PCI Express half-size mini card socket (Gen 2.0)

[nitinsingla]

In my HP Pavilion 20-b102in All-in-One Desktop PC's product specification page (here), in the motherboard section, it is mentioned that it has as an expansion slot an "One PCI Express half-size mini card socket (Gen 2.0)."

So, my question is: can I add an SSD in this socket and install my OS on it instead of the already existing 500GB HDD?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

That socket is for a HMC wifi card only.

Nothing else will work in it.

According to the product specs for your PC, the HMC slot is already occupied by the wifi card.

HP Pavilion 20-b102in All-in-One Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

[nitinsingla]

Hi! Thanks a lot. 

"That socket is for a HMC wifi card only."  --> Can you please provide a source to this info?

Won't I be able to take this wifi card out and install an SSD or for that matter anything else PCIe compliant?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

There is no documentation regarding that other than what other forum members have posted when they attempted to install a different device in the slot designed for the wifi card.

So, if you want to remove the wifi card and install a SSD and have it not work, that is entirely up to you.

Why not replace the mechanical hard drive with a SATA SSD?

That's guaranteed to work and it would be just as fast as anything you could install in the wifi card slot (assuming it would work).

[nitinsingla]

Great advise!

I will be keeping the mechanical hard drive in the place it is right now.

And will have the CD/DVD disc drive replaced with a 12.7mm caddy (something like this) with SATA SSD fitted right in. I hope the speed be as fast as it would have been had I placed it in-place of the HDD SATA. It would be as fast, right..?

Also, looking at the "hp DVD A DS8A9SH", seems like 12.7mm caddy is the way to go as I could confirm from these two sources [1, 2].

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Below is the link to the parts list for your PC.

HP PartSurfer

The optical drive is indeed a 12.7 mm model as shown in the above list.

I hope that installing a SSD in a caddy will work as good as having it in place of the hard drive.

It is not always the case, because DVD's are usually connected to SATA II ports, so you may not get the full speed out of the drive.

Hopefully your PC is new enough to where all of the SATA ports are SATA 3.0.