On my considerably cramped Micro-ATX motherboard, the M.2 slots for in the present day’s teeny-tiny SSDs are between the PCIe slots…which signifies that the drives sit proper underneath my graphics card. In phrases of thermal administration that is utterly frickin’ bonkers lower than preferrred. That goes double if you wish to use a PCIe 5.0 drive with optional massive coolers. Asus may need discovered an answer with its newest graphics card design, which lets an M.2 slot piggy-back proper on the rear of the graphics card itself.

The Asus GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB Dual OC + 2280M.2 SSD Expansion slot (sure, that’s its full product identify oh my god) does what it says on the field. On the rear of the cardboard is a full-sized 80mm M.2 slot, appropriate with as much as PCIe 5.0 speeds and guarded by an additional warmth protect. As PCGamer notes, the remainder of the cardboard is kind of similar to different RTX 4060 Ti designs — the “dual” in that big identify means twin followers, not twin GPU chips.

The card was revealed earlier this 12 months, however is simply now displaying up at retailers, specifically the Finnish store Multitronic. It’s going for 560 euro (roughly $595 USD at in the present day’s change charge), which is a 30-euro premium over the model of the cardboard not packing a M.2 secret. Presumably the brand new variant will make its approach into different markets quickly.

Considering how cramped fashionable motherboards can get, particularly within the smaller sizes, I feel this add-on is a genius transfer from Asus. While not an on the spot answer — for instance, putting in an SSD drive on the again of my graphics card proper now would additionally overlap with my chunky CPU air cooler — it opens up lots of flexibility. That’s very true in case your PC case has lots of unused vertical area. I’m hoping this turns right into a development.