Does my laptop have an M.2 port (SATA 3 or PCIe)? + Maximum SSD capacity supported

[karimm]

Hello,

My laptop is a Pavilion Power 15-cb008ne, and here is the product's webpage link.

My laptop came a single 1 TB HDD (not SSD). I have 2 options to speed it up

1) Replace the SATA 3 HDD with a 2.5 inch, SATA 3 SSD.

2) Keep the HDD and add an M.2 SSD as the boot drive, either SATA 3 or PCIe (depending on what my laptop supports).

I downloaded this 'Maintenance and Service Guide’ from this link to determine what bus and form factor my laptop supports. The guide discusses PCIe and SATA 3 buses, and discusses M.2 form factor as well.

Q1. Does this mean my laptop supports both SATA 3 and PCIe bus in M.2 form factor? Or is the guide applicable to many models, hence it discusses all possible buses and form factors?

Q2. If after opening my laptop I discover a single M.2 port, how could I tell what bus does it use?

Q3. The title page of the guide states ‘Model numbers: 15-cb000 – 15-cb099’. Does the dash (the one after the triple zeros) mean this guide is applicable to all models starting from 000 to 099, i.e., 001, 002, 003, etc.?

Q4. Refer to the following two screenshots.

Does this mean I am limited in the M.2 form factor to a 256 GB PCIe SSD, or a 128 GB SATA 3 SSD (maximum capacities)? If yes, could you explain why (out of curiosity, not that it will make any difference).

Q4. If Q3 is true, then could I install any capacity 2.5 inch, SATA 3 SSD in place of the HDD?

NB. I will not buy an HP SSD, rather another brand, so do not limit your answer to what HP offers as SSDs.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Karim

[iomare]

Hi Karim,

Yes the M2 will support M2 SATA3 SSD and much faster M2 PCIe NVMe SSD

Example:

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/pavilion-power-15-cb008no/CT13074279

there is no limit to capacity. The capacities mentioned in service manual are the ones certain models in that series could have been bought with.

Hope it helps,

David

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[karimm]

Thanks  Iomare for your reply. 

To be crystal clear before i buy my SSD,  are you saying that MY laptop's single M.2 slot supports both SATA 3 and PCIe, and it will use the relevant bus automatically upon installing the SSD?

Or is it either SATA3 or PCIe, and i have to know beforehand which SSD bus type to buy?

On another note, since all i need is 250 GB of storage (SSD) space, i was thinking of removing the 1 TB HDD that came with the laptop. The benefits are two fold:

1. Save battery power

2. Install the HDD in a USB 3 HDD enclosure and it use as an external HDD.

Anything i should be aware of before i do that? Any precautions?

Thanks. 

[Huffer]

Your laptop's single M.2 slot supports EITHER a SATA 2280 form factor M.2 SSD (such as WD BLue or Samsung 860 Evo) OR a PCIe/NVME 2280 form factor M.2 SSD (such as Samsung 970 Evo or Evo Plus). 

Find this inside:

M.2 = red circle HDD = green square

Capacity is not limited. I have seen very large M.2 SSDs up to at least 2 TB and maybe 4 on some models. Prices to match, however.

Your call on whether to remove the hard drive. Since you would not be booting from it I think battery runtime improvement will be minimal and having to carry around external storage is not always convenient. Post back with any more questions. 

[karimm]

Thanks Huffer for your reply.

Q1. Is there a way to find out which bus my M.2 slot uses before opening my laptop?

Q2. If not, once I open my laptop and locate the M.2 slot, how will I discern which bus it uses? Will it be written on the slot, for example?

I have read the user manual and it makes no mention of the bus type.

Thanks.

[iomare]

Hi,

What do you mean by bus type?

You can insert a M2 SATA3 SSD and it will work

You can insert an M2 PCIe NVMe SSD and it will work (much faster)

So, both will work.

Regards,

David

[karimm]

Thank you Iomare and Huffer for your replies.

If the both of you could tell me how did you arrive at your conclusions, it would put me at ease.

For example, from you experience, do all M.2 slots support PCIe AND SATA 3 at the same time, hence you presume that mine must also support both PCIe AND SATA 3 at the same time, @Iomare? Or have you read somewhere in my laptop's documentation that it actually supports both  PCIe AND SATA 3 at the same time, so it doesn't matter what type of SSD I buy?

The same question goes for @Huffer.

I appreciate the time and effort both of you guys are putting in to help me.

Looking forward to hearing from both of you soon.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

I have installed M.2 SSDs in multiple dozens of laptops at this point. I have never seen a case where an M.2 slot can accept a PCIe/NVME and not alternately accept a SATA M.2. I believe this is inherent in the architecture of the hardware. But you ask:

have you read somewhere in my laptop's documentation that it actually supports both  PCIe AND SATA 3 at the same time, so it doesn't matter what type of SSD I buy?

You can read it yourself in the excerpt of the Manual you posted. The list of possible M.2 SSDs includes a couple PCIe/NVME types and a SATA type. That is how the Experts here figure this out. There are also many cases where the laptop ONLY can take a SATA M.2. In that case all the HP Replacement parts mentioned in the manual will be SATA. That is not what is happening here. 

So that is how we reached the conclusion that you can use either one. 

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if its the info you needed. 

[karimm]

I understand. Thank you Huffer and Iomare for your patience and explanations. You have been most helpful. I will close this question now.

Karim

[iomare]

You're welcome Karim.

All the best,

David