Announcing the Librem Mini V2

Hardware
91

My take is that there are two disk slots.

  1. There is a disk slot for a disk that is physically and electrically in M.2 format. This disk slot, somewhat confusingly, can use either an NVMe interface or a SATA interface. That disk presumably must be an SSD (because noone makes an HDD in M.2 format and it would barely be possible to produce such a thing).

  2. There is a disk slot for a disk that is physically and electrically a 2.5" SATA disk. While Purism only offers SSDs for this slot, perhaps it can be an HDD.

An M.2 SATA disk is basically as slow as and as fast as a 2.5" SATA disk, all other things being equal. An M.2 NVMe disk is heaps faster than an M.2 SATA disk. So if your budget allows then you are better off starting with an M.2 NVMe disk.

If you start off with an M.2 SATA disk then in order to upgrade to an M.2 NVMe disk if your budget allows it in the future then you would have to remove the M.2 SATA disk and redeploy it in another computer / sell it / give it away / junk it.

I think self-upgrade would be fairly straightforward but you have the question as to whether you install from scratch having backed up your user content to somewhere else or you play games with an external drive or you use an M.2 enclosure or …

1 Like
92

  1. correct, though I don’t see how being able to use either a SATA or NVMe SSD in the m.2 slot is confusing. It’s spec-compliant.

  2. correct, either type of SATA disk can be used, but not sure I’ve tested/optimized for a HDD there. YMMV

2 Likes
93

Oh boy - between my ignorance and a near complete failure in my attempt to ask the question concisely I’ve really botched this question.

Perhaps from this approach might help me more clearly understand:

Librem Mini v2 has 2 storage “attachments”:

  1. M.2 Slot, Support NVMe and SATA
  2. 2.5" Drive Bay - SATA only
    Would that be correct?

EDIT: FYI, for my specific intent, I will not be planning to use any HDD drives at this time (and going forward, I hope).

EDIT 2: Updated per input from @kieran

94

Closer.

M.2 is definitely not the same as PCIe and not the same as mini PCIe.

It has

  1. M.2 slot, supports NVMe and SATA
  2. 2.5" drive bay - SATA only.

It is ipso facto confusing. :wink: I mean: new customer is confused, therefore it is confusing.

Here’s a question then … is it possible to boot from the 2.5" SATA drive and not have an M.2 drive installed at all?

1 Like
95

Would it be possible to post a photo of the Librem Mini v2 with the top cover removed and text labels pointing out the different features of the hardware (e.g. location of CPU, ports, drive bays, etc.)?

96

It’s identical to the Librem Mini 1, just the CPU is different.

1 Like
97

You can convert the M.2 to PCIe or mini PCIe. I converted the wifi card slot to mini PCIe and put a USB2 adapter in there (it’s too slow for USB3)

2 Likes
98

absolutely. you can even have both and still boot from the 2.5" SATA drive if you want

5 Likes
99

I ordered a Mini three weeks ago. Any chance I will get it soon?

100

i wonder about that too …

101

It took one month for delivery of my Librem Mini (v1), this past summer. A bit slow compared to Apple, but very happy with the product.

At the time, I also figured they were working their way through pre-orders.

102

I would feel better about it if Purism hadn’t already charged me for it.

103

I think you should hopefully get a shipping notification soon. My understanding is that there was a brief delay in getting the latest supply of Mini v2s to our fulfillment center (supply chain has been challenging this year). That delay caused a small gap in Mini inventory where normally we’d get them “just in time” but I think it’s getting resolved very soon.

4 Likes
104

I would make two comments.

  1. It does not appear to be possible to order that configuration.

  2. That configuration might be superior for the purposes of @qxotk

1 Like
105

the Purism coreboot utility script provides a function to do exactly this (for the standard coreboot firmware).

106

Two meanings of “order”. :slight_smile:

I mean: go to the Purism web site and try to place an order for a Librem Mini with no M.2 drive … not possible?

From a technical perspective, the firmware may well support this. That is the sine qua non but as far as I can see it can only be achieved as a configuration by wastefully ordering the M.2 drive and then taking it out, which in the context of the scenario that prompted this discussion doesn’t make sense.

107

it MAY be possible to ORDER with an m2 but have it deducted from the total price before shipping starts if you tell Purism what you want to do first …

they have their reasons for locking customers into these options but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any EXCEPTIONS if you give them a good reason …

1 Like
108

FYI: I updated my order to get the NVMe drive, and drop the SSD.
The change was no problem - just emailed support, and they provided me options for making that change.
Since I upgraded - they provided me a way to pay the additional amount - no problem.
I am a very happy customer in regard to how well they responded to my change of mind.

3 Likes
109

indeed. that would be a coupon code right ?
my experience was a lil’ bit unpleasant since i had to enable/disable a whole bunch of things to get validated on the checkout-page (browser settings and add-on stuff i mean)

2 Likes
110

The change in my order resulted in an increased price, so they allowed me to submit a new payment (I think they gave me a link to the page on which to pay). Then they suggested I forward them the order # for the new payment. When I next checked my order, the item is correctly stated and the total amount is marked as paid.

1 Like