Ok, so I am also planning a build with a Mini-ITX board. I need to use the PCIe slot for my graphics card. And I need Wifi and Bluetooth to work since this machine is going upstairs. The more I research this, the more I feel like I'm tumbling down the rabbit hole.
The boards I am specifically looking at is:
Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 (like the OP)
Asus ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT
The Z170N board has the following M.2 ports (according to Newegg, verified in the manual):
1 x M.2 Socket 1 connector for the wireless communication module (M2_WIFI)
1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector on the back of the motherboard
The M.2 slot thing is rather confusing. There are 3 socket types and 4 key configurations, and some cards (SSD, wifi, etc.) support multiple.
Socket 1 (apparently uncommon) is supports A & B keyed configurations.
Socket 2 supports the B key
Socket 3 supports the M key
B & M are for SSD and A & E are for wireless adapters. At least
according to Linus.
The
Wikipedia article on M.2 doesn't seem to mention A & E connectors (or maybe I'm blind!?).
But if you look at the Broadcom boards they are 4 pins wide starting with pin 1, while on the Wikipedia article it shows 6 pins starting from pin 1 for type B and 5 pins starting from pin 75 on type M. Which for Wifi, B & M is rather useless...
So from what I can tell the Z170N board has a socket 1 connector here (where we're interested in A key):
And on the underside of the board we have a Socket 3 connector, which takes the M key (for SSD).
So unless I'm missing something, the Broadcom M.2 card cannot be installed on the Socket 3 M.2 slot. It would have to go into that Socket 1 slot... Which looks rather tiny in the picture.. If it has to be installed parallel with the board... would that even fit?
Here is the BCM94352Z card (which looks similar to the BCM94356Z and BCM94356ZAE cards):
The VIII IMPACT only has a single M.2 slot with Wifi installed. That slot is located inside an enclosure:
From what I've read the connector is rather close to the edge of the board.
In either case I have not been able to find a video or pictures with the existing M.2 chips being removed from either board. So it is difficult to know without inspecting it in person.
Some people have mentioned that they have it working on the Z170N board. How? Can you please share some pictures? Some instructions?
The only other option for Mini-ITX I've been able to come up with is the
ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming Z170. Apparently the WiFi card is plugged in via Mini-PCIe. And it has an M.2, which I'm assuming is probably also on the underside? Can the
Apple Broadcom BCM94360CD be used on this board? The osxwifi.com website mentions "1 x Original Apple wireless card to Mini PCI-E Adapter".
Are there other Mini-ITX options that let you put in a graphics card? Trying to avoid Micro ATX. Would like to keep the size as small as possible. Trying to put it on my desk without taking up a lot of space.
