Solved: Re: Willow2 motherboard ssd M.2 compatibility - HP Support Community

frank-72 · ‎05-03-2019

Hi all, I'd like to expand an HP Pavilion 570-p033nl and I'm looking at WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 500 GB (WDS500G2B0B). Do you know if it will work?

Thanks a lot in advance

frank

flat1 · ‎05-21-2019

PCIe SSDs have definitely garnered a lot of attention over the past few years. Especially among high-end users and working professionals who want even faster flash storage than your typical SATA SSD. While SATA SSDs are more than sufficient for most people, many people are oblivious to the fact that the SATA connection actually bottlenecks the full potential of flash storage. But how do we get past that bottleneck? Welcome to the world of NVMe SSDs. NVMe PCIe SSDs are comparatively several times faster than a typical SATA drive. It’s almost like there is no competition in terms of speed at all. In this guide, we will briefly discuss how M.2 NVMe PCIe drives work and how to check if your motherboard is compatible with one. Let’s dive in. How PCIe NVMe M.2 Drives Work These type of SSDs usually plug into a PCIe x4 or x16 slot on your motherboard depending on the form factor. We will not be talking about add-in cards in this article. We will only be concerning ourselves with the M.2 form factor. M.2 is a smaller form factor than the typical SATA drives. Most M.2 SSDs use a PCIe x4 slot on your motherboard. This is the fastest and smallest form of flash storage for the mainstream market. Another thing you need to know about PCIe M.2 SSDs is the new Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Protocol. The earlier PCIe SSDs used the older AHCI protocol which was intended for mechanical hard drives. This limited PCIe SSDs to achieve their full potential. That is why NVMe was born. In a nutshell, NVMe process works by taking large chunks of data, breaking it down into smaller bits for processing and then finally putting it back all together. NVMe was created with flash storage in mind as flash storage can process a huge chunk of data at once. All of the above are the basics of what makes up a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. By utilizing NVMe these types of drives are even faster than your typical SATA SSD. The speed gap is pretty huge. Most SATA SSDs max out at 550-600 Mb/s, while M.2 NVMe SSDs can theoretically go all the way up to 4000 Mb/s. Even in normal day to day tasks, the speed is quite noticeable. NVMe M.2 Drive Compatibility So after reading through all the information about NVMe M.2 drives, you have finally decided to get one for yourself. That sounds great but first, you should actually check if your current motherboard actually has support for M.2 NVMe SSDs and if so, what type should you use. In short, there are two basic factors which play into the role of compatibility between your motherboard and NVMe M.2 SSDs. Connectivity/Interface The most important thing is the connection the desired drive requires. Some motherboards might not even have support for M.2 drives at all. This seems to be the case with a lot of budget motherboards. Always check this on the product page of your motherboard. Assuming your motherboard does have an M.2 slot, the next thing to concern ourselves with is what connection the slot is using. Most of the newer M.2 drives use PCIe Gen3 x4 slots to fully reach their maximum respective speeds. These drives will work in an older gen x4 or x2 slot but that will definitely hinder the speed a bit. If you are buying a high-performance drive you will require a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot to fully utilize its speed. So be informed of what generation the PCIe slot is and whether it is an x2 or x4 slot. It also goes without saying (since this article is about PCIe NVMe drives specifically) that you do not get a SATA drive for your PCIe x4 slot. M.2 SATA is not the same as M.2 PCIe in terms of speed and it probably won’t work properly in the x4/x2 slot. Size Size is something that shouldn’t be too much of an issue for desktop users as most M.2 drives intended for desktops have a standard size that will fit almost any motherboard. It never hurts to double check though. Be aware that different drives come in different sizes or lengths. Be sure to check if your motherboard supports the exact size of the SSD you select. These sizes are indicated with 4 digit numbers at the end of the product name such as 2280, where “22” shows it is 22mm wide and 80mm long.پنجره دوجداره 2280 and 2260 seem to be the most common sizes. Always be sure to check this especially if you are getting one for your laptop. Laptop M.2 drives usually have smaller heat spreaders as well and are a bit thinner overall.

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The_Fossette · ‎05-04-2019

@frank-72,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I checked the specifications of your computer and see that your computer has two expansion slots.

One M.2 socket 1, key A
One M.2 socket 3, key M

Based on the specifications, the SSD should work fine with the computer. However, the SSD specified SSD is not tested by HP. You can try it at your own discretion.

Refer to the below link for the motherboard specifications.

https://support.hp.com/in-en/product/hp-pavilion-570-p000-desktop-pc-series/13823514/model/19988388/...

Hope that answers your question and you have a great day!

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accept as Solution. Your feedback counts!

Cheers!

The_Fossette
I am an HP Employee

frank-72 · ‎05-08-2019

Thanks a lot for your answer, I ordered the SSD and let you know if it works.

Cheers

frank

The_Fossette · ‎05-08-2019

@frank-72,

Thank you for keeping me posted.

Please post your results, as I will be looking forward to hearing from you.

Good day!

The_Fossette
I am an HP Employee

frank-72 · ‎05-09-2019

Hi, I received the SSD but I don't understand how to install it...

I mean, I know where is the M.2 slot as the red shape in picture 1.

I can plug the disk, picture 2.

I can't fix the "final part" of the disk... or do I miss the correct screw? picture 3

picture 1picture 2picture 3

Do you have any idea about what should I use to fix the M.2 SSD? is doen't seems to have a thread the object in picture 4

picture 4

Thanks for your support

frank

frank-72 · ‎05-09-2019

Hi again, I found a way to fix the SSD (I didn't take a picture because is a scary way...) and the PC don't see the SSD... picture 5.

I'm sorry the BIOS is in italian but I'm italian too, maybe you already understood cause my bad english 🙂

I also found a weird menu the M.2 slots seem to but enabled but greyed out... picture 6. is this normal?

picture 5picture 6

Thanks again a lot for your support...

I think I should have bought a standard SATA SSD instead a M.2 😞

Cheers

frank

The_Fossette · ‎05-10-2019

@frank-72,

I recommend you remove the SATA hard drive and connect only the SSD and check whether the computer is able to boot.

Let me know how it goes.

The_Fossette
I am an HP Employee

frank-72 · ‎05-10-2019

thanks again for your support @The_Fossette

unfortunately I cannot test it now...

but I'm wondering why I should remove the SATA HD when I have an empty M.2 slot and I choosed a M.2 SSD to be able to have a fast drive for OS and a large drive for data...

Just to be sure I tested the same M.2 SSD on a 4 year old (maybe 5...) ASUS Motherboard and it worked like a charm... 😞

Cheers

frank

The_Fossette · ‎05-10-2019

@frank-72,

If you have the operating system installed on both the hard drives the computer will not detect the SSD most of the time. This is the reason why I asked you to check with one hard drive on the computer at a time.

Cheers!

The_Fossette
I am an HP Employee

frank-72 · ‎05-13-2019

That's very curoius... when I installed the M.2 SSD on the second PC for test, the 4 years old Asus mainborad booted from a SATA SSD and the M.2 SSD was visible at the same time. Why the Willow2 mb should have this kind of limitations?

I choosed an M.2 SSD to be able to maintain the SATA HDD already installed into the 570-p033nl... Shouldn't I?

Anyway, your suggestion remind me that I found "greyed out" some parts into the BIOS... and I wasn't able to enable them... did you have the chance to see the BIOS picture I posted? Ithink "picture 5" and "6"

Cheers

frank

Willow2 motherboard ssd M.2 compatibility

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