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February 18th, 2025 14:36
Bifurcation Capability?
How to tell PCIe Bifurcation Capability?
Hi, I'm having a Dell Inspiron 3471 and I'm trying to find out if it supports PCIe Bifurcation before buying an adapter for m.2 NVMe drives.
Google doesn't come back any answer for this model, and i didn't see bifurcation mentioned in datasheets.
How can i find out such info about a server? Thanks!
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ejn63
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February 18th, 2025 18:47
This is a consumer-grade desktop (you posted in the notebook forum) -- no, it won't have support for that feature.
PietK
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February 20th, 2025 10:31
Thanks for the response and moving to the correct topic. Too bad it isn't supported. So I cannot install a double M2.
Techgee
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February 20th, 2025 19:25
@PietK , as you've mentioned, one way to add multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs requires PCIe Bifurcation. If there isn't a configuration for Bifurcation in the BIOS, it's doubtful the Inspiron 3471 has this.
Another way to add multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs is with PCIe Switching, and this can be implemented on an add-in card, requiring no support from a desktop PC - meaning it should work with any PC.
A PCIe Switch chip that implements this is relatively expensive, so a PCIe Gen 3 add-in card will run around $170, although you may be able to pick up one for less. Typically, these cards use PLX PEX8747 or ASM2824 chips.
I assume you're looking to add a low profile card to the Inspiron 3471 PCIe Gen 3 x16 slot, which means not having a current/future GPU card in that slot is ok. (I also noticed the M.2 slot on the motherboard seems to only support SATA, not NVMe devices.)