M.2 slot

[oseas]

Hi. blessed day!

Does my laptop  M.2 nvme slot is gen 4 M.2 nvme ssd sir?

[Huffer]

No its 3rd generation. Dictated by the CPU and in your case its Intel Core 11th gen which is still gen 3 PCIe. 

[TzortzisG]

Ehm....actually TigerLakes are the first laptops with pcie 4.0: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/What-type-of-SSD-will-fit-my-L... .....right?

[Huffer]

The specs on a Tiger Lake CPU say CPU PCIe is 4th gen but chipset PCIe is 3rd gen. Now that I look at it, not sure what it means. Wish I could find the Service Manual on this series as it would say for sure what the PCIe level is. 

Intel® Core™ i3-1115G4 Processor

[oseas]

Hi sir Huffer,
Thank you,for the answered and quick reply appreciated very much.
Cause im thinking if i will by Gen 3 or Gen 4 nvme ssd.Actually i want to purchase Wd black SN770 nvme Gen 4 ssd 500gb.
The specs is
HP Laptop PC 15-dw3000 (1A3Y7AV)
11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz
NVIDIA GeForce MX450
4GB SK Hynix 3200MHz x 2 =8gb
Im surprise because it normal HDD. 1tb HDD

Needed help to find manual.

[TzortzisG]

Yes, and the specs for an Alder Lake 1255u on a 15-dw4000 say the exact same thing.... i7-1255U 

This is the schematic by Intel for TigerLake CPUs

One can connect the ssd directly to the CPU or......not directly. In fact, Intel urged manufacturers to wire the ssd slot directly to the CPU, unless a discrete GPU was used. You can read about it here: Four CPU-attached PCIe Gen 4 lanes for SSDs. 

Unfortunately most laptop makers didn't implement this in their models. In fact, I read a review of the Alder Lake 15-dw4000 that even THERE the ssd slot went through the HUB (gen 3.0) HP 15 (15-dw4000) review -there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which only supports Gen 3 drives.  Go figure.....

These are all decisions made by the laptop designers and are not (really) dictated by the CPU.

[Huffer]

So, bottom line the laptop could do Gen 4 if the M.2 slot were connected directly to the CPU but in this case is only Gen 3 because the M.2 slot is connected to the hub. So more correct to say the CPU gives the ceiling for PCIe performance but that ceiling may not be reached if the designers choose not to take advantage of the possibility.  

[TzortzisG]

👍Of course your reply to the question for all intents and purposes IS 100% correct. I have a probook 650 G8 and it's gen3.0 as well. I just dislike this misconception that Intel didn't want to support gen4.0 on Tiger Lakes...... It was more like laptop manufacturers thought the speeds were crazy and didn't want to face the thermal issues.....

[TzortzisG · Accepted solution]

Hello oseas. Blessed day to you as well!

Huffer EXPERT Level 18 has answered your question and his original post should be marked as Accepted Solution for other forum members to find, should they have the same question. I will further explain the situation.

• Your laptop has a m.2 slot for pcie SSDs, but it is limited to Gen 3.0 speeds. Your tigerlake (11th gen intel) processor FULLY supports Gen 4.0 pcie storage drives, but HP in its infinite wisdom saw it fit to connect your ssd slot INDIRECTLY to your CPU, and downgrade it to a pcie gen 3.0...... In your case, HP actually has an excuse, since your laptop sports a discrete NVDIA gpu, which is taking advantage of the pcie 4.0 lanes. Therefore your sn770 will work perfectly fine, BUT will not exceed pcie 3.0 speeds. In fact, this particular drive has already been installed in your model, with the results I described. You can read about it here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Pci-e-4-0-support-via-CPU-inst... 
• The manual. Yes. Unfortunately HP offers NO manuals for the recent 15-dw laptops, only OLD ones. This is the manual they offer: HP manual 15-dw0000 Instead, I suggest you take a look at this page with complete disassembly instructions here: HP 15-dw series disassembly (up to dw3000). 
• Finally, I can not stress enough that IF your laptop came with an old fashioned spinning HDD, you have to check that the physical m.2 slot is REALLY there, because on some rare occasions, users bought m.2 SSDs for their HP laptops and had the unpleasant surprise of not finding anything to plug it into.

Post back if you have any more questions. Take care!

[oseas]

Hi TzortzisG,

Blessed day!
Thank you for your response and clarification appreciated much.
Again, Thank you very much.