Empty PCIe lanes will be occupied by SSDs – they decided to attach a couple of M.2 slots to the Intel Arc B580 video card

MaxSun showed a prototype of the Intel Arc B580 video card, equipped with two M.2 slots for solid-state drives with an NVMe interface. Thus, the manufacturer proposes to use eight lines that remain free after installing a new Intel video card in the slot.

Image Source: VideoCardz/MaxSun

Earlier this week, MaxSun introduced the Intel Arc B580 iCraft graphics card. As it turns out, the company has developed two versions of the Arc B580 iCraft. The first is a regular version of the accelerator with a proprietary cooling system. The second version is equipped with two M.2 connectors for SSDs, hidden behind a long radiator of the cooling system. This decision seems quite logical, since the Intel Arc B580 video card uses only eight PCIe 4.0 lanes for connection, and, accordingly, another eight lines of the standard PCIe x16 connector remain unused. Why not use them for SSD?

MaxSun is not the first manufacturer to offer video cards with M.2 connectors to use unused PCIe 4.0 lanes. Previously, Asus demonstrated a prototype of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Dual with one slot for an M.2 SSD. Here the SSD was proposed to be installed under the main radiator of the video card cooling system.

For its solution, MaxSun has developed a removable basket for installing two SSDs, which also serves as a radiator for cooling the drives. Apparently, the user will not even have to disassemble the video card in order to install or remove solid-state drives.

The company does not specify whether it intends to release such a video card for sale, or whether it will remain a prototype.