SSD upgrade to NVMe

[Dani360c]

Hi,

 

I just bought a Zenbook pro UX501VW, with a 256gb M.2 Samsung EVO 850 SSD, which is a little low for me.

2 questions: 

How do i easily upgrade to a bigger M.2 SSD? (laptop only has one slot for storage and i dont know of any usb adapters for M.2 SSDs)

 

Can this laptop take a NVMe ssd, like the Samsung 950 pro? This laptop comes as either the cheap one with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd non-touch or 16 gb ram and 512gb NVMe PCIe ssd with touch.

I was planning on buying the more expensive one but got the cheap one on a sale for almost half the price and dont have to deal with a glossy touch screen and hoped to just upgrade later.

 

[mikat]

2 minutes ago, Dani360c said:

Hi,

 

I just bought a Zenbook pro UX501VW, with a 256gb M.2 Samsung EVO 950 SSD, which is a little low for me.

2 questions: 

How do i easily upgrade to a bigger M.2 SSD? (laptop only has one slot for storage and i dont know of any usb adapters for M.2 SSDs)

 

Can this laptop take a NVMe ssd, like the Samsung 950 pro? This laptop comes as either the cheap one with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd non-touch or 16 gb ram and 512gb NVMe PCIe ssd with touch.

I was planning on buying the more expensive one but got the cheap one on a sale for almost half the price and dont have to deal with a glossy touch screen and hoped to just upgrade later.

 

yes, if there is a 256 gb 950 pro in there you can just take  it out and replace it with the 512 gb model

[Dani360c]

1 minute ago, mikat said:

yes, if there is a 256 gb 950 pro in there you can just take  it out and replace it with the 512 gb model

The one in mine are a 950 EVO

edit: sorry ment 850 EVO

[mikat]

3 minutes ago, Dani360c said:

The one in mine are a 950 EVO

edit: sorry ment 850 EVO

can you link the asus site? can only find the 512 gb model.

[Samfisher]

13 minutes ago, Dani360c said:

Hi,

 

I just bought a Zenbook pro UX501VW, with a 256gb M.2 Samsung EVO 850 SSD, which is a little low for me.

2 questions: 

How do i easily upgrade to a bigger M.2 SSD? (laptop only has one slot for storage and i dont know of any usb adapters for M.2 SSDs)

 

Can this laptop take a NVMe ssd, like the Samsung 950 pro? This laptop comes as either the cheap one with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd non-touch or 16 gb ram and 512gb NVMe PCIe ssd with touch.

I was planning on buying the more expensive one but got the cheap one on a sale for almost half the price and dont have to deal with a glossy touch screen and hoped to just upgrade later.

 

It will never work with the 950 Pro cos that's a PCIE SSD whereas the 850 EVO is a SATA SSD.  Also the 950 Pro will suck the battery out of your laptop.

[mikat]

Just now, Samfisher said:

It will never work with the 950 Pro cos that's a PCIE SSD whereas the 850 EVO is a SATA SSD.  Also the 950 Pro will suck the battery out of your laptop.

KNAWLEDGE!

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, mikat said:

 

KNAWLEDGE!

M.2 is a socket type, it's not a transfer protocol.... The 850 EVO M.2 is a SATA drive with a M.2 socket, the 950 Pro is a PCIE SSD with a M.2 socket.

 

KNAWLEDGE!

[mikat]

1 minute ago, Samfisher said:

M.2 is a socket type, it's not a transfer protocol.... The 850 EVO M.2 is a SATA drive with a M.2 socket, the 950 Pro is a PCIE SSD with a M.2 socket.

 

KNAWLEDGE!

they probably didn't bother making two motherboards to prevent you from upgrading your ssd (the top end model has the 950 pro)

 

 

[Samfisher]

2 minutes ago, mikat said:

they probably didn't bother making two motherboards to prevent you from upgrading your ssd (the top end model has the 950 pro)

 

 

No M.2 socket in existence can support both SATA and PCIE IMHO.

[Crowes]

17 minutes ago, mikat said:

they probably didn't bother making two motherboards to prevent you from upgrading your ssd (the top end model has the 950 pro)

 

 

But the point is,

 

21 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

The 950 Pro will suck the battery out of your laptop.

and so he'd still be better going for SATA, regardless of what he can put in.

 

....

 

 

FUCKING KNAWLEDGE.

[Samfisher]

14 minutes ago, KenKraken said:

wat? i thought sata storage options like hdds and ssds sucked more since they require sata power and sata cable?

The 950 Pro is a VERY high performance SSD, so much so that it has been known to overheat and throttle itself down.

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, KenKraken said:

wat? i thought sata storage options like hdds and ssds sucked more since they require sata power and sata cable?

 

is m.2 drives known of this issue? i never heard of such a thing

Only the 950 Pro.  Why would cables have to do with annything though?  The M.2 socket provides the power.  SATA does not have built in power delivery from the data cable that's why you need the SATA power, not because there isn't enough power.

[Dani360c]

48 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

It will never work with the 950 Pro cos that's a PCIE SSD whereas the 850 EVO is a SATA SSD.  Also the 950 Pro will suck the battery out of your laptop.

I know the evo is a sata and pro is a pcie, but since the laptop comes with both versions and a M.2 sata drive works in a pcie x4 slot, i figured it would be a pcie slot
it has a 96wh battery, im not that worried about battery 

 

53 minutes ago, mikat said:

can you link the asus site? can only find the 512 gb model.

sorry it a danish site, couldn't find the asus product page
https://www.power.dk/pc-og-tilbehor/barbare-computere/barbar-pc/asus-ux501vw-fi020t-156-barbar-pc/p-252287/

 

[mikat]

Just now, Samfisher said:

No M.2 socket in existence can support both SATA and PCIE IMHO.

rlly?

[Samfisher]

@mikat I dono why, my quote button isn't working now, but I may be wrong on that one.  I'm so sleepy ~_~

[mikat]

 

6 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

@mikat I dono why, my quote button isn't working now, but I may be wrong on that one.  I'm so sleepy ~_~

lol, it's 10 am for me

48 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

No M.2 socket in existence can support both SATA and PCIE IMHO.

can you prove this to me? it doesn't sound realistic to me

[Samfisher]

8 minutes ago, mikat said:

 

lol, it's 10 am for me

can you prove this to me? it doesn't sound realistic to me

My bad.  Although all M.2 drives should theoretically work on a M.2 SATA port, it's not always the case.  It's up to the manufacturer if they want to implement this, and from light Googling, most ports only support 1 protocol.

[Dani360c]

59 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

No M.2 socket in existence can support both SATA and PCIE IMHO.

how do i figure out which m.2 connector my laptop has? any software?
 

[Samfisher]

Just now, Dani360c said:

how do i figure out which m.2 connector my laptop has? any software?
 

Hope someone has a high res tear down of your laptop to see which Keying it is, then ask your manufacturer if it's a SATA or PCIE one, not sure

[paddy-stone]

Hmm, thought that as long as your M.2 socketed motherboard supported x4 PCIE speed you were fine with the NVME drives of the same socket type obviously? but would still support regular M.2 drives too?

[exercutor5]

3 hours ago, Dani360c said:

how do i figure out which m.2 connector my laptop has? any software?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW-Notebook-Review.158762.0.html

 

From the pictures in this review, that is a M key notch, which means your laptop supports PCIe x4 SSDs. Most notebook manufacturers won't bother to make a seperate mobo just for this extra PCIe capability. M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSDs will work, NVMe drives may need some drivers here and there.

[Dani360c]

On 3/14/2016 at 1:32 PM, exercutor5 said:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW-Notebook-Review.158762.0.html

 

From the pictures in this review, that is a M key notch, which means your laptop supports PCIe x4 SSDs. Most notebook manufacturers won't bother to make a seperate mobo just for this extra PCIe capability. M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSDs will work, NVMe drives may need some drivers here and there.

thanks, i opened mine and it looks like m key notch too so should work with nvme drive

 

[Carl Martin]

I bought the same computer:

 

Asus Zenbook Pro UX501VW-FI020T

 

...and I think we are lucky when it comes to storage! Read this:

 

"The PCIE x4 drives while benchmarking much faster, don't provide much real world improvement in noticeable performance. The transfers people usually do, loading an app, opening a document, browsing a web page (cache), are all more CPU/GPU intensive than IO intensive, so they won't notice the improvement.

The much higher temps and 2x cost of M.2 PCIE x4 drives makes the M.2 SATA drives look like a bargin, and they are the sweet spot in performance/price for the M.2 SSD's."

 

This opinion is found on this site:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1-tb-m2-2280-drives.786502/

 

I also want more storage then 256 Gb, but I am going to wait for any 1Tb m.2 sata ssd drive to be available in Sweden. Such as:

http://www.storagereview.com/sandisk_launches_the_world_s_thinnest_1tb_m2_ssd
 

Just because of technological interest I think It would be interesting to know if it is possible to install NVMe or a PCIe drive... but I spontaneously think that that would not be possible. And if it was possible, I dont think it would be worth the price, the heat and the battery life. Wait for a 1Tb sata drive instead... and probably you should feel lucky that you actually have the possibility to use an m.2. sata ssd drive instead of only just a m.2 PCIe ssd.

 

Best regards,

Martin

[Ivan_]

On 13/03/2016 at 9:03 AM, Dani360c said:

Hi,

 

I just bought a Zenbook pro UX501VW, with a 256gb M.2 Samsung EVO 850 SSD, which is a little low for me.

2 questions: 

How do i easily upgrade to a bigger M.2 SSD? (laptop only has one slot for storage and i dont know of any usb adapters for M.2 SSDs)

 

Can this laptop take a NVMe ssd, like the Samsung 950 pro? This laptop comes as either the cheap one with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd non-touch or 16 gb ram and 512gb NVMe PCIe ssd with touch.

I was planning on buying the more expensive one but got the cheap one on a sale for almost half the price and dont have to deal with a glossy touch screen and hoped to just upgrade later.

 

 

I'm planning to buy the same version of UX501VW and was also hoping to upgrade it with Samsung 950 NVMe. Eventually I'd like to have dual boot on it with Ubuntu. 

From what I gathered on the net, a touch version with 512GB has SM951 MZVPV512HDGL which is basically the same as 950.

 

Did you managed to upgrade it?

 

Regards,

Ivan