SSD for HP Pavilion Desktop - 570-p020

[echoesend]

I want to upgrade my HP Pavilion Desktop - 570-p020 (Product Z5L88AA) to an SSD, and clone existing HDD.

I see there is an M.2 slot on the motherboard, but a lot of confusion as to whether it will accept an M.2 SSD that I can boot from.

Can I put I put an M.2 SSD in the available M.2 socket, and boot?

If yes, does the interface need to be SATA or NVME?

If not, I'm assuming I can just clone to a 2.5" SSD and replace the the existing HDD.

If yes I assume the SSD would be SATA interface.

Any help would be appreciated...did a lot of reading on this board and get very confused as the options (and my limited knowledge) are motherboard/model specific.

Thank you,

Marty

[BeemerBiker]

I would pick one of the following

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=samsung+m.2+evo+ssd&crid=TAJS68OUOQRV&sprefix=samsung+m.+evo+ssd%2Caps%2C...

Check the reviews,  verify it is 512 bytes per sector, and do not get one that is for "gaming" or gen4 rated unless you can easily return it.  I believe your system is gen3.

stick to under 1tb.  I tried to find an HP recommended but none were listed at hp parts

It will go in this socket

Key can be M or M+B

discussion here

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-make-m-2-ssd-as-boot-drive-and-hdd-for-mass-storage.2...

Samsung has free downloadable  data migration and a "magic" to help tune up the memory stick

[echoesend]

Thanks for the reply and detailed suggestions.

A couple of questions. I currently have a 1 TB HDD so want to go with the same size SSD. Why do you suggest it s/b under 1 TB?

Also reading messages on the community help board, there was confusion on whether the M.2 slot for this model supported NVMe or SATA only or both interfaces. I guess that's motherboard specific. Is there any way to find out via diagnostics of my model?

[BeemerBiker]

You might read the following tutorial https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-buying-guide,5602.html

I read it but as applied to your system it is not clear.

Your system listed the following

Google listed the following information for socket 3

Furthermore, M. 2 sockets keyed for SATA or two PCI Express lanes (PCIe ×2) are referred to as "socket 2 configuration" or "socket 2", while the sockets keyed for four PCI Express lanes (PCIe ×4) are referred to as "socket 3 configuration" or "socket 3".

---

If I understand this correctly, your socket 3 means you have P:CIex4 which is "NVMe"

This article mentions that NVMe requires PCIe.  However that same article mentions that PCIe can be SSD but not NVME

The following article mentions that m.2 slots only supporting SSD are almost non-existent

https://pcguide101.com/storage/how-to-tell-if-my-m-2-slot-is-nvme-or-sata/

I recommended under 1tb because of pricing on Gen3 and the possibility that large m.2 may be 4096 bytes per sector.

Looking at the latest m.2 that are gen4 they seem to be cheaper and I see the price of, for example, 2tb gen3 are more expensive the gen4 in many cases.  It is possible that a gen4 stick may be compatible with gen3 socket but verify you can easily return it.  Be sure to look at the 1 star reviews and also ensure that the review was for the exact size and model being advertised.  For example amazon can lump reviews of all sizes of Samsung evo together and where a 256 might work ok the 2tb may fail.

your spec sheet lists m.2 socket 3, key M but NVMe is not mentioned.  I suspect they don't bother as all the socket 3 are NVMe "almost non-existent" but I am not an expert.  I took a chance and upgraded my Area51 R4 from 256 to 1tb using gen3 WD SN750 and it made a significant difference.  HP sells m.2 but I do not know what part number you might need.  HP parts depot did not list any  Perhaps our expert @Paul_Tikkanen can advise or explain this entire m.2,MVMe, SSD mess better than I can.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @echoesend 

Your PC's Lubin motherboard supports NVMe SSD's.

I recommend either the Samsung 980 (not 980 Pro) or the Western Digital Blue SN570 NVMe SSD's.

Below is a search link to many discussions which indicate that NVMe SSD's are supported in your PC's motherboard.

Search - HP Support Community

[echoesend]

Thank you, I will look for the SSD's that you recommended.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The Samsung 980 Pro will also work, but it is more expensive, and you won't get the benefit of the PCIe 4 x 4 specification it has unless you transfer it to a considerably newer PC in the future that has a M.2 PCIe x4 slot.   Your PC's M.2 slot is x3.

Most likely a new PC will already come with a PCIe 4 x 4 NVMe SSD.

Many PC manufacturers are moving away from the 3.5" mechanical hard drives that your PC came with.

[echoesend]

Thanks all for the help.

I have ordered the "SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280, Internal Solid State Drive" from Amazon.

Once done cloning from HDD to SSD, how do I get the PC to boot from the SSD? Some comments said as long as the OS was on the new SSD the PC will recognize and boot. Do I need to do any changes in the BIOS? (it's my wife's work computer so I can't afford it being down very long and spend a lot of time searching the help to fix a  problem). Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I don't know how that works on a desktop PC.

If it is anything like a notebook PC where someone added a M.2 SSD and the PC originally came with a SATA hard drive, the PC will always want to boot from the SATA hard drive first.

The only suggestion I can offer if you find that to be the case after you clone the drive to the SSD, would be to temporarily disconnect the hard drive and hopefully, the Windows boot manager will boot from the NVMe SSD.

Try it out for a while and then connect the hard drive back up and hopefully the boot manager won't switch back to the hard drive to boot from.

When you buy a PC from HP with a M.2 SSD and a hard drive, there is no operating system on the hard drive, so Windows has no choice but to boot from the SSD, and the hard drive is used for storage only.

[echoesend]

That should not be a problem then because I don't plan on leaving the existing HDD in the computer, so it will only see the SSD.

Thanks again.