Question Looking to upgrade my Desktop and Laptop and Need Help Finding Compatible NVME drives

[KevinH]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade both my desktop and laptop and am wondering which ones are compatible. My ideal situation would be to upgrade the desktop SSD and pop the old drive into my laptop.

My desktop has a Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-Z170N Gaming 5 ITX board. According to Device Manager, the hard drive in my desktop is an NVME Samsung SSD 950.

My laptop is a dell XPS 9365 with a Toshiba Thnsn5256gpuk 256gb NVMe PCIi 2280 m2 SSD Drive. Are these compatible? If so, what are some options as far as SSD's to purchaser?

If they're NOT compatible, what are the respective difference I need to look out for when upgrading the both of them.

I haven't build a desktop in ages so I'm clueless as to the nomenclature. I'm reading Gen 4, Gen 3, NVMe, M2, keys and sockets. It's really fucking frustrating tbh.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

To my understanding they are all backwards compatible. Only AMD x570 boards have pcie 4.0 so skip those mainly because they cost more.
I’d guess any 3.0 device would work fine.

Edit: there is some sort of form factor number as in how long the drive is. I believe that is the 2280 number but I’m not positive.

Explanation here:

The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives for 2023

Thanks to the "gumstick" M.2 format, SSDs have been shrinking—and getting a lot faster, too. Here's how to buy the right M.2 SSD, along with deep-dive reviews of today's top models.

www.pcmag.com

 

[Shmee]

The 950 Pro should work fine in your laptop. As for a replacement for your desktop, I would recommend going with the Sabrent Rocket. I have the PCIe 4 version, though my mobo doesn't yet support gen 4. Still hoping for a BIOS mod...
Anyway, https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Rocket-Internal-Performance-SB-ROCKET-1TB/dp/B07LGF54XR

 

[bonehead123]

You will need to research the different terminologies of M.2/nvme drives to make a sound decision on what to buy, because not all of them are created equal....google is your friend

However, 2280 is merely one of the phycical sizes of the sticks and the space allotted to their slots, which virtually all desktop mobos will support, but perhaps not older laptops, due to space constraints in some...

Just don't make the mistake of getting an "M.2 SATA" drive, as they are no better than 2.5" SATA 3 and have a slightly different key slot than nvme drives, and they are NOT interchangable!

SInce you are on intel systems, forget about Gen 4, as AMD is currently the only platform that has it, and only on their newest systems (X570/590), which are hella expensive and just coming to market now.

You can go for a cheap 1TB drive with ZERO or very litte DRAM cache, for ~$100. And be perfectly fine IF you do not do much in the way of large file transfers, or any other tasks that hit the drive alot for temporary files....

OTHO, you can go upscale like Sammy or WD Blacks, for closer to $150-200 and gain better performance overall, better warranty, and most likely better support from the mfgr in terms of toolbox utilities and other software to maintain and optimze your drives...

 

[Muadib]

To my understanding they are all backwards compatible. Only AMD x570 boards have pcie 4.0 so skip those mainly because they cost more.
I’d guess any 3.0 device would work fine.

Edit: there is some sort of form factor number as in how long the drive is. I believe that is the 2280 number but I’m not positive.

Explanation here:

The Best M.2 Solid-State Drives for 2023

Thanks to the "gumstick" M.2 format, SSDs have been shrinking—and getting a lot faster, too. Here's how to buy the right M.2 SSD, along with deep-dive reviews of today's top models.

www.pcmag.com

You are correct. The 2280 number is the length of the drive, and it's something he will need to know for the laptop. I'm sure there must be some, but I have yet to see a desktop motherboard that couldn't fit a 2280 drive.