Is NVMe M.2 compatible with ACHI?

[cincomeister]

Greeting,

 

I'm planning on adding an M.2 NVMe to my laptop with PCIe Gen.3 supported. I'm eyeing on the Samsung 970 Evo M.2 250gb. Is my laptop compatible with the M.2, and if it does, will i face bottle-necking in some ways. (i ask because i don't know much about this stuff). Other question, if i installed it into my laptop, do i need to configure some settings before install an OS or just straight up install Windows on the drive?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Stefan Payne]

12 minutes ago, udyrisop said:

Is my laptop compatible with the M.2, and if it does, will i face bottle-necking in some ways.

Nobody knows because:

a) youd didn't mention your Laptop

b) even if, we don't know...

 

So the question is:

a) does your Notebook have an M.2 Slot?

b) what does the Manufacturer say about the M.2 Slot?
Do they state AHCI/SATA SSDs or do they state PCIe SSDs?

[cincomeister]

3 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Nobody knows because:

a) youd didn't mention your Laptop

b) even if, we don't know...

 

So the question is:

a) does your Notebook have an M.2 Slot?

b) what does the Manufacturer say about the M.2 Slot?
Do they state AHCI/SATA SSDs or do they state PCIe SSDs?

Here's the specification of my laptop from the MSI's Website.

but when i went to UEFI's advanced setting, the default setting is AHCI.
I hope the picture can answer your questions.

[Stefan Payne]

Yeah seems to be compatible.

1 minute ago, udyrisop said:

Here's the specification of my laptop from the MSI's Website.

but when i went to UEFI's advanced setting, the default setting is AHCI.
I hope the picture can answer your questions.

Yeah, seems to be compatible.

That you don't have any settings for that is because it isn't there.

 

NVMe is just PCIe. You can't have any setting for any card you haven't installed yet. And NVMe is equal to a PCIe Card.

[cincomeister]

So, short answer is i can upgrade to NVMe, and install Windows on the SSD straight away?

[Auror]

Yeah, you can. Your laptop should fully utilize an NVMe drive. When you get your drive, just make sure everything looks right in UEFI and you'll be good to go.

[cincomeister]

6 minutes ago, Auror said:

just make sure everything looks right in UEFI and you'll be good to go.

I'm sorry, but what do you mean by that? As in, the NVMe drive shows up in the UEFI?

[Auror]

Just now, udyrisop said:

I'm sorry, but what do you mean by that?

When you install the drive, just make sure it shows up as NVMe in UEFI before installing Windows.

[cincomeister]

Just now, Auror said:

just make sure it shows up as NVMe in UEFI before installing Windows.

Thanks, but in theory i wouldn't have to make anything changes to the setting in the UEFI, right?

[Auror]

1 minute ago, udyrisop said:

Thanks, but in theory i wouldn't have to make anything changes to the setting in the UEFI, right?

Correct, but it's always good to double check. Wouldn't wanna install everything, then realize your mobo defaulted to AHCI for some random reason.

[cincomeister]

Thank you so much guys!

[Stefan Payne]

Best case is you move the other storage device (=Harddrive) and only have the one drive inside for installing and after you're done with that, you add the old drive to the machine.

[cincomeister]

2 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Best case is you move the other storage device (=Harddrive) and only have the one drive inside for installing and after you're done with that, you add the old drive to the machine.

Is it necessary if i clean install Windows on the Drive? Plus, i'm going to wipe my old harddrive clean.

[Stefan Payne]

Just now, udyrisop said:

Is it necessary if i clean install Windows on the Drive?

It is recommended, yes.

Because it might happen that you accidentally set the boot order wrong so that Windows boots from the HDD and then starts Windows from the SSD wich is kinda bullshit.

 

To prevent this issue, I recommend to disconnect the other drive.

And since you don't need it anyway for this, it shouldn't be a problem, should it?

[Auror]

It'll make things easier mainly. You're going to wipe your current drive as well correct? Also, does your laptop currently have an HDD or a regular m.2 ssd?

 

[cincomeister]

1 minute ago, Auror said:

It'll make things easier mainly. You're going to wipe your current drive as well correct? Also, does your laptop currently have an HDD or a regular m.2 ssd?

 

My laptop currently running on a 7200rpm mechanical drive.

[Auror]

Gotcha, yeah pull it out like he said. I would migrate any data you wanna save from that drive somewhere else, then format it and replace the data.

[cincomeister]

Thank guys, i'll try my best not to break anything. Have a nice day!