NVMe support on the X1 Carbon

[cavolaccio]

Dear all,

does the X1C3 support real NVMe SSDs, like the just released Samsung SM951-NVMe?

Please note that the PCIe SSD option provided by Lenovo is not a real NVMe SSD: it still is an AHCI drive, even if connects to the PCIe bus.

Thanks!

[someotherguy · Accepted solution]

X1C 3rd-gen does NOT support NVMe SSD.  There is not currently any ThinkPad that supports NVMe.  This support will come in a future ThinkPad.

[w0qj]

Please see:

www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-sm951-nvme-versus-ahci-sata,4137.html

In the Conclusion section, the reviewer stated that the new "NVMe" version of SM951 (NVMe version) *DOES*NOT* boot up in the X1 Carbon Generation 3 (2015 version).

I really wish that future X1 BIOS update would allow for NVMe SSD suuport !

(Pease count this as a Feature Request !)

[MarcoVillasenor]

Are there any plans to release NVMe support for X1 Carbon Gen 3 (2015)? I know it was posted there is no support but after almost a year from this comment perhaps Lenovo decided to let us use NVMe SSDs.

Thanks,

Marco

[someotherguy]

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MarcoVillasenor wrote:

Are there any plans to release NVMe support for X1 Carbon Gen 3 (2015)? I know it was posted there is no support but after almost a year from this comment perhaps Lenovo decided to let us use NVMe SSDs.

---

No.  There is no possibility to retrofit previous ThinkPad to use NVMe SSD.

[MarcoVillasenor]

Thank you for the quick reply!

[w0qj]

1. The short answer is "no", since Lenovo rolled out X1 Carbon Generation 4 (Jan 2016) which supports NVMe SSD,

there is apparently little or no incentive for Lenovo to allow X1 Carbon Generation 3 (Jan 2015) to allow NVMe support.

2. The longer answer, which leads to other intriguing questions:

www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2958853/carbon-3rd-gen-nvme-support.html

Back in Feb 2016, another user of X1 Carbon Generation 3 (Jan 2016) installed a NVMe version of this SSD: M.2 SSD to the Samsung 950 Pro, apparently this SSD already had pre-installed Windows on it.

The user was able to run Windows on this computer/SSD combo.

~But the catch was that every time user boot up from this NVMe SSD, there was that BIOS error "2103: Detection error on SSD0 (M.2) Press ESC to continue".

~But upon pressing ESC to continue, computer proceeded to load Windows (version unknown?) onto this X1 Carbon Generation 3.

***This suggests that NVMe support can be added into BIOS of X1 Carbon Generation 3, if Lenovo indeed wanted to to this at all.

[Runnerrun]

It's interesting to see that Lenovo updated their storage test and PCI Express test programs for thinkpad X1 Carbon 3rd gen on 4/11/2016 including changes of "ADD: Storage - NVMe". Hope that is a sign for future NVMe SSD support.

[MarcoVillasenor]

That's encouraging news! Hopefully this is a sign they plan to enable the X1C3 with NVMe support!

[John_Galt]

Any updates on this? I'd love to put a 940 Pro into my X1 3rd gen.