Does my OMEN 15 2018 (dc0036tx) support M.2 NVME PCIe Gen 3 x4?

[Vinand]

Hello, 

I've been searching on google to know whether my laptop (Omen 15 2018, i7-8750,GTX 1050 Ti) supports PCIe Gen 3 x4 and still ended up confused. 

So, I want to replace my M.2 SSD (that comes with the laptop) with M.2 SSD called LEXAR NM610 (1TB version), I asked the seller and they said that on HP website, It does support M.2 NVME but they want me to ask HP to make sure, so I asked HP via online chat but still confused by the vague answer. 

I'm a bit confused by the term "PCIe Gen 3 x4"

Any answer would be really appreciated!

[Photoray002]

Hello @Vinand 

Ill try to answer briefly and hopefully not sound confusing.

Your Omen supports both Sata and NVMe M.2 3x2 / 3x4 SSDs. There are tons of articles on the web explaining the differences between NVMe 3x2 and 3x4.  x4 will be faster than x2. Based on prices these days, it wouldn't make sense to buy M.2 Sata or M.2 NVMe 3x2 when NVMe 3x4 drives are about the same price (depending one which one).

NVMe drives are run via PCIe technology and an x4 drive will utilize 4 lanes from PCIe in order to get x4 speeds. But typically when a port is compatible with both Sata and NVMe, PCIe has to give up two lanes of access to make room for Sata. In such case, a NVMe 3x4 drive would only run at 3x2 speed.

If you look in the manual, it shows HP shipped that series with NVMe drives, but the port can accept both NVMe or Sata.

Does that help answer your question?

I don't have one of those Omen models to test with, but I would suspect the NVMe drive would only run at 3x2.

When you do get yours, run a speed test for it with a tool like CrystalDiskMark (not to be confused with CrystalDiskInfo) at default settings and let us know how it does.