I think it is the time to explain the step-by-step on how to convert UDOO x86's NGFF M.2 B-key (a.k.a. NGFF socket 2) to a regular sized PCIe slot. Step 0) buy the following adapter card from fleaBay. The $9 one shipped faster (in about 3 weeks.) The $3 one took longer (about 50 days.) Here is the board close-up. The M.2 connector is M-key (socket 3) and the PCIe connector is PCIe x4 (only 2 lanes are used even the board is for M-key 4-lane PCIe.) I'll explain the rationale in later posts. ccs_hello (In fleaBay, search PCI-E 4X Female to NGFF M.2 M Key Male Adapter Power Cable with Converter Card http://www.ebay.com/itm/311414541676?
Step 1) cut a slot (blue shaded one) using Dremel saw wheel. Cut the center line first. then gradually move sideways to create the "B" slot. Make sure the 6 gold fingers on the left edge are not removed. P.S. originally one only has the "M"-slot. ccs_hello
As you see see in the first pic in post 1, there is a 4-pin Molex mini power socket (the one used in 3.5" floppy drive.) It will be needed to supply 12V to some PCIe card which requires 12V. Some don't (just 3.3V powered and supplied thru M.2 socket.) Example is a Marvell SATA controller with 4 SATA ports and supports hardware RAID 0, 1, and 1+0. This specific board is a unusual PCIe x2 adapter (11 gold fingers on left and 11 on right.) See resulted configuration. The card itself: ccs_hello
Use sudo lspci -vv to show that the controller indeed is taking advantage of PCIe x2 (2 lane bus) ccs_hello
Now step 2) -- create a 12V power cable for this PCIe adapter. Find a scrap old 3.5" floppy disk power cable. Only use the Yellow and Black wires. Connect these two wires to UDOO x86's own power supply lines. (Sorry in my picture, my "Yellow" color wire is actually colored red.) Example use case: add a Gigabit Ethernet card. ccs_hello
Some might ask why another Ethernet card? Reason one: VMware vSphere does not support Realtek RT8111 chip. There are ways to work around it (inject 3rd party driver to ISO image) but is ugly. Reason 2: besides, two-NIC is better than 1. (Picture showing the other side of the gigE card.) ccs_hello
Of course, if you need a bad a$$ graphics card, you can try it as well (though only 1 or 2 PCIe lanes will be used) See this thread: https://www.udoo.org/forum/threads/m-2-key-b-to-pci-express-adapter.6840/#post-26138 ccs_hello
