SSD drive upgrade - HP spectre x360 - 13-4001ns

[emmerx]

How about this to try?

• Buy a USB 3.0 m.2 SSD adapter
• Install the m.2 PCIE NVMe SSD in your laptop
• Connect the old HP m.2 SATA boot SSD to the  USB-adapter
• Boot your laptop from the external USB SATA m.2 SSD, with the original system Win10 image
• Install the Windows NVMe driver, so Windows will recognize the NVMe SSD
• Download and install a specific/faster Samsung NVMe driver?
• Clone the external SSD to the new SM951/ 950PRO; use EaseUS BackUp (free) or Macrium
• Reboot, disconnect the external USB SSD and boot from the SM951/950PRO

Please let us know if this works...

[big_c]

I have a i7-5500u Spectre x360 and just upgraded to the SM951 256GB AHCI SSD.

It's running a heck of a lot faster, but my benchmarks are only around 1200mb/s read and 1100/write. 4k benchmark is 35 read/70 write.

Is this normal? I was hoping for around 2GB/s speeds..is my motherboard the bottleneck?

Either way I will keep it, I bought about 11 of these at a great price and I put the rest on ebay 🙂

[emmerx]

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MrTech3 wrote:

The real question I didn't find a full definitive answer anywhere yet is: What are the specs of the motherboard for my HP Spectre?  and so:

Can the HP  Spectre models (prior to Skylake) run the Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD at full speed?    

My answer 

The motherboard in the HP Spectre 4101dx is M.2 PCIe 2.0, 5 Gb/s x4,
so yes it can run the Samsung 950 Pro , but not at full speed.  

The 4101dx is an i7 5500U model and came out the year before the newest Skylake processors and motherboards came out.  Reading about Skylake, one expects that all Skylake motherboards should all come ready with PCIe 3.0, which is 8 GB/s with 4 lanes, but I would like to hear that confirmed with owners of the newest Spectre models with Skylake.  After installing the Samsung 950 Pro NVMe 512GB SSD in the Spectre X360, and once it was installed I was able to use Samsung's Magician Software to see that the specifications of my model is running PCIe 2.0, because it showed my connection as 5 GB/s with 4 lanes.

I can confirm, as others have posted, a Samsung 950 Pro runs on a Spectre X360 at very nearly 1600 mb/s for both read and write at its top speeds, being somewhat bottlenecked by running on PCIe 2.0.  This means that for such Spectre models the NVMe works, but not at its full potential, but it is vastly faster than the stock SSD and vastly faster than M.2 Sata drives like the Samsung Evo (running max at SATA III 6GB/sec)).  

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Please read all of this very informative post by Mrtech3.

It is only 1 page away from here ...

[afinpdx]

Hello. I sat on this for a little while, then it occured to me that I hadn't updated the Bios. So I flashed to the latest Bios and the installation using my USB thumb drive with the Windows 10 install image went fine.  Here is an image of the readout from Samsung Magician. My Spectre has a 6th gen  i7-6500U processor. Thanks for all the help with getting this installed!

[ihasquestion]

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@emmerx wrote:

How about this to try?

• Buy a USB 3.0 m.2 SSD adapter
• Install the m.2 PCIE NVMe SSD in your laptop
• Connect the old HP m.2 SATA boot SSD to the  USB-adapter
• Boot your laptop from the external USB SATA m.2 SSD, with the original system Win10 image
• Install the Windows NVMe driver, so Windows will recognize the NVMe SSD
• Download and install a specific/faster Samsung NVMe driver?
• Clone the external SSD to the new SM951/ 950PRO; use EaseUS BackUp (free) or Macrium
• Reboot, disconnect the external USB SSD and boot from the SM951/950PRO

Please let us know if this works...

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I plan to try this method in a couple months & I'll report back. Living overseas you have to research every possibility before you commit and buy (& find somebody to bring you the stuff). This forum has been really helpful since I want NVMe and it's $300 to get a 512gb SATA upgrade option when you buy the spectre or $317 to get a 512gb 950 Pro. Just had to be sure it worked. 🙂

[ihasquestion]

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@afinpdx wrote:

Hello. I sat on this for a little while, then it occured to me that I hadn't updated the Bios. So I flashed to the latest Bios and the installation using my USB thumb drive with the Windows 10 install image went fine.  Here is an image of the readout from Samsung Magician. My Spectre has a 6th gen  i7-6500U processor. Thanks for all the help with getting this installed!

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Could you post benchmarks since you have full PCIe 3.0x4?

[emmerx]

Crystal Disk Mark with Samsung SM951 256GB NVMe in SkyLake (i5 6200) Spectre m.2 PCIe 3.0 X4 slot, system booted from original Adata SSD in USB m.2 adapter.

[nicolas-hp]

My Motherboard fried on my HP spectre 360 and before I sent to HP, I want to backup the data.

What device do I need to be able to plug that ssd EXTERNALLY on another laptop ? Do I need a USB adapter where the SSD drive will go in and I will plug the USB to another computer ? Any advice ? Much appreciated

Nick

[emmerx]

You can just Google for "m.2 to usb" and find lots of options for direct m.2 to USB3 devices.

Choose USB3, not 2: takes a lot more time to replicate.

I have a separate devices for all kind of data connections:

• SATA to USB3 cable
• m.2 (SATA and PCIe) to SATA board
• PCIe 3.0 X4 card to host different SSD's: SATA, m.2 PCIe and m.2 SATA

Also useful for backup purposes.

The latest device is also capable of housing m.2 PCIe NVMEand AHCI, as most adapters can only host m.2 SATA SSD's.

Also look for the size; the HP drive is 80 mm