Hi everybody, When the X9S was initialy advertised it was mentioned a PCIe slot to install an internal storage drive. Is it still the case since it has a SATA external interface with an external cable connection providing a poor quality look. Thanks in advance for your prompt answer. Guy Fauquembergue.
PCIe ? You probably talking about the rumors with the "red" board. I know of no official advertising that included a PCIe slot
Have added detailed pictures of both the generic Realtek SOC (red board) and the mainboard of X9S (blue board). These are very different with only the common processing part shared (the covered area for cooling). The generic Realtek SOC has 2 mini-PCIe slots. One used mostly for a pluggable wireless chipset (=demo kit). The X9S board has all components on the mainboard including wireless. No flexible slots there for sure. SATA is soldered on the mainboard. The SATA connector (accessible outside) in fact is a common Internal SATA connector with a separate Power connector extension. The provided cable is a standard Internal SATA+Power cable which is of good quality but not designed/meant for user handling. It is not an E-SATA (External) facility with optional power provision via those E-SATA ports, which would have been a real usable feature (USB-3 offers similar performance/functionality though). So this same provision including cable can be used straight for an Internal HDD. In fact it now supports an Internal HDD only without any housing bay being provided for it. The standard connector is not meant for plug&play technically/mechanically but in practice it can be used functionally as such doing an Eject for it. Tried it myself and a HDD swap on a running player works thanks mainly to the PSU of 3A at 12V avoiding a power surge on the running player. Definitely not recommended for frequent usage. Overall classified by me as a minor feature (=probably valued/used by very few in practice).
As you can see: not rumors but different boards. The Zidoo tailored version obviously reduced the SOC costs of the Realtek demo SOC showing its potential. Note there are 2 Ethernet gigabit ports on it too.
have you seen that board in production ? It was never advertised on zidoo forum, nothing to do with zidoo. They only used the SOC, not the PCB. That red PCB was probably a concept from realtek. but to be sure. i will ask freeroc
My label is wrong indeed should have said "Realtek RTD1295 Demo" board. Never used or advertised by Zidoo. EWEAT announced a player using both Ethernet ports. So SOC potential capabilities are real.
You could have a look at the demo yourself. You see here the board both with and without PCIe cards added.
