USB to M.2 PCIe adapter? Possible cheap way to have external GPU on laptops?

Just came across the JMS583 controller which is a USB to PCIe adapter, intended to be used for external M.2 NVME SSD’s, however, it got me thinking; would it be possible to use that external M.2 NVME enclosure with one of the Sintech m.2 to PCIe x4 slot adapters, to then have a CHEAP way of having an external GPU over USB (and not thunderbolt)?

Currently, the only external GPU enclosures that I’ve seen require a thunderbolt connection (or a proprietary connection like Dell/Alienware uses), which makes them quite pricey. I’m wondering if this method would work? Of course, bandwidth would be super low, but maybe still usable? It would provide the speed of about a PCIe gen 2 1x slot

Here’s a diagram explaining my madness, done in Paint.

Has anyone tried this? Would it work? If this worked, this would be an amazing way to hook up PCIe peripherals to a laptop, super easily, and very cheaply (albiet, a bit cumbersome).

edit. NVM apparently the adapter doesn’t work if plugged in to a normal USB3 port.

Especially with the JMS583 brief mentioning Type C as a requirement, I was expecting this to be a mislabeled device using the Type C Thunderbolt Alternate Mode, but skimming through that “product brief” it does sound like it is converting from USB’s wrapped-SCSI mass storage protocol to NVMe. Weird.

That would explain why non-NVMe PCIe devices will not work, since it is converting SCSI to NVMe, not exposing or passing through a PCIe connexion carried by the Type C wires.

Where did you read that? From the datasheet, it seems like it will work fine in a USB 2.0 port?


So, for example, a Sata M.2 drive won’t work in this? Also, can you ELI5 why this wouldn’t allow for an external GPU?