Does Laptop have an M2 slot and what type?

[ckm1956]

HP Pavillion Gaming Notebook 

I was initially planning on replacing my hard drive with an SSD. Through the Service Manual, I found a reference to an M2 slot. (I don't have a drive in it.)

2 questions:

1) without opening the case, is there a way to know if the laptop has an M2 slot?

2) If so, what interface? mSATA, PCI Express-b, or NVMe?

Thanks!!!

[Huffer]

Here is the Manual:

Manual

See p. 45. It does show an M.2 SATA mSSD B + M keyed as being optional. However, there is no picture in the Manual of exactly where the slot is located. There is a long-running thread on this Forum by customers who have tried to add an after-market M.2 mSSD and found the port disabled from the factory. Apparently this phenomenon is most common on models sold at Best Buy but not excusively. 

If I had an M.2 SATA B + M 2280 mSSD laying around and I owned the laptop I might open the back and see if I can find the slot and experiment with adding the M.2 disk but I cannot in good conscience advise you 100% that it would work and have you go out and buy something. If you want your laptop to be faster get a 2.5 inch SATA-3 SSD such as the Samsung Evo 850. I can assure you that will work and a 2.5 inch SATA SSD is just as fast or very close to as fast as a SATA M.2 disk. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[ckm1956]

Thanks for the info. 

I'm hoping that being a relatively recent PC (HP Direct), then it might support a PCI-Express or NVME M.2 drive.

Those are screamers compared to mSATA. Think read/write of 3500/2100. 

Ideally, I'd put in the NVME M.2 as a boot drive and leave the HDD for storage.

If the M.2 isn't an option (or is mSATA), I'll go for a big SATA SSD

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

PCIe and NVME are the same thing. And this laptop you ask about only supports the SATA type M.2 disks, if that. I have 2 laptops with NVME bootdisks, a Zbook 15 G3 and a Spectre 13-v series and you are right but the read/write for a SATA M.2 is just about the same as for a SATA 2.5 inch SSD. 

M.2 is causing all types of confusion. There is M.2 SATA, M.2 NVME/PCIe and then B, M, and B + M connections you have to deal with and length 80mm, 60 mm??

[ckm1956]

Thanks for the info and the clarifications.!