Is the M.2 port on this laptop SATA3 or PCIe (or both)?

[greenmr]

I'd like to boost the performance of this otherwise great laptop by installing a 2280 M.2 SSD as the boot and system drive and relegate the sluggish 2TB Seagate HD that came with it to just overflow bulk storage. The specifications of the M.2 B/M slot on this device is not listed anywhere, including the official maintenance and service guide.

I would prefer to install a PCIe SSD for the slightly better performance, but I suspect this may be a SATA3 slot only. I am leaning toward the 250GB Samsung 850 EVO (MZ-N5E250BW), which is SATA3, but if I can use a PCIe SSD instead I  would prefer to go that route.

Has anybody got any experience with installing M.2 SSDs on this laptop?

[Riddle_Decipher]

@greenmr

Thank you for joining HP Forums. 

I'll be glad to help you 🙂 

As I understand you want information about the ports on your PC, if it's either the M.2 port, SATA3 or the PCIe,

No worries, as I'll be glad to help you, that said, I'll need a few more details to dissect your concern & provide an accurate solution:

Did you check your user guide/Service manual of your computer for those details? Click here to view

I've attached the same information below for your reference:

Solid-state drive (M.2 PORT) supported by the motherboard:

256 GB solid-state drive, M.2, TLC 812708-001

128 GB, 2280 M.2 829985-001

128 GB solid-state drive, M.2, TLC (Best Buy SKUs) 820547-001

There's only one PCIe port as such available and is being used by the wireless card.

Keep me posted,

If I have helped you resolve the issue, feel free to give me a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below,  

Followed by clicking on "Accept as solution" from the drop-down menu on the upper right corner, 

Thank you for posting in the HP Support Forum.  Have a great day! 

Regards, 

[greenmr]

Thanks for you response. I was aware of that list of M.2 drives, but surely just because HP lists a few drives as compatible doesn't mean those are the ONLY compatible drives, especially if the M.2 port is SATA3. Those are just compatible HP SKUs, right? As I understand SATA3 M.2 SSDs pretty much any 2280 aspect SATA3 SSD card should work, as this compatibility chart from an SSD vendor suggests (note the 512GB and 1TB drives, bigger than any of the ones listed in the HP support manual)...

http://www.drivesolutions.com/cgi/shop/uvstore.cgi?command=listitems&kind=dupgrdm-2280b&comptype=hpl...

"There's only one PCIe port as such available and is being used by the wireless card."

That is what I was hoping to find out since it must mean that the M.2 port is SATA3 only and a PCIe SSD wouldn't work. The Samsung EVO 850 M.2 SATA3 card is a popular and proven performer which should work fine in the Envy 15-ae178ca if the M.2 port is SATA3 as you suggest. Am I wrong to expect this SSD to work in my laptop?

[greenmr]

Oops, that link was to the 1TB M.2 SSD only... this is the one to the list of all compatible drives from this vendor...

http://www.drivesolutions.com/cgi/shop/ug2store.cgi?command=listitems&kind=hpl&pos=0&type=itemid&ite...

[Riddle_Decipher · Accepted solution]

@greenmr

Thank you for replying with this overwhelming and detailed response 😉 

I appreciate your time and efforts,

Personally, as a tech, the drives should work on your computer, however, the suggested list is what HP recommends for your motherboard.

It's your call, I recommend you check with the local tech who could assist you with the installation and if the one you have in mind doesn't work,

you could replace it at the store rather than going back and forth, if you know what I mean.

If the information I've provided was helpful, 

give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons, 

that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers! 

Good Luck. 

[greenmr]

Thanks again. Even though I am more than capable of installing the SSD in my laptop myself I was already thinking I might try the EVO 850 in my Envy in the store if they'll let me. Of course I won't know for sure if the SSD is 100% compatible until I have installed the OS on it, but at least I should be able to determine if the Envy recognizes the drive Ok. I won't be doing this upgrade for a while yet, but when I do I'll come back and report on whether the EVO works or not since I think this would be of interest to other owners of this laptop.

[Chimney_83]

Hi @greenmr, I am the @Chimney_83. It looks like you were interacting with @Riddle_Decipher, but he is out of the office today so I'll take over from here.

Thanks for the reply. You can install the SSD and check it at the store as suggested.

Please do post your technical queries on our Forums for assistance. 

[greenmr]

UPDATE... I was finally able to justify the cost of the 250GB Samsung EVO 850 M.2 SSD, and I can report that the SATA3 version of this drive works perfectly in my Envy Laptop. The performance improvement over the stock 2TB hard drive is incredible. Cold boot to a fully loaded and stable Win10 Enterprise UI (on 16GB RAM) went from 3-5 minutes with just the hard drive installed to 20-25 seconds with the EVO 850 as the boot and system drive, INCLUDING the fingerprint scan login. Application loading is almost instantaneous now. For instance, a test with starting Opera with about SIXTY web pages to load from a previous session would take several minutes to get all those pages fully loaded but now takes less than five seconds! I can't recommend doing this upgrade strongly enough. Make sure you get the SATA3 version of this SSD. Even though I specified which version of the EVO 850 I needed the store clerk tried to sell me the PCIe version instead, which IS slightly faster, but not compatible with this laptop.

One thing I should note for those thinking of installing an EVO in their laptop... the Envy does not have a retention screw installed for the empty M.2 slot and the EVO doesn't come with one (some M.2 SSDs do), so you will need to find one yourself to properly complete this installation. My research indicated that the standard M.2 mounting screw is a metric M2 x 3mm, which is VERY small, and pretty hard to come by in North America. Your local hardware store is NOT going to have one, although your local computer store might. If you simply can't find one locally I know that NewEgg sells a pack of two you can order online. I was lucky and rewarded for saving hardware from previous laptops and desktop PCs, but of the 30 or more very small laptop case screws I had in my parts bin only two were the right size while all the others were a bit too big. Did I mention the M.2 mounting screw is VERY small?

I have had a 250GB Intel SSD as my boot/system drive on my i7 desktop PC for about 18 months so I knew that the 250GB EVO would be big enough as long as I moved my Documents, Downloads, Music, Videos, and Pictures directories to the old hard drive, which is now Drive E: on my system. With all my data moved off the SSD I still have about 125GB free on Drive C:, which is plenty for high-performance operation of the SSD. There is no reason the 500GB or 1TB EVO 850 drives shouldn't work on the Envy laptop if you'd rather dump the spinning rust completely, but the 250GB has the best cost/capacity ratio right now, and probably will for some time to come.

Hope this helps others who would like to supercharge their laptops for a reasonable cost (IMHO). I spent $145 CDN + tax from a brick and mortar store for the 250GB SSD, but I've seen them for a little over $100 online, and of course well under $100 USD.