SSD upgrade for spectre x360

[LeeBos]

I could never find specs on the M.2 socket, so I just gave it a try. It works at above SATA 3 specs as you can see so I was very happy. I see that the now available Maintanence and Service guide says: PCIe/SATA M2, see below.

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Primary storage

Support for single PCIe / SATA M2 solid-state drive configuration as storage (scope M2 2260/2280 DS solid-state drive) in the following configurations:

This was not available at the time I did the drive replacement. So, it looks like it supports either. I don't think Samsung is still producing the XP941 since they came out with the SM951. And the XP941 I bought is now $210 more than I paid. I'm waiting for a 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD to become available.

[Bullfinch]

Lee Bos

Thanks for that.  If I buy one  I might join the queue for an affordable 1tb one myself.

[appel]

@LeeBos, forgive me if this is a silly question, but this is new territory for me. Do you happen to know if this 850 EVO M.2 (MZ-N5E500BW) would fit in the Spectre x360?

[LeeBos]

Yes, it will fit. As will any 2280 sized M.2 SSD.

[appel]

Thanks for getting back to me! Wow, really? Would you recommend this model? And, at (more than) half of compared to the XP941 and the SM951, what's the difference/catch?

[LeeBos]

Yes, it's a decent SSD especially for the price.

But don't expect it to perform as fast as the XP941 or SM951. The 850 EVO uses the SATA III interface which has a max speed of 6Gb/s.

The 850 EVO is rated 550/500 MBps Read/Write.

The XP941 and SM951 use the PCIe x4 4 lane interface which is faster, not sure of the max speed.

The XP941 is rated 1,170/930 MBps.

The SM951 is rated 2,150/1,500 MBps depending on which version you have NVMe or PCIe version 3. Most sellers don't specify but I suspect they are PCIe based on price The NVMe version is rated 2,260/1,600 MBps.

To give you an idea, I paid $439 for my XP941, it's now going for $630. The SM951 is $380. Prices are for 512GB from Newegg.com.

[appel]

Thanks so much for your detailed post, really appreciate it. The two you mention seem similar. Which one would you have bought given the choice today?

[LeeBos]

Given the current prices probably the SM951. Although I read somewhere that the 4K block speed is slower than the XP941 it's price is better.

[eclas]

The sm951 NVME is not compatible with the spectre is it? We need the ahci version right?

[LeeBos]

There is no mention of NVMe in the service manual so I will assume it does not support it.

But that probably does not matter since I have not been able to find one for sale that specifies NVMe.