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Adding 2nd M.2 SSD to Precision 7510
I just purchased a Precision 7510 laptop. I ordered it with the following primary drive and no secondary drive:
- 400-AILW 256GB M.2 PCIe High Performance Solid State Drive, MPWS
I'd like to add a second M.2 NVMe drive (perhaps a Samsung 950 Pro) in the 2.5" drive slot. When ordering the laptop, it was an option to get a high performance M.2 NVMe drive with "Interposer". Does anybody know the part number for this "Interposer"? Are there any other parts that I'll need to make this work?
Thanks!
DELL-Justin C
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May 12th, 2016 10:00
@Jake Gua,
I've accepted your friend request.
I'm also seeing if I can get some documentation regarding the speed.
sokofromnz
6 Posts
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May 17th, 2016 07:00
Great thread and awesome support Justin!
I'd like to get the parts (I'll friend request you).
Just one hint: In your solution you say "Interposer board - shown in yellow". Yellow is the heat sink, the board is green afaict.
thx!
Soko
Chaos Engine
5 Posts
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June 19th, 2016 15:00
Friend you as instructed, I need to add a 2nd M.2 PCIe to my 7510 as well.
someone02818
2 Posts
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June 23rd, 2016 07:00
If the price and speed info has been determined, could it be posted here? I expect a new 7510 tomorrow and will likely want to do this upgrade as well. Thanks!
someone02818
2 Posts
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June 30th, 2016 10:00
Thanks, Justin. Without full speed support, I don't really care about pricing. Really appreciate the info you provide!
DELL-Justin C
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June 30th, 2016 10:00
@Someone02818,
I do know so far that M.2 NVME drives installed into the 2.5 bay do not work at full 4x speed. I'm currently trying to find out what the technical reason is for this limit. I suspect SATA express may not be supported through the 2.5 inch bay. I'll know for sure in the future and will get back.
As for the price, I don't share that in forums since prices can change. You are welcome to send me a friend request with your information and I'll see what I can do.
DELL-Justin C
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June 30th, 2016 10:00
@Someone02818,
Understood. Glad to work with the community on this.
I hope you're liking your 7510.
Jake Gua
7 Posts
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July 1st, 2016 04:00
I own a 7510 and Justin has been working with me on swapping the M.2 nvme drive to the 2.5 Drive Bay for a while. I can say that Justin is a top-notch person. My nvme drive went from 1x4 lane speed in the Stock M.2 drive bay to 2x4 Lane speed in the two and a half inch Drive Bay. Then when I moved it back to the stock M.2 drive bay it went to 4x4 lanes (full speed). So I believe four lanes is supported in the 2.5" drive by and would guarantee it's just a driver issue. It's worth buying the parts and moving the drive back and forth as sometimes Windows does funky things with drivers. This was all done woth the May BIOS update, the system in AHCI NOT RAID, and the Samsung 950 Pro driver and Magician software (to performance test). Because this system comes with bloatware installed, esp. Intel RAID software, I would be very inclined to believe that a fresh OS install with the proper drivers and very minimal ancillary software installs would allow full 4x4 lane M.2 NVMe drive operation in the stock drive bay as well as the 2.5" drive bay. Many thanks to Justin for finding all of this information out in the first place and starting this very helpful and interesting post!
sokofromnz
6 Posts
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July 1st, 2016 11:00
@someone02818:
I can tell you about the price as I've ordered and already received my parts.
I hope thats OK as I'm trying just to give rough prices... If not please tell me or edit the post accordingly.
In particular Ive got Y1WJX, WPTND and HR8P8 and payed ~110.- EUR for it including everything (shipped to door).
I did skip for the five M2x3 screws (4270E) as they are ~100.- EUR alone (thats no mistake or typo, Ive checked ;) ). I think I can get those screws somewhere cheaper...
Cant say anything about speed as I'm not planing to use the parts yet. I just want to have them here once there is a 1TB NVMe out.
dabecker-pacifi
1 Message
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August 9th, 2016 16:00
Jake,
Have you received a reply to your questions? I would like to also know the cost and whether the drives operate at full PCIe x4 speeds.
Thanks
Jake Gua
7 Posts
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August 9th, 2016 17:00
Hi,
Officially, no answer. But Justin did email me last week and tell me that he had not forgotten about the question. I can tell you that the SSD bay, with the proper adapter parts (around $80) can support speeds way beyond SATA. In my system I just moved my M.2 from the M.2 slot (which was only performing at x2 speed at the time) into the SSD bay, and the thing stayed at x2 speed. The thing operated great and you definitely see a speed difference from a normal SATA SSD to M.2. Then, I moved it backj into the M.2 bay, and magically, Windblows 10 found the proper driver (Samsung, which was already installed) and it started operating at x4 speed. So in short, you Will definitely reap benefits from installing an M.2 drive in the SSD bay. It is just a driver issue and I strongly believe it is fully capable of x4 speed.
sokofromnz
6 Posts
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August 10th, 2016 00:00
Hi Jake,
I'm just curious how you test if its a x2 or x4 speed. Is it just a reading of a windows/driver parameter or do you do benchmark tests? Which software do you use?
thx
Jake Gua
7 Posts
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August 10th, 2016 04:00
Using the Samsung Magician software available for free on their website. After I imaged the new 950 Pro, I installed the driver, then switched from RAID to AHCI in the BIOS upon reboot. The drive was testable using the benchmark section of the Magician software.
aprit
1 Message
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August 14th, 2016 07:00
Hello, I have the opposite question, I have second M2 drive installed in 7710 workstation, so all above hardware already in place. I'd like to add sata drive in addition to M2. Is it doable? According to 7710 spec it's possible, how can I do it. (now feel frustrated that I have not order it from the beginning)
Thank you for the answer
DELL-Justin C
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August 18th, 2016 18:00
@Community,
I can now confirm for you that the 2.5 inch bay is wired for 2x only. I got that straight fro Dell engineering. Explains the speed difference between the slots.
@Aprit,
Per your question, I'm looking into the requirements regarding installing a 3rd drive into 7710. I'll get something written up on it. I was just using my premier page to customize one and the page mandated that all drives must me M.2. I'll get back when I can.