It’s definitely for providing power to the M2 board. I’m not certain it’s absolutely required, though.
The other side of the cable is probably a male 4 pin Molex connector. There should be at least one matching one of those that came with your power supply. The ones that connect to the power supply should be female. You like the two of them together so your M2 board could receive power directly from the supply.
Thanks Vindes… so is it possible that this m2adaptor would not be working without this plugged in?
We’re on holidays now… so won’t be able to test much for a while… brought the box with so might see if there is a local PC expert that can have a look …
Would be helpful to find someone that has a bunch of spares to narrow down the cause…
Thanks!
Certainly possible. It’s possible that it would work perfectly fine without it, and possible that it would prevent your system from working at all without it. Digital circuits can do a lot of very unpredictable things when a component is right on the edge of having sufficient power.
That why I suggested pulling that whole M2 board out and trying it. It should post with the board removed, and if it’s removed you don’t have to worry about it getting enough power.
Yes, absolute.
Thanks VIndes…I’ll see if I can try that M2 fix…but if that doesn’t work…will just send the whole thing back.
I had a local PC specialist look at it…after looking over it he also recommended…just send it back…it ultimately should be a warranty job as the system is not functional.
Thanks for all your help! Hopefully some day I’ll be able to actually start this machine and use it! 
Hi Vindes and others here that helped in the process. Thanks again for your support. Just an update if anyone is interested…
After trying further fixes (getting a succesful mobo bios update flashing sequence)…and still no posting…I ended up sending it back as a warranty repair…it is now working it’s way slowly though the warranty repair process with the parts supplier…
We’re over a month since purchase!
.the whole thing really has been quite the pc purchasing nightmare!
My strong recommendation for people building systems would be just budget on paying for the supplier to pre assemble machine for you…while in the past I built a machine without issue…this experience certainly shows what can go wrong…leaving you with an expensive brick and warranty mucking around…
Anyway…the sun comes up…we move on…and there are more important things in life!
(and hopefully some day in 2023 I’ll have a working pc!)
Thanks again.
Very sorry to hear it went like this. I hope you get it situated with minimal additional cost or difficulty.
And, yes, the sun also rises. Maybe there’s a book in that idea.
Thanks Vindes… wondered whether I should make a YouTube video on it…
'Why you shouldn’t build your own PC… and maybe while you should! ’
Funnily enough… even though it’s been a disaster in terms of out come… I have learned a lot about building PC’s!
Thanks:)
Hi All…Vindes and others here…well good news…after 2 months of troubleshooting…giving up…sending back to store for their fixes… I got my new PC…and it is working!!
Ended up paying $249 AUD for the build…which I should have done in the first instance…apparently I bent a pin on the CPU mobo part…probably happened sometime during the multiple attempts to build and rebuild!
Anyway I now have a working pc which is great…just happy to be able to start using it.
2 questions…
I have 2 x TB ssd’s.
Should I install all sofware…eg. Komplete Ultimate…Omnisphere…Gig Performer etc…on the primary boot drive SSD…and then all the VST’s on the second drive? (They are both nVME drives)
2.) What tips would you have for migrating existing libraries? ie. Should I download everything again and start fresh…or can things like Komplete Libraries be copied over?
Thanks for any tips!
Congratulations! Sorry you had to go through all that.
You mention “migrating”. Are you keeping an existing computer?
If you want to use both computers, my (maybe obvious) tip is make sure all sample libraries are in precisely the same location (same location and folder/subfolder names) in both computers in order to ensure the same gig file will perform properly on both. (Alternatively, you could use symbolic links if they are not the same, but I choose to just duplicate my folders/locations).
Congratulations having a working system 
Out of curiosity (and because I’ll have to buy another system myself at one point): (forgive me if you’ve already written it down) With what configuration did you end up (cpu, ram, maybe motherboard)?
That’s great, glad to hear that you got it working!
I always install all the software and all the VSTs in their default locations because it keeps things simple. That’s usually on the boot drive with the VSTs in their preferred folder locations. The only exception to that is some installers like to put VSTs in C://Program Files/VstPlugins and some like C://Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins. I usually leave the Steinberg part of the path out, but it doesn’t really matter.
I put the large sample libraries on a non-boot drive. And as others said above, I generally make those paths the same across different computers. My sample libraries always go in D://Sound Libraries/ then whatever folder structure the VST prefers. It ends up like D://Sound Libraries/Kontakt, D://Sound Libraries/Superior Drummer, etc.
Thanks all for the encouragement and info… greatly valued… even though it ended up being quite a delay… happy to have a working machine and it not have cost too much extra to get it going.
No problems… this is what I ended up with:
Cooler Master NR200P Max TG + Mesh ITX Case
Microsoft Windows 11 Home USB Drive
Kingston KC3000 M.2 NVMe Gen4 SSD 2TB x2
Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2x32GB) 5200MHz CL40 DDR5 White
Gigabyte Z690I Aorus Ultra Plus ITX Motherboard
ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Dual Mini LHR 8GB
Intel Core i5 13600K CPU
Corsair AF12 Slim 120mm PWM Fan White x 2
Thanks for these practical tips… will do this…
Now the next part of the equation in the small factor build is portability… while it certainly isn’t laptop size am trying to figure out best way to make this portable…
I saw in an earlier post a ‘rack’ type option… I’m thinking about buying a cheap 19inch lcd monitor that I attach to the case… perhaps getting a small vesa mount… with this idea the whole PC + monitor could fit inside a transport case ready for quick setup.
Saw this idea! Has anyone seen any other clever ways to make monitor and PC an easy to transport single unit?
Thanks for sharing 
Hi All. Just thought I’d update with the positive outcome of all this research in this thread. Had our first gig using this new build. (Small duo playing at a High Tea fund raiser in country town)
The ‘small form factor PC’ really works great… I think I have more than enough horse power… I get no lag or glitches…
While the Cooler Master NRP200 Max case isn’t the smallest in the world it was a good compromise between being able to fit in anything I needed too…and still not taking up much real estate.
The gig went perfectly from a tech point of view… couple of minor things that I think were just some config tweaks needed
From a portability perspective it was great.
I play keys, bass and some guitar. For the sake of simplicity I put all instruments through the Motu M4 and GP… then out to the bass amp and foh speakers (which double as our fold back)
This also helps greatly with getting a consistent mix when we have no mixing help.
I use Neural amp modeler as my guitar effects which saves needing a pedal board.
For extra bass with keys parts I use vst bass instruments like free Modo and Ample Bass Lite.
I also use audio player for backing in various parts… especially on more upbeat songs… when drums etc are helpful
I use Mobile Sheets to change the rackspaces via midi …programmed buttons on the Roland XP 80 and using a modified music stand with monitor.
For the GP monitor I bought a 2nd hand lcd and stuck it on this ’ retro’ shipping box!
It all was a great success… thanks for all the tips. One day I might buy a more portable gp touch monitor and try and figure out a slightly more portable size with 2nd screen…
it takes a bit of time to setup and pack down…around 30-40 minutes…but that is more because of moving 1 keyboard, 2 guitars, a PC, 2 monitors, Bass amp, foh speakers, mics and stands…
but all in all very happy with the portable desktop pc solution…pc works perfectly!
Thanks for all the tips and patience on this PC building journey! Here’s a few photos of the setup from the weekend.
Very nice!
Looks great! I’m intrigued by the “It pays to buy good tea” box.
Nice set up. Thanks for posting it.
We came across a few of these old tea chests at a garage sale… they’ve been the handiest thing!
… noticed that writing… and faced it forward…seemed pertinent for a high tea…almost could use it for our band name!
While I could probably use something smaller… I think the tea chest will stay in the arsenal!;
And they have a history! Tea chest - Wikipedia.
It’s the only item I haven’t quite figured out how to wire through Gig Performer… but maybe there is a script for that;)
Here is my sml form factor had for a few yrs now and still going strong, i use different boards now and other slight changes
