17-x037cl Both SSD and M.2?

[JimmyKumbaya]

The service manual for my HP laptop is ambiguous. Can the 17-x037cl support *both* a 2.5" SSD in the hard drive bay and an M.2 SSD in a separate holder, simultaneously? The diagram in the manual suggests it's either-or, that an M.2 SSD actually requires an adapter that then fits into the 2.5" drive bay. I have the drive bay filled now, I'd like to add an M.2 if possible (and retain the existing 2.5" drive).

Thanks for any specific help..

[banhien]

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@JimmyKumbaya wrote:

The service manual for my HP laptop is ambiguous. Can the 17-x037cl support *both* a 2.5" SSD in the hard drive bay and an M.2 SSD in a separate holder, simultaneously?...

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@JimmyKumbaya 

Well, how do you think it has M.2 slot for storage in the first place ? The manual is for the whole series, not for a Single Storage with HDD machines.

Regards.

[JimmyKumbaya]

Is that "yes, it supports both," or "no, it supports only one"? I can't tell. What I *think* doesn't matter; I don't *know*, which is why I asked ... 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

I looked at the Manual and I will make it easy for others who might want to double check my work:

Manual

@JimmyKumbaya  you have analyzed it right (correctly). There is no M.2 slot on the motherboard, but you can use an adapter in the 2.5 inch bay for an M.2 SATA disk. This provides no benefit in terms of speed vs. using a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in place of the hard drive using the same adapter hardware. So to be explicit: no way to have hard drive + M.2 SSD; its either/or. 

You can have a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the hard drive bay and then use a DVD drive adapter for the hard drive so have speed and storage. As I said; a 2.5 inch SATA SSD and an M.2 SATA SSD perform essentially the same: same hardware in a different package. 

Post back with any more questions. 

[JimmyKumbaya]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed an odd sub-assembly adjacent to and below the SODIMM slots on the motherboard, for some reason I got it in my head that may have been a dedicated M.2 slot. (It's the trackpad.)

As an aside, my laptop's advertised as shipping with (2) 4GB sticks, but it had a single 8GB instead. That worked fine for me, meant I needed only a single additional 8GB SODIMM to max the memory capacity.

Thanks again,

Jim