Inspiron 5680, NVMe compatibility

Inspiron 5680 is a current model desktop.

If it has a M.2 slot on the motherboard, it should be PCIe/NVMe. Not SATA ... SATA-SSD is older tech and 5-times slower that newer NVMe-SSD.

What is the exact model number of your Hynix 128gb SSD in Device Manager? 

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@z34jcm wrote:

Would eventually like to make the NVMe SSD my boot drive.  

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The Hynix 128gb SSD should already be. There should be plenty of room on it for all Windows and all Programs & Apps (but maybe only one large game).

Sounds like maybe you just need to add a 2.5inch SATA-3/600 SSD ... about 1tb for your game installs and what not.

No spinning drives at all. That would be very cool (and fast).

The M.2 SSD in the slot on the motherboard is : SK Hynix SC311 SATA 128GB.  The PDF's of the manuals (such as they are) seem to conflict--some references are to M.2 SATA; others are to just M.2.  The installed SSD has two keyways on the connector that goes into the motherboard slot.  That is what makes me think the SSD is SATA.

Appreciate your thoughts.

As shown here pp 17:

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/inspiron-5680-gaming-desktop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

That is contradictory to this post:

https://www.dell.com/community/Inspiron-Desktops/Inspiron-5680-M-2-SSD-type-supported/m-p/6043976/highlight/true#M3619

I'm temped to stop posting for now. Since I don't have an actual Inspiron-5680, I have no way of definitively knowing if the motherboard's M.2-slot is SATA and/or NVMe.

To me, it looks like the motherboard has TWO M.2-slots. One appears to be (old school) SATA and the other (near ram dimms) is un-marked. I'm guessing this one is PCIe/NVMe for Optane as Chris-M posts shows.

The picture in the manual is not the motherboard in my 5680 PC.  I have only one m.2 slot on the motherboard.  The PCI slots are in a different order.  There was a version of my PC for sale by Dell with another processor.  The description of that PC did show two M.2 slots.  This is part of my problem--I don't know how accurate the manuals are.  I have asked Dell support the question I posed above.  Support refused to answer it.

My question remains--can a NVMe SSD in an interposing adapter card be functional at the same time as the factory SATA (Hynix) 128GB SSD?

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@z34jcm wrote:

 

1. I don't know how accurate the manuals are. 

2. My question remains--can a NVMe SSD in an interposing adapter card be functional at the same time as the factory SATA (Hynix) 128GB SSD?

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1. There are sometimes a few errors. Obviously , 2 different (drastically different) versions of a MB would be hard to document. Not sure what is happening with all that.

2. Since it's a recent UEFI-based machine, it should work, no problem. You can find-out for $30.

That's probably a SATA SSD.

A simple way to check is with a benchmark tool, such as CrystalDiskMark or similar.

If you get around 500MB/s read and similar or lower write speeds, that means it's SATA.

Re-NVME capability of the slot: My 5675 has two M.2 slots.

The one near the CPU is labeled PCI-e/NVME M.2.
The one near the bottom of the board is labeled SATA M.2.

So you can take the SSD out of the socket and see what the label on the slot says.

There is an extensive review of the Inspiron 5680 with that motherboard model number in Japanese here.  Google translation to English here.  The motherboard model number is shown in one of the images.  The motherboard layout IS different from the one shown on Dell's English support site. 

They describe M.2 slot as (Google translations):

• "Although M.2 SSD with SATA connection is used by default, the slot itself corresponds to PCIe / Optane"
• "M.2 slot (PCIe / Optane compatible)"
• "...M.2 slot (PCIe compatible) etc. are prepared as expansion slots"

The unit as reviewed was shipped with a M.2 SATA SSD.

Dell's English Support site spec (pg. 21, 22) says:

• Intel Optane memory:  Interface: PCIe NVMe 3.0 x2,  Connector: M.2
• Storage:  PCIe/NVMe for Solid-state drive,  Intel Optane for Solid-state drive;  Solid-state drive:  One M.2 drive

My interpretation of all this is that any model of the Inspiron 5680 has a single M.2 slot that would support a M.2 device that's either SATA, Optane memory, or a NVMe SSD.  M.2 PCIe/NVMe support per Dell's spec is likely limited to PCIe 3.0 x2 (so, around 1700 Mb/s speed). 

Configuring M.2 NVMe SSDs can be tricky even if fully supported - everything has to be lined up just right.

Not sure which motherboard it is, but here's a user getting a Samsung 960 EVO (M.2 NVMe SSD) to work in an Inspiron 5680 here.  Dell comments as a follow-up that it was shipped with M.2 Optane NVMe memory or M.2 SATA SSDs.

I also got a Samsung 970 EVO- NVMe M.2 to show up in the BIOS but I just didn’t have allot of time to get it to work in order to install a fresh copy of Windows from USB flash drive.

I wish the person who successfully got the Samsung 960 to work would have listed his systems CPU type.

If his is the i5 or i7 it’s probably the same motherboard as mine and would work as well.

5680 i7 Samsung 860 SATA SSD5680 i7 Motherboard

Oh, if the M.2 slot doesn't give full PCIe 3.0 x4 speed (about 3500 Mb/s) with a NVMe SSD like a Samsung 970, a M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe adapter in the Inspiron 5680's PCIe x4 slot would probably do it.  Motherboard images in the Service Manual only show all x1 PCIe expansion slots, but Spec manual explicitly says (pg. 16):

5  PCI-Express X4 slot

Connect a PCI-Express card such as graphics, audio, or network card to enhance the capabilities of your computer.

So, I decided to try and install the Samsung 970 again in my Dell 5680 and this time it worked simply by changing one thing in the BIOS.

I installed the Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD into my Dell Inspiron 5680 with Intel Core i7-8700.

(There is only one 2280 slot on motherboards with Intel i5 and i7 processors).

The AMD motherboards have two 2280 slots I believe. 

I booted into the BIOS and changed the SATA Operation from RAID to AHCI.

Then I installed Windows 10 successfully from USB flash drive. 

From start to finish the Windows install took less than 5 minutes.

So it seems the Intel motherboards will work fine with Samsung 860 or Samsung 970 SSD's. 

5680 Samsung 970 SSD5680 BIOS Setting for 970

Great!  Looks like full PCIe 3.0 x4 performance of 3500 MB/s with a M.2 NVMe SSD in the Dell Inspiron 5680 native M.2 slot.

BTW, the reason AHCI works with a new Windows 10 install is that Windows natively has drivers for AHCI - not so with RAID.  A new Windows install can be done in RAID mode, but Intel RST drivers have to be injected.

I just bought the 5680 and took the panel off. That slot sits under the back of the GPU. Did you remove the GPU?