HP Pavillion 15-bc018ca m.2 SSD support

[Air0]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to confirm a few items regarding m.2 SSD support for the laptop Pavillion 15-bc018ca

Sorry if similar questions were asked earlier, but I wasn't able to find the information for my particular laptop model.

In Maintainance and service guide for this model I found that it supports

GNRC SSD 128 GB 2280 M2 SATA-3 Value TL 827560-017

GNRC SSD 256 GB 2280 M2 PCIe 3x4SS NVMeTLC TL 847109-005

GNRC SSD 512GB  2280 M2 PCIe 3x4SS NVMeTLC TL 847110-002

I wanted to clarify the following questions:

1. Does that mean that laptop supports SATA interface AND PCI-express for SSD?

2. I assume that if I can use both - it is better to use PCI-express, correct?

3. In case if I decide to use PCI-express SSD and will search for 256GB - is there any limitation on models/manufacturers?

Example:

SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4  MZ-V6E250BW

Plextor M8Pe M.2 2280 256GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 MLC 

Corsair Force MP500 M.2 2280 240GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4  CSSD-F240GBMP500

Will all of them work? 

4. Do I have to search m.2 SSD by some particular parameter, and check the SSD specification has it?

Thank you!

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. No...any of the listed ones should work fine. 

4. Not sure I understand what you are asking. 

HP actually sells a 512 gig NVME M.2 for an insanely good price:

https://parts.hp.com/hpparts/Search_Results.aspx?mscssid=5CE126246F7E46C9A49750FD41AC6495&SearchIn=P...

I have purchased and installed 2 of these: one on my Zbook G3 15 and the other on my Omen that HP loans me to use and then donate to charity. The drives are producing very very good read and write scores so if you can do it order that one from HP; its like 60% the price you would see anywhere else and usually HP parts are 160% of retail.

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

[Air0]

Great, thank you so much for this information!

One more quick question - before I opened the laptop - does it have the necessary screw to fit SSD within, or I have to use my own screw? I know the question is silly but I don't want to put new SSD and find out that I don't have a screw for it. Just wanted to be prepared )))

[Air0]

By the way - thank you for the link to HP SSD drive.

I checked it and I found that these SSDs look like standard drives, I mean not like m.2 "stick", they are square.

It seems that they can be installed instead of primary HDD.

But I wanted to keep my 2TB HDD and install m.2 SSD as a boot drive for win10 and software. 

Anyway thanks for the link, I hope it will be useful for someone who will read this thread.

[REO51ST]

@Air0

HP Pavilion 15-bc000 Notebook PC series - FRU Remove/Replace Videos

https://h20574.www2.hp.com/results.htm?SID=10862166&MEID=9E11075D-744F-4986-ACA1-547A14CA1B03

Click on Solid State Drive.

REO

[Air0]

Thank you for your response!

I saw this video, but it was not clear:

a) if I don't have SSD at the moment within the laptop - is there a screw to fix it once I install it or I have to find it somewhere else?

b) more important - this port that is shown on the video - does it support both SATA and PCI-express, or it works only with SATA and PCI-E SSD can be installed only to the socket for main HDD 

Thank you.

[Alezis]

Just wanted to give my experiance,

Best upgrade I EVER did in ANY of my 30 years+ of owning computers. I chose the Samsung NVMe M.2 950PRO 512GB (399$ CAD) and it works like a dream. Performance is incradible on the 15-bc018ca.

Installed the NVMe drive, used the Samsung cloning tool from the mechanical drive, once cloning is done I removed the mechanical drive. First time, it did not start. I simply had to log in the bios, do no change settings and just save/exit. Power up and worked ever since that time.

I had planned to use the 2.5 inch bay as a second drive and install the 2TB mechanical drive in that bay as a work drive but it will degrade the overall performance of the computer even if it is used as a second drive to store document files. Speciall when power up from OFF state, the computer need to wait the for the mechanical drive to spin up and be ready to transfer data.

I am using the computer only with the NVMe drive for the moment. I will get a 1TB 2.5 inch SSD drive, probably a Samsung EVO, they are cheap and have a 5 year warranty. I would have liked to get the 2TB NVMe drive but they are still more expensive than the whole computer itself !

Again, superb experience, computer runs flawlessly, lighting fast 2200MB/s read and 1254MB/s write. I am extremely happy with this computer and the NVMe drive upgrade.