Latitude 5490 support SSD M.2 2242 in the WWAN Slot?

I don't think so.  There were some older Dell systems that allowed this, but I don't think the newer ones do.  Hopefully someone with direct knowledge of the Latitude xx90 series can confirm though.

Thank you

in the Dell Latitude 5490 spec, under Hard Disk category there is related information about the support:

SSD M.2 2242 drive with 64 GB cache (in WWAN slot)   

it mean only NVMe support ? or also sata?

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@tomergam wrote:

Thank you

in the Dell Latitude 5490 spec, under Hard Disk category there is related information about the support:

SSD M.2 2242 drive with 64 GB cache (in WWAN slot)   

it mean only NVMe support ? or also sata?

 

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It's not clear from that description whether either the 2242 drive or the WWAN drive are NVMe or SATA.  Although I've also never seen a cache module being used with another SSD.  Previous Dell systems have used 32GB caches for spinning hard drives, but this is the first I've heard of using caching in front of an SSD.

Just tested this myself (although with a 2280 drive so I couldn't mount it properly) on a Latitude 5490, 8th gen i5.

The WWAN port is also SATA port. It will accept M.2 2242 drives, but not NVMe drives, the M.2 notches are different. This is both bootable and usable as a secondary drive.

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@Ollie.1997 wrote:

Just tested this myself (although with a 2280 drive so I couldn't mount it properly) on a Latitude 5490, 8th gen i5.

The WWAN port is also SATA port. It will accept M.2 2242 drives, but not NVMe drives, the M.2 notches are different. This is both bootable and usable as a secondary drive.

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This conflict with what others have found - that the Latitude 5490 WWAN slot only works with NVMe SSDs and not SATA.  (Note the previous model Latitude 5480 WWAN slot worked with SATA SSDs.)

The notches on a M.2 device can't be used to determine whether it's NVMe.  Case in point:  Toshiba OCZ RC100 NVMe SSD, which has B+M notches in a 2242 package.

What specific 2280 M.2 SSD did you test the WWAN slot with?

@Ydnaroo  Good info, but fyi PCI/NVMe drives are still considered "SSDs".  It sounds like you meant to say "SATA SSD" in the places where you said just "SSD".

Hi. I had a mess about with my 5490 and a selection of drives today and can confirm the the WWAN slot will support both SSD & PCIe/NVMe drives of 2242 format with BM key. However, the system will only support one PCIe/NVMe device at a time. If you have a PCIe/NVMe drive in the main bay you have to use an SSD in the WWAN slot. If there's an SSD in the main drive bay (either 2.5" or M.2) both SSD and PCIe/NVMe drives work in the WWAN slot. If you fit two PCIe/NVMe drives the BIOS only sees the drive in the WWAN slot.

A 2.5" SSD drive comes up a Primary Hard Drive in the BIOS.

An M.2 SSD in the main bay comes up as M.2 SATA in the BIOS.

An M.2 SSD in the WWAN slot comes up as M.2 SATA2 in the BIOS.

An M.2 PCIe/NVMe drive in the main bay comes up as M.2 PCIe SSD-0 in the BIOS.

An M.2 PCIe/NVMe drive in the WWAN slot also comes up as M.2 PCIe SSD-0 in the BIOS.

The drives I tried in the WWAN slot were a WD PC SN520 NVMe 256GB & a Transcend TS256GMTS430S they both worked fine in the right combination.

HTH - Y

@ jphughan Yep I do mean SATA SSD  drives. Sorry about the mistake. Pity there's no edit facility. 

To clarify; if there's an SATA SSD in either of the positions in the drive bay both SATA and PCIe/NVMe SSDs will work in the WWAN slot, if there's a PCIe/NVMe SSD drive in the drive bay only a SATA SSD will work in the the WWAN slot.

Thanks for pointing that out. Y

Hi Ydnaroo!

I wonder if your statement is valid if I have a SATA3 HDD in the main slot and I want to have a NVME 2242 SSD as a boot drive using the WWAN slot.

Thank you in advance for your gentle support.

Regards.

Just to clarify/correct my terminology:

In my experience the real world difference between a SATA SSD and NVME SSD drive is hardly discernible...

Y

Hi.

I'd be very surprised if that didn't work. Any SATA drive on the 2.5" connector in the main bay comes up as 'Primary Hard Drive' in the BIOS. I tested with a 2.5" SATA SSD in the main bay and a NVME in the LAN slot and it worked fine. I cannot imagine there'd be any difference with a mechanical SATA drive in the main bay.  If you have a 2280 NVME drive available you can try it in the LAN slot with the cover off to test.

The only other thing I would say is that if you thought you might want to go to a NVME drive in the main bay in the future it might be worth considering a SATA SSD for the LAN slot instead. In my experience the real world difference between a SATA and NVME drive is hardly discernible - you'll see a big improvement over your mechanical drive either way! A SATA 2242 is probably easier to find if you've not already got the 2242 NVME.

HTH Y

Correction 2!! By LAN slot meant WWAN.

A M.2 Sata 2242 card will fit in this slot and the system will see it as storage. Just did it. No Nvme card i had would key due to the key slot configuration. My 5490 came from the factory with a 120gb m.2 sata preinstalled but an nvme will fit in that slot as a 2280.

Hope this helps and clears thing up for those on the fence like I was

Did it work

Addendum: Under System Configuration/Drives, it only has 2 checkboxes, "SATA-2" and "M.2 PCIe SSD-0" (both are checked).

If I put the Transcend in the main M.2 slot (aka if I remove the 2.5" drive & put it in that slot), it sees it. So it just doesn't seem to see it in the WWAN slot...