slot? Does lane bifurcation require additional communication with the motherboard, beyond simply attaching a new device onto the now-separate lanes? Would, say, the PRSNT2# pin of the GPU in the slot (B81) need to be rerouted to the PRSNT2# pin for x8 cards at B48, or can the GPU handle that itself (I kind of assume the latter, given that GPUs work in x8 (electrical) slots). Is there anything else I'm missing? Given that the latter 8 lanes only have one presence detection pin, am I correct in assuming it wouldn't be possible to further split these lanes into two SSDs?If I'm not explaining this harebrained idea quite clearly enough, I made a quick sketch:
I've been a bit annoyed by the proliferation of dual NVMe Intel ITX motherboards and the lack of the same on the AMD side (logical due to the PCIe layout, but still annoying). So I got an idea, which is more than likely both unrealistic and uninformed (I like to use the word "optimistic"), but I'd still like to toss it out here as it seems people on this forum have both incredible technical knowledge and surprising resources to bring niche devices into existence: since (AFAIK) both X3/470 and B3/450 support bifurcation, could a riser cable be made using a thin flex ribbon cable (think: the cables used inside of smartphones) that wraps under/around the last 8 lanes of the PCIe connector of a GPU while it sits in the motherboard slot, thereby allowing for either two GPUs (don't know where the 2nd would go, unless you go single-slot with water cooling) or an NVMe SSD, but not requiring a custom case (at least for the latter)?
I suppose the questions here are: how thin can a sufficiently shielded flex cable be made (I'm guessing it'd need at least two layers due to the pin density of the PCIe connector), and are PCIe slots wide/"roomy" enough that you could fit it between the card connector and the slot pins/sides without breaking the slot? Does lane bifurcation require additional communication with the motherboard, beyond simply attaching a new device onto the now-separate lanes? Would, say, the PRSNT2# pin of the GPU in the slot (B81) need to be rerouted to the PRSNT2# pin for x8 cards at B48, or can the GPU handle that itself (I kind of assume the latter, given that GPUs work in x8 (electrical) slots). Is there anything else I'm missing? Given that the latter 8 lanes only have one presence detection pin, am I correct in assuming it wouldn't be possible to further split these lanes into two SSDs?
If I'm not explaining this harebrained idea quite clearly enough, I made a quick sketch:
