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JamesKeen820
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March 12th, 2025 09:33
Does the Dell Precision 3650 Tower Support Two Gen 4 M.2 Drives Simultaneously?
Hi Everybody
I have an older Dell Precision 3650 Tower (11th Gen i7 Processor) with the following storage configuration:
- 500GB M.2 Gen 3 boot drive
- 1TB SATA 2.5-inch SSD
- 4TB SATA 3.5-inch HDD
I'm would like to upgrade the M.2 Gen 3 boot drive to a Gen 4 and replace the 1TB SATA SSD with a 2TB Gen 4 M.2 drive.
Does the 3650 support running two Gen 4 drives simultaneously? Or would it be better to opt for a more affordable 2TB Gen 3 drive?
The spec manual lists support for the below, but does that mean it can handle them at the same time both running Gen 4 speeds?
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Posted March 12th, 2025 13:47
The specs state the following:
Your computer supports one of the following configurations:
- One M.2 2230, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 35 SSD (slot 1)
- One M.2 2230, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 35 SSD (slot 1) with one M.2 2280, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD (slot 2)
- One M.2 2280, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Classs 40 SSD (slot 1)
- One M.2 2280, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Classs 40 SSD (slot 1) with M.2 2280, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD (slot 2)
- One M.2 2280, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD (slot 2)
- One M.2 2280, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD, Self-encrypting drive (slot 1)
- One M.2 2280, Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD, Self-encrypting drive (slot 1) with one M.2 2280, Gen 4 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 SSD (slot 2)
So one Gen 3 and one Gen 4 but not two Gen 4 SSD since slot 1 is a Gen 3 slot.
I am not a Dell employee...I am forum volunteer
Serious work on an E5430 and constantly building and working on an i5-6500 Desktop
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Posted March 12th, 2025 20:30
@JOcean Thankyou for that its very informative. Just a couple of follow up questions.
1. So no matter what slot 1 (the one nearest the CPU that is only active with 11th gen Intel chips) will only ever be gen 3?
2. Could I run the boot drive in slot 2 as gen 4 then?
3. The specs have two dot points which state both "up to 1TB" and "up to 2TB". Does this mean the maximum nvme storage capacity is 1 or 2tb? I would like to run a 2tb drive but the specs are not 100% clear to me.
Any chance you could clarify what the self sheet is saying there?
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Posted March 13th, 2025 01:28
So in order:
1. Exactly true.
2. Correct, slot 2 can be a boot drive slot.
3. Dell has listed those limits because it is the largest SSD they tested in the laptop. But you can go up to 4TB and Crucial's web page confirms that fact.
I am not a Dell employee...I am forum volunteer
Serious work on an E5430 and constantly building and working on an i5-6500 Desktop
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Posted March 13th, 2025 09:02
The 4.0 SSD will function in the 3.0 interface/slot. It is backwards compatible. But will operate only as 3.0 device/performance. That is, if Dell is doing BIOS/firmware right.
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Posted March 23rd, 2025 07:38
If you can source Gen3 then use it, personally I don't use backward compatible hardware.
JamesKeen820
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Posted March 14th, 2025 11:05
@JOcean Just an update on this one.
So I purchased a Gen4 m.2 drive and tried it in Slot 2 as suggested, hoping for Gen4 speeds. However it was only registered as a Gen3. I moved it to Slot 1 (the one previously mentioned as nearest the CPU, only active with 11th gen Intel chips) and got full Gen4 compatibility and confirmed speeds of 6223mbps in a benchmark. I can only assume that slot 1 is the gen4 slot after all.
Just for the record if anyone sees this in the future, this is the Dell Precision 3650 Tower