Pavilion X360 13-u101na ssd upgrade m2 sata or m2 pcie?

[Sorell]

Hello.

I recently bought Pavilion X360 and i want to upgrade the 256 ssd m2 that came with the laptop.

My question is what type of connection the motherboard suipports? b key, m key or both? also, i want to know if the motherboard supports the PCIe NVMe tehnology.

Thank you.

[Huffer]

Here's the Service Manual. This says it is for the models up to u099 but is the Manual HP has posted for your laptop, too:

Manual

"Supports M.2 SATA"

This is the M.2 part specified:

Solid-state drive (M.2 SATA DRAM-less, 128–GB) 827560–001

It is a B + M type. 

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

[Sorell]

Thank you for your quick answer. Can you confirm that this laptop does not support PCIe NVMe tehnology?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

I thought I did above. The way I know this 100% for sure is that this is one of the models where the 2.5 inch SATA drive or an M.2 plug into the motherboard through the same zif connector. The difference is which caddy and cable you use. So it does not really even have a dedicated M.2 slot, an M.2 drive must go through an adapter that plugs into a SATA port. 

So you pretty much have to stick with the form factor drive it came with from the factory. Otherwise you have to get a different caddy and cable and those can be hard to locate and a bit expensive. 

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

[Sorell]

Just upgraded to 500 gb ssd from 256 one that came with the laptop and surprise, looks like it has a dedicated m2 slot witch seems to be compatible with NVMe SSD.

So my question is still available.

Thank you.

[Huffer]

Yes you can see that slot on p. 43 of the Manual. Apparently an M.2 disk does not use a ribbon cable to attach to the motherboard but the Manual still says it only supports M.2 SATA so you have to use a B + M SATA M.2 disk of the same form factor as the 256 gig Sandisk Z400 you have in there now. 

It appears the zif connector for a regular sized hard drive or SSD is not present on your motherboard...see the blank space next to the SSD slot? So you can only have an M.2 mSSD for storage.