I have several unused 2TB Samsung T7 Shield SSDs and would like to use two of them as additional storage inside my desktop. All four motherboard M.2 slots are occupied, and I don't have any spare internal USB 3.2 headers, but I do have open PCIe slots.
I considered a PCIe card with dual internal USB Type-E connectors, but I haven't found a suitable dual 10Gbps model. Another possibility is using an M.2 dual-port adapter through a PCIe-to-M.2 card, although that seems unnecessarily expensive and potentially unreliable.
The simplest option may be a USB 3.2 PCIe card with external ports, but I would need to route the cables through the case's expansion-slot opening. I'd prefer a cleaner solution that keeps dust out, such as a brush-style or cable-pass-through PCIe bracket, but I haven't been able to find one.
What would be the most reliable and practical way to use these SSDs internally? Would moving one of my existing M.2 drives to a PCIe adapter and using the freed M.2 slot for a dual Type-E adapter make sense?
3 Answers
A standard PCIe USB 3.2 card with external ports is probably the least complicated and most dependable option. You could route short cables through the expansion-slot opening and use a replacement slot cover with a cable pass-through or brush insert. The small amount of exposed space is unlikely to be a meaningful dust problem if the rest of the case has positive airflow and filters.
For 10Gbps drives, you don’t necessarily need Type-E connectors. There are internal USB expansion cards and adapters that use the older 19-pin USB 3.x header, and internal USB hubs are also available. Just make sure the particular card or hub supports 10Gbps rather than only 5Gbps.
Don’t count on simply opening the T7 Shield enclosures and installing the drives as ordinary SATA or M.2 devices. These models use a custom PCB with the NVMe storage soldered to it, so the enclosure is not just a removable M.2 drive case. A PCIe USB controller is a much cleaner approach than trying to convert one of the drives internally.
I thought the 19-pin headers were limited to 5Gbps, which would cut the T7s’ maximum performance roughly in half. They’re only for extra storage, though, so that might still be acceptable.