Omen laptop M.2 exact specifications.

[VladAF]

I want to upgrade my Laptops M.2 SSD, and wanted to know exactly what would work and what wouldn't, I'm having a hard time pinning down the specifics.

From what I gather, the slot accepst M.2 2280 size SSDs, but I cant find what key type or what interface is accepted precisely.

Does it work with M.2 SATA, PCIe, or both (toggleable by BIOS, or automatic?

Is it M key or B key (Though I guess with a B+M keyed drive this shouldn't matter)?

System board spare part number -- 859751-601 (I think)

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Here is the Service Manual:

Manual

Here is what it looks like inside:

M.2 slot in rectangle

This model was my HP Expert loaner machine last year. It came with a 2 TB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 128 gig 2280 M.2 SATA-3 disk. I removed that and upgraded to a 2280 PCIe/NVME M.2 disk 512 gig I purchased from the HP parts Store.

It was a Samsung PM961 disk and worked fine. 

So the 128 gig that came in it was an Adata brand 2280 B + M (3-prong) keyed disk and the PM 961 is an M keyed (2 prong) disk:

PM961

All M.2 slots have 2 chambers and either a 3-prong or 2 prong slides into the slot just fine. 

Now as for being assured something will work, don't get me started. We have had lots of reports here of upgrade failures usually when someone tries to install a Samsung 960 Evo or Pro NVME/PCIe disk. Many people want to use these disks as the tech press raves over them and they are widely available. I have installed M.2 PCIe/NVME disks now in 5 HP laptops and had no issues with a Samsung PM961 or SM961 or the analogous 951 series a couple years back when those were the newest. On the other hand I can report lots of issues with folks installing 960 series, Intel M.2 disks, and even WD Black disks. HP has little to say about it as they do not really support upgrading at all other than grudgingly and they are not going to test a bunch of hardware they are not offering for sale. 

So here you have a person who has done the exact upgrade you want to do advising get the Samsung PM961 M.2 and I can almost 100% assure you it will work. 

Post back with any other questions and please accept as solution if this is the answer you needed. 

[VladAF]

Thanks very much for the fast and in depth reply.

Unfortunately, I've had a look on the HP parts website, and the spare parts are looking more expensive than other drives I can find elsewhere, so I will probably stick to a WD blue or 860 evo or something along the lines.

[Huffer]

For a time HP was underpricing M.2 disks from the Parts Store and I grabbed several at those prices. Paid like $110 for a 512 gig NVME M.2. Now they are at least three times that from HP. SATA M.2s are good and several times faster than a mechanical drive, but an NVME is several times faster than a SATA M.2. You don't have to buy the PM961 from HP. You can find them on amazon.com or ebay for not much if any more than the same sized SATA-3 M.2 disk:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PM961-Polaris-128GB-MZVLW128HEGR-00000/dp/B071RCFGLZ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UT...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Polaris-PM961-M-2-512GB-NVMe-Client-Edition-960-EVO-SSD/26369920486...