M.2 vs PCIe

[Mzungu]

Quick Question. I recently purchased a Lenovo T440s and it has an M.2 slot. I want to put a ssd in that slot, but am having a hard time figuring out what to buy. I know that PCIe is like, way fast and all, but how do i know if this laptop supports PCIe and if PCIe is what that slot was intended for? 

 

sooo, thanks! 

[Hman1250]

It depends what SSD you put in. A lot of M.2 SSD's don't offer any speed increase benefits compared to a 2.5" SSD. PCI-E SSDS are always the fastest. However, an exception with the M.2 SSD is Samsungs 950 Pro SSD's which are M.2 NVMe SSD's giving it about 2.5GB/S READ AND WRITE SPEEDS

[exercutor5]

Quick Question. I recently purchased a Lenovo T440s and it has an M.2 slot. I want to put a ssd in that slot, but am having a hard time figuring out what to buy. I know that PCIe is like, way fast and all, but how do i know if this laptop supports PCIe and if PCIe is what that slot was intended for? 

 

sooo, thanks! 

 

According to the site below, it is an mSATA slot, not M.2.

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440s/#tab-tech_specs

 

Never mind, after googling a little, found out that it is a M.2 slot, but it is a tiny one, don't expect many SSDs available for you to choose from. 42mm in length to be exact.

[Shepanator]

The slot is managed by a sata controller, so no super fast NVME ssd I'm afraid.

and it only supports 42mm cards as well so bear that in mind while shopping

[-rascal-]

Quick Question. I recently purchased a Lenovo T440s and it has an M.2 slot. I want to put a ssd in that slot, but am having a hard time figuring out what to buy. I know that PCIe is like, way fast and all, but how do i know if this laptop supports PCIe and if PCIe is what that slot was intended for? 

 

sooo, thanks! 

 

Some things to consider before you spend money on a M.2 storage device.

This is from the Maintenance Manual for the T440s (nearly identical to my T450 BTW)

 

Spoiler

 

Your T440s should have two M.2 expansion slots

• One is dedicated for Wireless LAN (WiFi) / Bluetooth card. The space available is much smaller
• One is dedicated for Wireless WAN card (for SIM card networks) or M.2 storage drive.The space available is a bit larger.

Here is the URL to the T440s "Hardware Maintenance Manual."

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t440s_hmm_en_sp40a25360_01.pdf

[Mzungu]

I appreciate all the input from everyone! Thanks!

 

Some things to consider before you spend money on a M.2 storage device.

This is from the Maintenance Manual for the T440s (nearly identical to my T450 BTW)

 

Spoiler

 

Your T440s should have two M.2 expansion slots

• One is dedicated for Wireless LAN (WiFi) / Bluetooth card. The space available is much smaller
• One is dedicated for Wireless WAN card (for SIM card networks) or M.2 storage drive.The space available is a bit larger.

Here is the URL to the T440s "Hardware Maintenance Manual."

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t440s_hmm_en_sp40a25360_01.pdf

 

I find it interesting how the M.2 slot was only intended to be a cache drive for the main HDD/SSD. I have been researching success stores of people putting in a M.2 SSD as their boot and a regular hdd in the 2.5" bay for storage, and it worked out fine. This probably what I will try. Thanks for all of your help!