HP Pavilion 570-p020 adding M2 SSD

[kisianik]

hi

I have an eye on   Pavilion 570-p020 Z5L88AA#ABA, however, there is one issue I am trying to figure out - extra hard drive.

I know that Lubin HP motherboard (MOBO for short) has only 2 SATA ports, one for hard drive (HDD) and one for optic drive (DVDRW).

But MOBO diagram shows two (2) M2,  listed as:

One M.2 socket 1, key A

One M.2 socket 3, key M

Can I instal M2 SSD into "One M.2 socket 3, key M" to migrate Win 10 and have existing 1 TB hard drive for storage, obviously, SSD will speed upt PC as well, that is a no brainer. Right now there are a lot of 2280 SSDs on the market, would they fit (80 mm high) in that, "M2 SSD Socket"?

Also, does M2 key M socket when accupied, would disable any other sockets due to draining bandwith?

I have Asus MOBO where installation of M2 will disable PCIEx4 slot. How about in this HP?

And last question is about M2 KEY A socket, does anyone knows what it is for?

Appreciate in advance for any help  and suggestions.

Thanks

[banhien · Accepted solution]

@kisianik

Yes, M.2 Socket 3 slot is suitbale for M.2 SSD and you can migrate OS and programs to it. But making it as bootable drive is a bit hard, please try the following tutorials

     http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3116457/make-ssd-boot-drive-hdd-mass-storage.html

You can find many article, videos on internet for this topic.

Regards.

[kisianik]

---

@banhien wrote:

@kisianik

Yes, M.2 Socket 3 slot is suitbale for M.2 SSD and you can migrate OS and programs to it. But making it as bootable drive is a bit hard, please try the following tutorials

     http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3116457/make-ssd-boot-drive-hdd-mass-storage.html

You can find many article, videos on internet for this topic.

Regards.

---

Good link, thanks.

Almost done.

How about Win 10 OEM instal. I know that Dell has WIn OS (I know it for Win 7) had OS key hardwired into hardware, somewhere in BIOS. So when I was doing fresh install of Win 7 on Dell PC Microsoft recognized serial right away.

Is HP has the same solution? So, if I instal M@ drive and do fresh instal of Win 10 on it (previously removing supplied HDD, WIn 10 installation will be recognized by Microsoft, correct?

And the last question I asked in my OP - do you know what Socket Key A is dor which hardware? Another way to help me on all those matters is finding current most expensive 570-p020 model (I seen other models with letters after 570-p020 with higher specs) and see what HP placed there.

If I could utilize Key A socket with additional SATA card, I would not go to SSD, as I need this HP for my relative, whoo will use it for Internet, movie streaming and Skype, so SSD is not really needed here, but knowing that person, I need separate hard drive in case of system crash or hard drive corruption.

But I have troubles navigating HP site in this matter, HP pdf mauals is crap so far, not much info there. I am considewring myself an expert when dealing with Dells, but HP is completely new for me.

Little history. My previous PC, Compag from 2007-2009, I was able to remove Win Vista and install XP, added HDD, do some extensive work there.

How I ended up with HO choice.

I checked recent models in up to $500 price range and HP 570-p020 is faired better than Dell, which has proprietary 240 watt PSU vs HP standard 300 watt PSU with 2 16 watt railes, so it is easier to upgrade in the future if needed. Also for the same price (from respectable stores) HP installed i5 CPU vs Dell i3 CPU.

Appreciate your help, you will got as many kudos as system allows : -)

[banhien]

@kisianik

Very hard to read your long story talking about Dell. I think you wish to know few points

1. Windows 10: Yes, not Dell nor HP. This is Microsoft way to control Windows 8, 8,1 and 10 keys. The key is embedded in BIOS of machine (no matter Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo .....). All are the same. 
2. M.2 sockets: As mentioned above, only M.2 Socket 3 is suitable for M.2 SSD. The M.2 Socket 1 is not suitable for SSD and on your machine, this socket is occupied by a wireless card, no spare.

Each company has its own designs and markets. When buying a new machine, I normally do

1. Set out budget,
2. put up a list of what I want on my new computer,
3. select few products  (or shortlist) from few vendors,
4. I even give weights for all options and adjust budget if required,
5. get final scores before goinng out to buy.

Regards.

[Big_Dave]

@kisianik

Other models with the same motherboard and BIOS levels do support a m.2 NVMe PCIe SSD.  The one model that Iooked at was equipped with a 256 GB NVMe m.2 PCIe SSD. That model would infer that this device would be a bootable configuration.  Socket 3 only as mentioned by @banhien.

[kisianik]

Thank to both of you.

I already ordered this PC, delivery tomorrow.

That PC is for my mom, she is over 75 and things do happened with her PC, at least once a year I had to overwrite everything with Acronis backup and periodically clean her PC with antiviruses and malwarebytes, not counting some windows missing components.

That is why I need second hard drive in that system. So I was thinking to place small SSD only for Win 10, say 120GB, and have 1TB supplied for everything else. I might get Samsung EVO M2 for about $110 from newegg.

And, since I am not familiar with HP, I wanted all my internal thoughts be answered prior opening PC side door and peaking inside, it is done now, I know what to expect and what I can upgrade.

Thanks again for clearing up situation here. Thread is done.

[Markosoft]

I also bought this Pavilion 570 and tried several SSDs, and non of them are working. Tried m.2 WD Green 120GB SATA3, m.2 WD Black 512GB PCIe NVMe, m.2 INTEL 545s 256GB, m.2 INTEL 600p 256GB, some OEM m.2 128GB PCIe NVMe, yet no success... Tried all of them in 2 other Pavilion 570 computers with no luck. The only m.2 SSD that worked, was Samsung SM961 m.2 PCIe NVMe from my ASUS ROG G752VY notebook. Very disappointed. 😕