Second SSD as 2230?

[ibor007]

Hello,

I recently bought Omen 16-ap0172ng. After watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8QFpW9qpQo and according to product specifications page, where it says that it has 2 M.2 slots, I bought another M.2 2280 drive.

Now when I opened a laptop, it seems that the second SSD slot is not 2280. Can anyone confirm that or let me know what type of SSD goes here (left bottom slot) ? There is nothing mentioned about that in manual, website, product specifications, etc. and could not find anyone with the same issue.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The service video shows an empty slot for a M.2 2280 NVMe SSD.

Looking at your screenshot the 2nd NVMe SSD is a M.2 2230 form factor.

The service manual shows the same thing in chapter 5 but if you look at chapter 1, it indicates:

Maintenance and Service Guide OMEN 16 inch Gaming Laptop PC16-ap0xxx

PCIe, Non-Volatile Memory Express (4 × 4 NVMe), M.2 2280 or 2230 solid-state drives

You'll have to return the M.2 2280 drive you bought and install a M.2 2230 drive instead.

[TzortzisG]

Hi!

Paul, it should also be noted that this second slot is only connected to two (2) lanes, and therefore one should not waste any money on a Gen4 2230 drive if a Gen3 is cheaper. This can be seen on the HP Store page for the 16-ap0181ax with the same CPU. Bottom of the page, technical detail no.51.

[resistencia]

Hi @TzortzisG 

The page says Gen4x2, which means that for each lane, there is an approximate speed of 2 GB. When you add them up, you get a speed of 4 GB. If you use Gen 3, each lane has an approximate speed of 1 GB, which adds up to 2 GB, so it's better to use a Gen4 disk.

[TzortzisG]

[resistencia]

What you are checking is whether all four lanes are active. If this is the case, then it is a Gen4x4 disk. Here, that slot only has two active lanes. Manufacturers often do this because CPUs have a lane limit, and although lanes can be shared, sharing them lowers performance. In this case, HP only activates two lanes.

[TzortzisG]

Yes.

Thank you @resistencia. I see your point. Lanes stay the same no matter what generation you install. This means it makes sense to buy gen4.0 drive so that it will run as gen3.0. You can only have a second (full speed) Gen3.0 slot if you install a gen4.0 drive. As weird as this sounds it appears to be true. Your logic seems correct.

[resistencia]

Hi @TzortzisG 

I looked into this because I have a laptop with an Intel Optane, which is a 3x2. I replaced it with an NVMe, and the speed was no higher than 2 GB. Only two lanes were active, and the other two lanes were used by the SATA-3 disk.

That's why many speeds are not reflected in customers' NVMe drives; they use fewer lanes.

Intel® Optane™ Memory M10 Series

[TzortzisG]

I like being corrected when I'm wrong. I had assumed gen3.0 drives would just max out at 4GB/s which is the limit of the slot, and failed to understand that the 2lane limit also applies to them. Meanwhile, I found this old discussion where someone argued that the best route is buying slow gen4.0 drives for these slots: That weird PCIE 4.0x2 M.2 slot... (Tomshardware).

Again thank you, the OP should definitely prefer a gen4.0 drive.

[resistencia]

Gen 4x2 is difficult to find. The issue is that manufacturers do not always use all lanes. I have a Zbook, where the speed exceeds 3500 MB/s. It is Gen 3x4 but at full speed.