I want to upgrade my current stock NVMe to something like this Samsung NVMe. My laptop is an Asus FX553VE.
However I am totally confused about what is compatible with my laptop and what isn't. The connector of my current NVMe is SATA according to the amazon listing, all other NVMe's I can find have a different looking (PCIe?) connector. The last comment of this forum post says that I should use PCIe connectors. The manual of my laptop only mentions the M.2 formfactor but no further specifics.
So my questions are:
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Is the above mentioned samsung NVMe SSD compatible with my laptop?
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If yes, why are the connectors named differently and why do they look different? Is the M.2 formfactor the only relevant criteria here?
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If no, what is the exact name of my stock connector? I thought SATA connectors are the ones for bigger harddrives and SSDs. What do I have to look for when searching a compatible NVMe SSD?
Best Answer
It can be really confusing as web-shops and advertisements often are very sloppy with terminology.
When you are talking about M.2 connectors the term SATA just refers to the data-transfer protocol between motherboard and the storage device inserted in the M.2 slot.
M.2 slots can provide a SATA interface or a NVMe interface (which is essentially a PCIe 4x interface) or both.
(The main difference is speed. NVMe with 4 PCIe lanes has several times faster data-throughput than SATA.)
Older motherboards (like in your laptop) with M.2 slots ONLY provide SATA.
NVMe is available on newer motherboards.
Some (usually high-end) motherboards provide both interfaces on the M.2 connector and will automatically operate as one or the other depending on the type of SSD inserted in the slot.
(Or will fall back to SATA if not enough PCIe lanes are available because other hardware, like a 2nd video-card, is using them.)
Your laptop is an older model that only provides SATA on the M.2 connector.
A M.2 NVMe SSD will NOT be compatible with your laptop.
You will need a M.2 SATA SSD (like the original one).
M.2 SATA is also often referred to as mSATA. This is incorrect as mSATA is on older and incompatible standard that uses a mini-PCI connector in stead of the M.2 connector.
You have to keep that in mind when shopping for a compatible SSD.
If you see mSATA mentioned double-check if it is M.2 or not.
Finding a reasonable large M.2 SATA SSD can be difficult.
As far as I know 1 TB is the biggest size they come in.