Ableconn M2-NW107R M.2 Gigabit Ethernet Module (Right Angle RJ-45) - GigaLAN 1000BASE-T PCIe x1 M.2 A-E Key

I also ran into the problem of the PERST 0 pin not being connected. I was able to solder a super tiny jumper wire between the m.2 connector pins 66 and 52 based on instructions from the vendor and it is now running happily in my system. If you are really handy with a soldering iron and are super stubborn like me and don't want to buy a bigger case with a bigger motherboard and just put in a full size card then this might be an option for you. But just be aware that soldering a super tiny wire to those super tiny pins is really hard. The wire I used was a single strand from one of the wires in an old telephone cord. I half expect the wire I soldered on to fall off at some point in the future and break my system. Time will tell I guess. I gave three stars because it does seem to work well and the vendor was kind enough to provide instructions for the mod. It would be a clear 5 from me if it worked out of the box.

So be ready to solder some tiny point if you want to use this for pfsense. After soldered everything worked just fine in an HP G1 mini. I left some pics on this review of the install. I emailed the vendor and they sent me a nice picture of the points needing to be soldered for Perst0.

Used this in an HP 800 G1 Mini. The first one I received was DOA. I started the return process and jpurchased a second one which appears to work perfectly in the A-key m,2 slot of the mini with pfSense. It also works with ESXI 6.5 with a community supported driver. A significant downside of this card is the full size standard RJ-45 jack soldered to the board. M.2 slots are primarily used in very compact systems where the M.2 A-E slot is intended for a thin WiFi card and the RJ-45 jack is likely to be too large for some, maybe most, systems. In the mini, it’s mounted under the hdd caddy with only a few millimeters to spare. So while the Ableconn card solved one problem it created another by interfering with the hdd mount. The card should have been designed with a low profile connector to connect a pigtail cable with RJ-45 on the remote end. To use this card with a 2.5” hdd in the mini you’ll have to modify the card. After verifying that the card worked properly I ended up modifying the card by desolderimg the RJ-45 and soldering a short length of cat 6 cable with an RJ-45 on one end to the board with the cable routed through a hole in the back of the mini. Would be nice if it came that way from the factory. I would have given the card 2 stars for this reason and the fact that it uses a Realtek ethernet chip that will require special drivers for many OSs but since it’s the only gigabit Ethernet m.2 card I could find I gave it 3 stars. If it had the connector and pigtail I’d give it a 4 and if it had an Intel chip instead of the Realtek ethernet chip I’d give it a 5 star rating. Personally, I’d be willing to pay more for a version with a remote RJ-45 and even more if it had an Intel chip. UPDATE: After finding two units to behave unreliably I traced the signals on the board and found a design flaw. The rtl8168 chip is connected to PERST1 ( pcie reset 1) for some reason which, it seems is not implemented by some (perhaps many) motherboard makers HP in this instance. The caused the card not to intialize and not be detected by the motherboard 90% of the time. With some very careful board rework I modified the card to connect to PERST0 and upon testing found it to be 100% reliable after the mod. This is clearly a design error and needs to be corrected. The card may work on some motherboards that implement both PERST1 and 0 but on more than a few it is not. So, unless you are willing to take your chances that your motherboard is compatible or can and are willing to do some VERY TINY trace cutting and jumper soldering you might consider another solution such as the InnoDisk m.2 b-m key board (that also has two ethernet ports). As a result I’ve lowered my rating.