With a benchmark setup of 100 samples of 1000MB each, the average read was 673MB/s and the average write speed was 789MB/s. The average access time across 1,000 samples was 0.06 milliseconds. These are incredibly impressive numbers. The RK3399 is a beast in terms of SBCs, but it still pales in comparison to most x86 CPUs. It might — just might — compare to some Atom CPUs. Well, when I opened up the application menu again, it was significantly faster. I thought there was no way the thing actually rebooted. So, I ran the good ol’ mount command and looked for the trusty root partition. Lo and behold, it was on the NVMe drive. Dual NVMe PCIe Adapter, RIITOP (2 Ports) M.2 NVMe SSD to PCI-e Express 3.1 x8 Expansion Add-on Card Upon closer inspection of the specification of the m.2 wifi adapter that came with the unit I discovered that it was in fact using a PCIe lane.

While fairly easy to configure, range extenders have their limitations. They often use a separate network SSID that you have to log into as you move through the house, and Wi-Fi speeds are typically half of what you get from your main router. Most dual-band extenders use both radio bands to transmit data to and from the router, which means devices connecting to the extender are competing for bandwidth with the router. To help alleviate network congestion, some manufacturers let you dedicate a band for router-to-extender communications. Netgear's Fastlane technology and Amped Wireless' BoostBand technology are good examples.According to the P14S-P14FP Extender Board documentation, it supports "PCI Express base Specification 1.1 (Up to 2.5Gpbs)". I'm not sure where the "2.5Gpbs" comes from, maybe it's a mistake. PCIe Gen 1.1 supports 2.5 GT/s per lane and the card supports two lanes. (It's an X4 slot because X2 slots does not exist) While knowing that PCIe is compatible to M.2, the only thing you need is an adapter, right? Simple, but these kind of adapters appear to be very uncommon. I could only find these two adapters from a company called Bplus: My solution at this stage is to use a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter. This is by no means ideal, but it works :) The P14S-P14FP adapter has a Key B interfaces which is available on all 5th gen NUCs. It converts the M.2 slot to a PCIe X4 slot where you can insert your PCIe network adapter.

vmnic1 0000:04:00.0 igb Up Down 0 Half 00:1b:21:93:b3:b0 1500 Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection Not all 5th Gen Intel NUCs have the same M.2 slot but the slot I am mainly talking about in this post is available on all NUCs. It's the slot where you add the M.2 SSD. Only one NUC, the NUC5i5MYHE provides a second M.2 slot (Which provides a differnt key). Instead of the second M.2 slot the other NUCs have a presoldered WiFi module. There are two types of Wi-Fi range extenders: desktop and plug-in. Most desktop extenders look just like a wireless router and are typically equipped with external adjustable antennas, multiple LAN ports for connecting to devices like TVs and gaming consoles, and USB ports for attaching to peripherals such as storage drivesand printers. My conclusion is that Intel are simply using a PCIe whitelist. Otherwise, why would one PCIe device work and another wouldn't? Unfortunately, the practical meaning of this is that only M.2 devices that were approved by Intel may be used at this stage. Very bad news.With so many of us working from home these days, we now have more apps than ever careening across our household Wi-Fi networks. And some of these require not only a good amount of bandwidth, but steady bandwidth. When they don't have it, that chat you're having with your boss on your company's voice over IP (VoIP) phone system suddenly sounds like you're underwater. The same goes for many consumer-grade apps, especially video streaming services like Netflix, and certainly the latest games. Usage restrictions: PCIe 4.0 has high requirements on the equipment. As long as the extension cable is connected, the signal will be attenuated. This product does not guarantee the full speed of PCI-E 4.0. The equipment is aging. If the signal is poor or the environment is not good, please slow down to PCIe 3.0 or lower.