Inspiron 13 5378 SSD upgrade

You need to move to the 7000 series to have an M.2 socket - the 5000 and 3000 series do not have them.  You'll need to replace the hard drive with a 2.5" SSD.

According to the manual for the Inspiron 13 5378 there is suppose to be an internal M.2 slot. topics-cdn.dell.com/.../inspiron-13-5378-2-in-1-laptop_setup guide_en-us.pdf

I'm suppose to receive one in a few days and plan to upgrade to to an SSD I already have that uses the M.2 interface.

Looks like the manual for the Inspiron 13 is WRONG. I just checked the internals for the 5378 that arrived and did not find an extra m.2 slot. It was being used by the bluetooth/wirless card, which is what the manual for the Inspiron 15 5578 mentions correctly topics-cdn.dell.com/.../inspiron-15-5578-2-in-1-laptop_setup guide_en-us.pdf

Dell needs to correct the Inspiron 13 5378 manual so more people aren't disappointed...

well i know that both wifi/bt and ssd use M.2 slot, just not same interface tho. I think that slot is specific for wireless card only. I'm so disappointed too, just bought mine today. 

Hi pamtaro,

Thanks for posting.

As you pointed out in the manual.  There is one M.2 slot.  It is currently occupied by the WLAN card.  It has not been tested for use as an SSD slot.  Thanks for bringing the manual to our attention, I'll pass that along to the team that handles the manuals.

I have the same question? Will replacing my Dell supplied HDD with a Samsung EVO 850 void my warranty and/or Windows License?

Were you able to test if a PCIE 3x4 ssd works in fit inside the wireless card slot ?

The wireless card slot will not take a PCIe/NVMe SSD.

If you look at the service manual for the 7378, it's M.2 only - there is no 2.5" drive bay inside.

www.dell.com/.../manuals

Uggh, I have been bitten by this issue, too.  I ordered a 5378 in early December when it was on sale.  I did my homework beforehand--at least I thought I did!!!--and made the purchase because the setup and specifications document said it had an M.2 slot for an SSD card.  My plan was to keep the 1TB drive just for data, and put the OS on the SSD.  But when I was upgrading the memory the other day, I could not find an available M.2 slot, which made me do some more searching here where I found this thread.

This is frustrating from my perspective--if you can't count on the official setup and specifications guide to be correct, what can you count on?  The sad part is that Dell has still not updated the guide--if you download the 5378 setup and specifications document today, it still says on page 15 that the system has an M.2 slot for an SSD card.

Anyway, this leads to the following question about the 7378, which does have two M.2 slots including one for an SSD.  Since it is exactly the same form factor as the 5378, it should also have a 2.5" bay.  So can somebody with a 7378 confirm that filling the 2.5" bay in addition to the M.2 SSD would be possible?  Or does something preclude this, like the M.2 SSD would physically obstruct a 2.5" drive, or the 2.5" bay might not actually have an SATA connector?

In sum, can anybody confirm that the 7378 can actually support an M.2 SSD and 2.5" drive simultaneously?  Thanks for any guidance that you may be able to provide!

Hi ejn63.  I have looked in the 7378 manual, and where the 2.5" bay sits in the 5378, there appears to be a spacer (plastic?) and black flap in the 7378.  Since these are close to equivalent machines, my guess is that there is no extra equipment or functionality in the 2.5" bay of the 7378 that is missing in the 2.5" bay of the 5378.  Hence the interpretation of the spacer makes sense.  But my concern is whether a drive in the 2.5" bay would physically impede the M.2 SSD--I'm wondering if the M.2 SSD can actually sit on top of it (i.e. the 2.5" drive).  The other concern would be the possibility that they didn't actually include a SATA connector on the mobo--if they didn't, the space in the 2.5" bay wouldn't make a difference.  Its not easy to tell from the service manual images because closeups of those areas don't exist, and they also have the semi-transparent white overlay.