NGFF / M.2 compatibility on W550S / T550

[SoundChaos]

It appears from posts I've read that the W540 and possibly even the W541 are compatible with Transcend and MyDigitalSSD 42mm M.2 cards of all capacities and thicknesses, but I am unable to find information regarding the W550S / T550 compatibility specifics. I was able to find at one point where it was referenced that they are compatible only with "Single Sided" 2242 / 42mm M.2 drives, and single / double sided doesn't appear to be a commonly listed spec on these drives. I'm going to ignore the fact that lenovo states it should only be used as a cache drive, as they have always said that for M.2 in thinkpads, and it seems to always work as a boot drive anyways.

I'm most interested in adding a 256gb ADATA SP900 2242 drive (fastest consumer one available I can find),  but I'm afraid it might not fit. I'd love to hear some more peoples experiences with these particular thinkpads or with M.2 42mm compatibility in general.

[ColonelONeill]

T550/W550s HMM doesn't seem to list it either.
http://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t550_w550s_hmm_en_sp40g55010_01.pdf

On the plus side it looks like you can have two of them if you don't want a WWAN card.

[chx]

> On the plus side it looks like you can have two of them if you don't want a WWAN card.

I thought the mSATA capability was removed when M.2 was added. Do you have antyhing to say otherwise? I would be glad if it would be otherwise! I really don't understand why, the cost would be minimal, the chips have plenty of SATA ports and the "Pro Dock" have lost the eSATA port too. Does Lenovo have something against SATA? Not to mention that the T550 does not have Thunderbolt, not even as an option.

I never heard of single/double sided M.2 either. M.2 has enough problems without sides: there are a billion various sizes (2242 and 2280 being the most common, that is 22*42 mm/80mm) and also the connection can be PCIe or SATA. Does anyone have solid info as to what size and bus the T550 uses?

[fb1996]

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chx wrote:

I thought the mSATA capability was removed when M.2 was added. [...] I really don't understand why

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Because mSATA is deprecated...

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chx wrote:

Does anyone have solid info as to what size and bus the T550 uses?

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The T550 has three M.2 slots.
One M.2 2230 slot for the WLAN module, one M.2 2242 slot for either a WWAN module or a SSD and another M.2 2242 slots only for SSDs.

As far as I know, there are only SATA based M.2 SSDs with a length of 42mm availaible (there is no PCIe based M.2 SSDs with 42mm yet) at the present moment, so one of these SSDs is the only option.

[chx]

o_O I never knew M.2 had USB pins! Very interesting. So then we can have three SATA SSDs in the T550 much like in the T420 just two are very size constrained :/ and that's why it's such pity that mSATA is deprecated: there are 1TB disks in mSATA size now.

[SoundChaos]

Due to I still couldn't find any definitive information, I purchased the Adata SP900 2242 256gb SSD, fully aware that I might have to eat a restocking fee. The laptop should arrive Friday night, and I will let everyone know how it went, including how easy/hard it is to defy Lenovo's reccomendations and set the M.2. up as the boot drive.

[SoundChaos · Accepted solution]

I installed the ADATA SP900 256gb 2242 M.2. SSD into my W550s with 0 issues! Setting it to boot device was super easy, and I get advertised speeds in crystaldisk mark.

As a note, the ADATA SSD I am using is indeed "Double Sided" and it still fts and works fine. It's also quite true that if you don't have the WAN card installed for broadband, you can definitely fit 2x M.2. SSD's in this laptop, but you can NOT specify them to be in AHCI or RAID modes.

[chx]

Awesome. When you installed, was there more physical space at the SSD slot or it's a completely lost cause to hack in a 2280?

[SoundChaos]

Link to image
 

Here is a shot of the inside of my W550s. There does appear to be more room for the main M.2. Slot for a 2280 form factor, but there is no screw to hold it in place. It would be risky business to hack it in, but it does seem possible. You can clearly see where the other M.2. Slot is with the plastic tip covered WAN wires.

Moderator note: large image(s) converted to link(s):  About Posting Pictures In The Forums

[Darren2]

Many thanks to SoundChaos for taking the plunge and publishing the results.

I do however see where this thread is going with 2280 questions and provide the following temper to your enthusiasm:

M.2 is a physical specification that facilitates the capability to host various interfaces, it doesn't mean all of those interfaces are implemented in a particular device.

The Adata SP900 M.2 described in this thread is a SATA III device attached through the M.2 physical form factor. Any SATA III device whether connected through M.2 or any other physical form factor will be constrained by the SATA III data rate.

Other M.2 SSDs such as the Plextor M6e, Samsung XP641 and Samsung SM951 are M.2 physical form factor but the interface is (in order) x2 PCIe 2.0, x4 PCIe 2.0 and x4 PCIe 3.0 not SATA.

The headling grabbing M.2 SSD speeds are x4 PCIe 3.0 and are typically 2280 M.2 form factor.

Just because SoundChaos had success with a SATA M.2 is no indication that the W550S/T550 support PCIe M.2.

Since the CPU doesn't support PCIe 3.0 neither will the W550S/T550.

So even if you do get a 2280 to physically fit in your W550S/T550 you won't be enjoying Samsung SM951 speeds.