XPS 8900, adding M.2 SSD

I agree with JOcean. If issues pop up you may come back to overcome those.

@JoeM21

I have replied to you from a private message.

-Gautam.

The plan should work just fine. I have done this procedure many times without a hitch. This YouTube video is very clear and explains how to go about with the clone process.

Hi,

Please share the Service tag of the system (from a private message) if you need any further assistance from our end.

-Gautam.

@JoeM21 You should read this post before considering an M.2 SSD for your XPS 8900. The post indicates that the M.2 SSD slot is (PCIe 3.0 x 1) 250 MB/s whereas SATA III is 600 MB/s so a 2.5" SATA SSD connected to a SATA III port should perform better than an M.2 SSD installed in the M.2 SSD slot.

Hi, for those who may be interested, here's a recap so far:

I installed this 2TB NVMe SSD into the M.2 slot on my 8900 motherboard.  This SSD was recommended by a Dell agent during a chat session.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/pny-cs3030-solid-state-drive-2-tb-internal-m2-2280-pci-express/apd/aa706308/storage-drives-media

Installation was easy, but the SSD requires a M2X2.5MM X 4.5MM (Dell p/n P142N) to hold it in place, which the Dell chat technician did not tell me.  After doing some research, I was able to buy this screw on Amazon. Also, I have a Radeon R9 370 graphics card which I had to remove in order to get access to the M.2 slot.  After I installed the SSD, I then re-attached the Radeon graphics card. After SSD installation, the PC booted normally and I used Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD to the SDD, and then changed the BIOS boot order to start with the SSD. Everything worked fine, and I've been operational for several days now with no issues.

Other posts have suggested that the 8900 M.2 port cannot support the max transfer speeds of the x4 SSD. This looks to be true.  This SSD that I installed is capable of max sequential read/write speeds of 3500/3100 MB/s, but CrystalDiskMark testing and my own measurement of file copies using Win10 task manager show that I'm only getting read/write speeds of 850/820 MB/s.  Still, it's much better than my old 7200 rpm HDD, and my system performance and Win10 boot times have significantly improved.

Slower speeds but still faster than a SATA drive, even an SSD SATA drive. This YouTube video may interest you as it deals with speeds and speed perception in the real world.

@JoeM21 Thanks for the update. It appears that the M.2 SSD slot is PCIe v3.0 x 1 which is about 985 MB/s instead of PCIe v1.0 x 1 which is 250 MB/s.

Update:

In hopes of getting the full transfer speed of the SSD, I removed the SSD from the M.2 port and installed it in the x4 slot using a M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter card.  Prior to making this change, I went into the BIOS and set my old HDD as the primary boot drive.  After installation, the PC boots up without any issue, and the SSD shows up as the H: drive in file explorer.  However, when I reboot into the BIOS to make the SSD the boot drive, the SSD does not show up in the boot sequence list.  Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get the BIOS to recognize the SSD?  Thanks!

Hi,I see you’re looking for technical assistance. If you require our help, you could initiate a private/direct message with us, and we’d be glad to assist you.

Update:

Success!  I re-cloned the SSD using Macrium Reflect, re-booted into BIOS, and the BIOS recognized the SSD drive.  I was able to make the SSD the primary boot drive and the PC restarted with no issues. CrystalBenchMark reports the SSD, installed in the PCIe x4 slot, is delivering 3000+ MB/s read/write performance as the primary boot drive.  My work is done.