Can my laptop use Samsung 950 Series Pro PCIe x4 (Gen 3), NVMe as a boot drive?

[Menmit]

Just bought HP Envy 17", 17t-n100. Originally, it is equipped with a SSD 512gb, m.2, sata3. I want to upgrade it to Samsung SSD 950 Pro Series, 256Gb, PCIe NVM, M.2 and use it as the boot drive. Is it possible for this laptop?

* In terms of hardware, does this laptop mainboard support PCIe SSD and NVMe (physically and electrically)?

* how about the Bios of this laptop, does it support NVMe? I know Win10 supports NVMe, but how about the Bios?

Highly appreciate specific answers to these questions

[Huffer]

No your laptop uses SATA M.2 drives. If you try to put in an NVME it will be as if nothing was inserted in the slot. 

[Menmit]

Thanks a lot, Huffer, for your reply. Is there any way that i can get aroud it? Some say that the Bios can be modified to recognize NVMe in order for the laptop to accept Samsung 950 Pro. Do you know any thing about it?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

The BIOS is not the whole issue. It also has to do with hardware. And do you seriously think modifying the BIOS is a viable option? The BIOS is exceptionally hardened against hacking efforts. Very few have succeeded. Many efforts were made for the wifi whitelist issue and very, very limited success by very serious Coders, which most of us are not. 

HP does now make several models that will use the NVME M.2 disks but they are mostly business models. I have one in my Zbook 15 G3 that I added and my "world's thinnest" Spectre 13 has one from the factory. I tried upgrading my prior laptop that used SATA M.2 (a Lenovo Carbon X1) and it did not register and that is the result that has been reported here with similar HP models.

[Menmit]

Again, thanks, Huffer. Got you. I wish that i could learn this earlier so that i would grab the Spectre instead of Envy.:smileysad:

[Menmit]

Dear Huffer, Apologize for getting you back on this, but I just found something that could be of interesting and I would love to have your opinions. 1. Mainboard specifications Just ran Sisoftware Sandra Lite on my laptop. Under the mainboard category, it indicated as follows: - System Bus 1: PCIe 3 x32 6Gbps Would this really mean that my mainboard does support PCIe indeed? (irregardless of the physical interface, whether it is a Sata M2 or PCIe M2 connector) 2. For NVMe: Samsung have NVMe driver for Samsung Pro 950 PCIe NVMe that can be installed to the laptop. I took what you advised earlier seriously, but since I really like the read/write speed rendered by Samsung Pro 950 so much I’m just trying to dig more information to see if I can come across any luck. Again thanks and best regards

[Huffer]

1. No all that means is that there is a PCIe bus in the laptop which is not surprising. It does not mean storage can plug directly into PCIe, necessarily. Even SATA ultimately attaches to a PCIe bus but it does so indirectly. 2. I have never had to use a driver. It either works or not. The storage has to be available to the computer before the OS loads and drivers only kick in after the OS loads so a driver could not cure a situation where the device is not apparent to the BIOS as I got when I plugged in the PCIe NVME in my Lenovo. I suspect the driver simply optimizes perfomance. 

Look this is all kind of "bleeding edge" stuff and it is not impossible that if you buy the NVME drive it maybe could be made to work. I just don't think so based on the best information I have gathered.  Good luck. 

[Menmit]

Wow, thanks for your quick response. I will opt for Samsung 850 EVO m.2 sata then. Never test it before. Will go for a blind date. Cross my finger in hoping that it can be faster than the one that originally came with my laptop. Appreciate for all of your answers. Thanks.