SSD upgrade for spectre x360

[jisnoh]

In my case, the bios did not recognize 950 pro, but Windows 10 did recognize it. Try to use data migration tools such as EasyUS backup to clone your original SSD to a USB drive. Use Windows PE to restore the cloned data into the new SSD. You may create one, or you can get one through googling. You will also need to integrate Samsung NVME driver into your PE image. After installing it, you can check if the SSD is working properly by running a disk benchmark tool. I got this benchmark result.

Good luck!

[JS007]

I can confirm Samsung 950 Pro 512GB NVMe M.2 works for the latest HP Spectre x360 15.

The BIOS couldn't recognize the drive (showing hard drive "3F0" error message on startup). But I could have a fresh install of Win10 onto the drive using a bootable USB installation disk (boot under UEFI mode with secure boot enabled in BIOS). During installation, Win10 did recognize 950 pro (showing unformatted hard drive).

Before change, factory installed disk was SanDisk X300 SD7SN6S:

After change to Samsung 950 Pro:

[MrTech3]

The motherboard for the Spectre X360 4101dx, with 5500U i7 (5th Gen Intel, one version before the new Skylake) has M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 5GB/sec.  It runs  M.2 Sata (Sata III 6GB/sec) with form B + M (2 slots), and it runs PCIe form M (1 slot) and it can accept both AHCI or NVMe versions of PCIe.

Many people in other posts have been asking if the Spectre's M.2 slot can also work with NVMe, and I know the answer is YES, definitely for my 4101dx, since I installed the Samsung 950 Pro 512GB.  I expect it is the same with all 4000 and 4100 labeled models and others with series 5000 Intel processors. The reason is I expect a similar spec motherboard setup since the processors are a similar series, so I expect all the motherboards will be compatible with M.2 PCIe NVMe if my 5th gen i7 5500U is;  It is important for people to know that NVMe is very new, and today most or all normal USB bootable backup media won't recognize it without proper added NVMe drivers, which most USB bootable media today doesn't have without installing special drivers.  

So NVMe works, but it requires NVMe drivers to be recognized as installed when you boot with a USB bootable media.  The other option might be to find a USB adapter to connect the PCIe drive externally, but those are not readily available (see below).  I did not have the expertise to find or add NVMe drivers to add to a WinPE boot option, but as others have said elsewhere who succeded in installing a NVMe drive, I was able to easily install the SSD into the Spectre, by booting from USB Windows 10 installation media and creating a fresh install, since Windows already comes with NVMe drivers.  Others have reported that if they then install Samsung's own NVMe drivers that the Samsung 950 Pro performs better.  It was easy for me to find the drivers on Samsung's Download pages and easy to install, once the new SSD was up and running Windows 10.

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.  That being said, I have never experienced a faster boot and general running of Windows than with the Spectre X360 with the Samsung 950 Pro installed.  It is significantly faster than M.2 Sata (Sata III 6GB/sec). But it is more expensive and nothing larger than 512GB is available yet.

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).  

I am personally very happy with the price/specs/value of the HP Spectre X360 from 2015, especially because of the battery life, and its ability to take one of these new NVMe Samsung 950 Pro SSDs.  I am not sure how much faster it would run if it were on a PCIe 3.O slot, but I am sure I would not want to pay $300 more to find out, which is what it would cost me, since I found my personal Spectre used for about $800.

The next question people have is: Should I get a SSD with AHCI vs NVMe?  AHCI is definitely easier to install in the Spectre. My reading on this suggests that NVMe is more efficient at data handling, and thus somewhat faster in real use than AHCI M.2 PCIe drives can be, but how much, I don't know.  When I look at benchmarks from those using Samsung SM951 ACHI M.2 PCIe drives, the benchmarks are pretty close to what people are getting from the Samsung 950 Pro.  

If your HP Spectre X360 is PCIe 2.0... (Skylake models might be PCIe 3.0, in which case what I say below would be somewhat different, since the Samsung 950 Pro is the fastest drive if you can install it in PCIe 3.0, it can't perform at top speed when installed in a PCIe 2.0 machine)

A big reason to chose a Samsung 950 Pro vs Samsung SM951 or Samsung XP941 is that the Samsung 950 Pro is readily available and intended for consumer use, and has a 5 year warranty, and works with Samsung Magician and Data Migration softwares.  That beings said, if money is an issue and you have a Spectre with M.2  PCIe 2.0 available, the Samsung XP941 will install easily with USB backup media because it is ACHI and is also PCIe 2.0.  The Samsung SM951 has 2 different versions, either ACHI or NVMe, and it is PCIe 3.0 ready, so it would be bottlenecked similarly as the Samsung 950 Pro, so though it would be a bit slower installed in PCIe 3.0, it will be pretty similar to the 950 Pro if installed in PCIe 2.0. Again, for people trying to understand this, it is easier to install an ACHI M.2 SSD because it is more recognizable to regular USB Bootable backup media, but the Spectre can run NVMe drives if you have the right USB Bootable media with drivers for it.  

One thing that would make NVMe SSDs easy to install using a normal cloning software like Samsung Data Migration would be if USB adapters were readily available for M.2 PCIe NVMe drives.  They are still not really here, though some seem available on Ebay or Amazon from China, so far as I can find, which, if you get one that will work, would make it easy to use software like Samsung Data Migration, since both the original drive and the destination drive would need to be available at the same time.  If you are careful to find on that works with NVMe and if you are patient to wait the 2 - 4 weeks to receive it from China, you might find the upgrade to an NVMe SSD easy.

A question I had going in:  Do you need your Windows Product Key ready if you make a fresh install of Windows 10 from a standard install of Windows that did not come with its own Product Key?   So, I found a free Product Key finder before I made the new installation and wrote down the Windows Product Key that is connected to my HP Spectre, but I found that my product key somehow remained connected to my computer even after a fresh install of Windows on the new drive without asking me for the Product Key in the installation process.  I am guessing that the key is somehow stored in the Bios, or something, but I have never read about it, but somehow the correct key was present after the install.  I was worried that I would need to have my Product Key on hand in order to make the fresh install on the new drive, but I was not asked for it and found it already there when I finished.  I felt good about that.

I just did a search for Windows install iso (image file needed, that you then 'burn' on a USB stick.) The first links are websites that announces and directs you to the Microsoft downloads, with some instructions.  I noted in my last post, that when I did the actual install, somehow my Product Key was automatically connected to my Spectre, so I didn't need to input it in order to install onto the new drive.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/windows-10-iso-available-download-1513087

and another similar, with instructions...

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/windows-10-iso-download/

This link is directly to Microsoft.  I didn't check recently, but I am assuming we have Windows 64 bit version on our Spectres, but you can check your current machine before you download 64 or 32 bit. 

Microsoft's pages, with instructions...

for Download

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

For instructions

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

After the fresh install of Windows, I then went to HP support and HP's assistent for updating drivers, and I was very grateful this was easy to do.  When I ran it, it only suggested that I needed 2 drivers, and certainly not every driver that was available for my model on HP's website. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps Windows was able to set up most necessary drivers in the normal install process.  I did manually add the Symantics Trackpad driver and that seemed to add some trackpad functionality I was familiar with from before the new install.  I am not sure if I will find the need to update other drivers in the future, but for now, the Spectre is running great.

To give you a few other details about the process, to boot from USB I used F10 to access the Bios and arrow to the right to get to System Configuration and then you arrow down to USB Boot options and hit return. Then 2 changes: 1: change Secure Boot to Disabled. (I suggest changing it back after the process is finished.) and 2nd: arrow down to USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk and then hit F6 to move it up to the top of the list as a 1st boot option.  Then F10 and save.  When you are finished with the upgrade you can go back and also push it down with F5.  After F10 and save the machine  will reboot. I found the Windows is not so easy to manage regarding booting off USB.  I did test using USB Boot Backup media that I created with EaseUS Backup Home, but without the NVMe drivers it wouldn't recognize my drive.  And then I booted from the Windows install USB and it didn't boot right up, for some reason it took a few tries.  This is where Mac has the Windows environment beat. It is so much easier to boot off of external drives and clone drives with Macs, but Macs make you pay through the nose for their new machines and you can't upgrade the SSDs yourself. A mistake by Apple in my book, and it will hurt many customers, but such is their current system.

For those contemplating this, I'll mention that it took a lot of searching to locate and download an image of Windows 10 installation, but once I had it, I installed it on a simple 4GB USB and it worked great.  If it were not for this step of needing a Windows install USB I would recommend this upgrade to anyone.

One last word: Be careful when you remove the back plate to your Spectre.  I used a Torx 6 to get the 8 screws off, some have said it is Torx 5, but I used Torx 6 without issue, and that is easy enough, but then the back cover has plastic clips. I found that the front of the machine was where to start at removing it, using a plastic pry tool (maybe a sturdy guitar pick could work too) and slide from a corner along the width of the cover and pop release the plastic tabs. It was much more difficult than I like, and I worried about bending the case, so be careful.  To put it back on, start by inserting the other side first, the side along the hinge, and then click in the front section.  I suspect you could break tabs along the hinge side if you don't place them first when closing it again.  And you will need a small Philips head screwdriver to get the drive out and in. I think I used size PH 00, but PH 0 might work too.  It will help to have a magnetic screw driver for this screw. It may want to fall into the machine if you don't have a magnetic screwdriver.  Also, be very careful not to touch the motherboard with your fingers when a battery is connected to the motherboard. You can do serious damage if you create a short.  I am more familiar with upgrading Macs, and I always unplug the battery. I didn't know the Spectre as well, so I didn't unplug the battery, but was extremely careful not to touch the motherboard.  It is a quick swap for the SSD, so it wasn't open for long.

I hope this helps people like myself who could not find this information in one place.

[dvdls]

Broadwell processors only support PCIe 2.0. However, skylake processors do support PCIe 3.0. So it makes sense that x360 latest gen skylake processor) supports PCIe 3.0. Assuming it does, if you own, for example, an x360 i7-5650 (previous x360 gen, broadwell processor) you can only get a maximum write/read speed of 2GBps, which is the maximum PCIe 2.0 transfer speed (4x, of course). BUT, if you own an x360 i7-6560 (current gen, skylake) you get a maximum speed of 4GBps, which is the maximum PCIe 3.0 4x transfer speed. AFAIK the 512GB model of the SM951 (AHCI) promotes  2,2 GBps (read) and 1,5 GBps (write), so with PCIe 2.0 you won't be able to get the "full" potential of this SSD, in contradiction to PCIe 3.0. In fact, I saw on amazon (http://goo.gl/Xw2OIZ) that a guy with a x360 i7-5500 upgrading his factory SSD to a SM951 didn't even reach the PCIe 2.0 maximum speed; he got 1,5 GBps read & write.

I think the same applies to NVMe SSDs as you can see in #41 and #42 where they both bought a Samsung 950 PRO NVMe SSD wich promotes 2,5GBps read/1,5GBps read but they were getting 1,7 GBps read/1,5 GBps write, though I don't know which x360 gen they have, but following the same logic they may have the previous x360 gen with broadwell processors.

And I guess the PCIe 3.0 support also applies skylake i5 processors, at least the options available as a x360 configuration. 

Now, either you have the previous model and you upgraded its SSD to an SSD like the ones above mentioned, or you have the newer one and you upgraded its SSD as well, you can't compare PCIe with SATA III. You just can't.

PS: Please, obviate any misspelling as english is not my native language.

[Rbix]

Anyone please can confirm that the Samsung 950 PRO 512GB or the Samsung 960 EVO 512GB are working on the HP Spectre x360 4101dx with i7-5500u 256GB ?

Thanks!

[Rbix]

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