Seems like we need a USB equivalent standard to RAM sticks. I have lots and lots of old (1-2GB), intercompatible sticks sitting. Sometimes you just need the space and not the speed.
Your computer already supports that. It's called "swap".
CPUs have L1, L2, L3+ caches too after all.
USB would be the limiter for both.
The M10 are over produced and only PCI-E 3.0 2x lane devices but 16GB of DDR5 is going to cost over $200.
You can do the same with USB-C M.2 adapters but the adapters cost more and eww USB for Swap, hope the device never drops.
https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-P...
I suggest using an 1x PCI-e adapter because putting a M10 in a M.2 slot is likely going to only have 2 of 4 PCI-e lanes in use. You have to figure out the tradeoff of using a Swap on your, now very expensive as well, Flash storage that may have flashier sequential read and write speeds but doesn't have the ability to sustain random read and write performance which is what a Swap is going to use the most.
There are faster Optane drives that use 4 PCI-e lanes or even PCI-e 4.0, but they get pricey quickly, so you should just buy ram then. The deal is the 16GB Optane on an unused 1x PCI-e slot.
In any case DDR3 isn’t nearly as bad price-wise and would have much better energy efficiency than stacking 1–2 gig sticks.
For starters, The slowest sticks of DDR(x) are often slower than DDR(x-1). The issue is never capacity, but rather, performance.
The real nonsense? USB? It's a mess. Pick a USB cable and buy it from ANY retailer, let's make it easier, buy a USB-C cable. What is the data rate (depends on cable quality and length), Does it support power delivery? If so, how many watts? (~5W requires a very different cable from ~230W), how do you know from simply looking at the cable? If you buy a cable, how can you tell what it supports by simply looking at the connector? Imagine having a box full of USB-C cables. Could you tell me how fast each of those cables are? (The cables themselves don't! Many don't have any markngs at all, and if they do, the markings could be fraudulent)
RAM does not have that issue. A stick fits or it doesn't. Sure, there are a huge range of speeds, however, that range has a ballpark (JEDEC defines the ballpark, the "cartels" make the memory and push out some faster stuff).
While there are definite exceptions (I was bitten by one recently), you can generally plug in a DDR5 DIMM and expect it to work in the system.
The same cannot be said for USB. Some USB cables ONLY deliver power. Some only work with certain devices. I've USB-C (!!!) cables that only work with the devices they are shipped with, and even more annoyingly, the both may be true! ASUS (!!!) ships MOTHERBOARDS that can only pair with vital hardware via very specific USB-C cables (Strix Hive) and "GLORIOUS" ain't so glorious. Their mouses warn you not to use other USB-C cables, and they are right, depending on the make/model/generation, you can brick your "glorious" peripheral.
No, USB nonsense needs to stay far away from anything else.
Also, the reason this is a huge issue is because the memory makers are cartels. Only a few of them exist, they gang up and bully EVERYONE and nobody has ever invested money to create a competitor due to this, except China, which of course means that the U.S. and portions of the E.U. are insta-banning/trying to insta-ban, even though it is really freaking hard to install spyware on a memory module.
Okay, let's assume it's a USB-C cable and not just something USB-C shaped that pretends to be one.
> Does it support power delivery?
Yes.
> If so, how many watts?
Always at least 60W (3A). Up to 240W if it's e-marked.
> What is the data rate
Depends whether it's a USB 2.0-only cable (480Mbps) or a complete cable (20Gbps). Possibly more in Thunderbolt or USB4 modes - cables that handle those will be marked (both visually and with an e-mark). In any case, pretty easy to check just by plugging things in.
The last time I bought one I looked for one with a proper certificate but that eliminated the vast majority of cables on Amazon and I suspect that I ended up buying something ridiculously over engineered.
USB-C in C-to-C configurations require all the PD pins working for voltages to be supplied at all. So all USB-C cables that aren't the ones that actually don't work at all should be able to do that 20V x 3A -> 60W. Only in rare cases where a C-C cable is wired to make it look like one by being internally wired as C-A-A-C it becomes problematic since only USB-C has the config pins used for non-5V modes, but that should be actually rare.
I think USB-C shaped thing mentioned in GP refers to USB-C devices, like dollar store Bluetooth speakers and such. For those things, it's in fact not so rare that they come with tons of stupid quirks.
The can of worms is mainly in USB 3.0, Alt Mode, 5A mode, and Thunderbolt/USB4. 3A mode is fine. Raspberry Pi notoriously used a "5V 5A" mode that it's not supposed to be using.
Such cable would have to be directional, so you'd quickly realize something's wrong with it. I rather meant things like "power-only" cable, which can't exist and be complaint simultaneously. I've also seen non-compliant USB-A to C cables having incorrect/missing resistors and causing troubles.
In any case, the point was that this is just counterfeit shit to be thrown away. Take literally any other connection standard and I can also make a cable that looks like it's real but doesn't actually work, it's trivial.
You're right that it's much easier to find a USB-C-shaped shitty device than a USB-C-shaped shitty cable - and it's astonishing how little would usually be needed to make it complaint and working correctly. Since using some kinds of cables can mask some of the device's issues, people end up incorrectly blaming the cables.
If we're counting fake products then we need to count those RGB sticks that have no RAM in them.