Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 SSD Upgrade

[John Ratsey]

I recently bought a 256GB Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 (model NP935XDB) with a 256GB SSD but wanted more capacity. The SSD is the 2230 size which isn't very easy to find with 1TB capacity. After much searching I found that Dell UK (as that's where I live) were selling a Dell branded 1TB 2230 at a relatively reasonable price (about double the cost of an equivalent 2280 SSD). The SSD I received is Kioxia (who bought the Toshiba SSD business) with a Dell part number on the label.

After cloning using Macrium Reflect with the new SSD in an external caddy, I opened up the Samsung. The first step is to remove the screws under each of the four rubber feet and then peel the palm rest and base apart. This process is probably most easy started at one of the front corners after which it's a matter of working along the joint using a spudger or strong thumbnail to separate the plastic clips. Once the base (amazingly lightweight) is off then the SSD is hidden under the silver cover. The yellow label contains a reminder to disconnect the power adaptor and disconnect the battery (prise the connector upwards from the socket). Care is needed to remove the cover over the SSD. I used a very small flat-bladed jeweller's screwdriver poked into the small gaps at each corner of the cover in turn to carefully lift it while trying to not bend it out of shape.

The SSD swap was then easy - remove one screw, slide out the old SSD, slide in the new one and replace the screw. Refitting the cover was much more time-consuming as the bottom of each side sits in some very narrow metal grooves and getting everying lined up and seated isn't quick. I wonder what the cover is for? Is it radiation shielding? Something thermal would normally be black although if it's in contact with the computer base then colour wouldn't matter (but why not use a thermal pad?). I then reconnected the battery and checked that the computer booted OK before shutting down and refitting the base.

In addition to the extra capacity there's also a speed boost. CrystalDiskMark shows the speed of the 1TB for most tests to be about 20% higher than the original Samsung 256GB PM991a SSD but, for some reason, Seq Q32T1 writing is higher by about 60%.

Samsung PM991a 256GB

 Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :  1980.763 MB/s
 Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :  1116.577 MB/s
 Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   501.342 MB/s [122397.9 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   495.957 MB/s [121083.3 IOPS]
 Sequential Read (T= 1) :  1269.407 MB/s
 Sequential Write (T= 1) :  1154.674 MB/s
 Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    43.412 MB/s [ 10598.6 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :   164.910 MB/s [ 40261.2 IOPS]

Kioxia BG4 1TB

 Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :  2377.243 MB/s
 Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :  1833.285 MB/s
 Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   616.300 MB/s [150463.9 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   503.722 MB/s [122979.0 IOPS]
 Sequential Read (T= 1) :  1438.888 MB/s
 Sequential Write (T= 1) :  1382.293 MB/s
 Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    59.772 MB/s [ 14592.8 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :   193.423 MB/s [ 47222.4 IOPS]

Nothing else is upgradable on this notebook. I would have liked 16GB RAM but , in addition to being somewhat more expensive, they are in the mystic silver colour scheme and I know from past experience that those keyboards are less easy to read as it's white backlit lettering on a silvery background. Samsung should be more innovative here. How about mystic maroon?

[ryan]

oh nice, I have a omen 16 with the kioxa 1tb nvme gen 4 ssd and its pretty fast, 3000mb/s roughly.  its not as fast as a gen 4 samsung 980, but thats fine as I know speed doesn't  matter much past 500mb/s with the limitations of software, the software isn't optimized for much more than 500mb/s

[John Ratsey]

I've found that hibernation / resume to be impressively quick: Writing /reading the RAM contents should be a good test of sequential performance and a fast SSD should reduce the performance bottleneck when the paging file has to be used. However, performance in everyday usage depends on on the ability to handle the random access reading and writing and newer SSDs tend to be better than old ones in this respect although there's nothing like the performance boost which came from the shift from spinning disks to SSDs due to the negligible access time of the latter. That said, I've had problems with an almost full SSD appearing to freeze a computer when asked to write a load of data as it first needed to do a load of house-keeping to create a contiguous block of empty space.

[Steerpike]

Is that the ONLY SSD slot, thus requiring you to replace the existing if you want to upgrade?  I was thinking there was a second SSD slot in there somewhere but I don't see it in the pics.  

 

Do you have one-drive configured on your machine? I've noticed that one-drive seems to really slow down any drive access (I have all my data set up in OneDrive (for business), mainly as a free backup service. 

[John Ratsey]

3 hours ago, Steerpike said:

Is that the ONLY SSD slot, thus requiring you to replace the existing if you want to upgrade?  I was thinking there was a second SSD slot in there somewhere but I don't see it in the pics.  

 

Do you have one-drive configured on your machine? I've noticed that one-drive seems to really slow down any drive access (I have all my data set up in OneDrive (for business), mainly as a free backup service. 

The Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 has only one slot (m.2 2230) whereas the Book Pro 15.6 has an empty 2280 slot (see notebookcheck review).

 

OneDrive gets shown the door at the first opportunity. I'm more casual about backups than I used to be as storage drives are much more reliable. I wasn't aware that it could have a significant performance impact but I suspect that could depend on the size of the data files being changed.

[Steerpike]

51 minutes ago, John Ratsey said:

The Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 has only one slot (m.2 2230) whereas the Book Pro 15.6 has an empty 2280 slot (see notebookcheck review).

 

OneDrive gets shown the door at the first opportunity. I'm more casual about backups than I used to be as storage drives are much more reliable. I wasn't aware that it could have a significant performance impact but I suspect that could depend on the size of the data files being changed.

The performance issues with OneDrive seem to be related to the sheer number of files I have under 'one drive management'. Every time I copy or move a file, the system 'churns' and I think it's because of the way it handles change tracking.  Now that I'm using a much faster CPU and NVMe SSD, though, I may see significant improvement. 

 

I still back up everything to an external NAS.  I've had several SSD failures, so I don't share your confidence!  Just recently, the 2TB SATA SSD in my Samsung NP940X5J became unstable, and it wasn't the first time.  I'm reluctantly embracing OneDrive because I'm using more than one laptop now, and keeping my files in sync across multiple devices is a chore. One Drive 'seems' to do a decent job of maintaining sync across a number of devices, although I have to spend more time than I should dealing with version conflicts.  I still rely on the NAS, though, as the ultimate repository and use good-old 'Beyond Compare' to keep track of changes. For this reason, though, I can't really rely on OneDrive's ability to only download files when needed, since running a compare between two directory structures requires those structures to be fully populated.  

 

Since you have both the Samsung for travel and the LG for home, how do you maintain sync between your files? 

[John Ratsey]

4 minutes ago, Steerpike said:

Since you have both the Samsung for travel and the LG for home, how do you maintain sync between your files? 

I've got a 2TB external SSD so I copy everything I might need from the big computer onto that and then copy files onto the little computer as an when needed. Then, before heading home, I copy anything that's been changed back to the SSD. Quite often on my travels the network connectivity is poor and sometimes non-existent so backing up to the www is less reliable than using local storage.

 

I've just replied to your comments on the Gram 17 and one thought I've just had is that you should be able to use the dual SSD capability of that computer to have a primary SSD and a mirror SSD.

[John Ratsey]

There's not much to report about this little notebook except that it's running very smoothly and has been on a few more holidays. It's an ideal travel notebook that's frugal on battery and can run on a low-rated USB-C power supply.

[Steerpike]

I just saw model Samsung NP950XDB-KC5US at Costco online for $900. Seems like a great price! https://www.costco.com/samsung-galaxy-book-pro-15.6"-intel-evo-platform-laptop---11th-gen-intel-core-i7-1165g7---1080p---windows-11---mystic-blue.product.100794355.html

 

 

Is your 'Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 13.3' the same thing, but with 13.3" vs 15.6" screen?  I see your model is NP935XDB - which sounds similar. 

 

I don't have a lot of use for it, having the LG Gram 17 and being very happy with it, but the Samsung is even lighter in weight so I may just pick it up for fun! 

[John Ratsey]

23 hours ago, Steerpike said:

Is your 'Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 13.3' the same thing, but with 13.3" vs 15.6" screen?  I see your model is NP935XDB - which sounds similar.

Yes, they are siblings with much in common. My 13.3 Samsung has the i5 CPU and only 8GB RAM but that's enough for the use it gets as the secondary machine although, as noted above, I did upgrade the storage. I think the AMOLED display is excellent. I did consider the 15.6 Samsung when I was shopping early this year but the UK stock of this model has a white/silver keyboard and surround (clearly shown here) which I think impairs usability because of glare off the keyboard and reduced visibility of backlit keys. The Mystic Blue colour is good.

 

Notebookcheck have a thorough review of the 15.6" Samsung. The supplied SSD is an M.2 2240 but there's a second slot which takes a 2280SSD. I've not noticed rigidity problems with my little Samsung (nor with the 17" LG). Also, I think that modern hardware is much more tolerant of some flexing. Very small mainboards with ribbon cables connecting the peripherals are much more tolerant of bending than products of an earlier era when the mainboard could be as wide as the computer and any bending could upset connections or break soldered joints. I would point out that Samsung isn't yet in the world of 16:10 display panels. My little Samsung has a slot for a SIM card, which can be useful when travelling (but I tend to use my phone as a hotspot which gives the option of putting the phone by a window in order to get a better phone signal).

 

The 2022 Samsung is called the Galaxy Book Pro 2 and has the latest Intel hardware but still has a 16:9 display.

[Steerpike]

I bought the Samsung Galaxy Pro 15.6" version yesterday, as something to explore alongside my LG Gram 17 (2021). Got it from Costco online for about $850 plus tax. Lovely blue case. 

 

It's the NP950XDB model - has Intel i7-1165-G7, 16 Gig Ram, 1TB SSD, FHD (1920x1080) display. Weighs 2.31 lbs.  (my LG Gram 17 has the i7-1195-G7 CPU). 

 

Basically, lots to really like! The screen is glossy but not as glossy as the LG Gram. It clearly has some form of coating on it, but it's not 'matt' by any means. The keyboard is slightly nicer than the LG Gram, though I can't really put my finger on why (it only has 3 columns of numeric keypad, compared to 4 on the LG, and I like this layout better).  The trackpad is INFINITELY better!  I have so many issues with the LG trackpad, I've basically had to disable all but the most basic of gestures. And my right palm constantly lands on it, sending the cursor haywire (though luckily not 'clicking' anything). The LG Gram trackpad is simply too big!  I love the weight of this laptop - unbelievably light. 

 

But my biggest gripe after 2 days is ... the fan!   The first day, I ran it exclusively on battery to give the battery a full charge/discharge cycle. Didn't hear the fan at all (though I was in a noisier room than today).  But today, I plugged it in to charge, and the fan was going berserk.  I looked at task manager, absolutely no tasks doing anything. I went to control panel / power, advanced, and set 'max processor state' to 50% to try to take a sledgehammer to the problem, but the fan was still going berserk!  I noticed that windows update was running in the background (fair enough, I've only had it a day so it's doing its thing catching up) but absolutely no CPU usage indicated. I've just restarted after the windows, and it seems fairly quiet but not silent, and it's somewhat 'random' - kicks in and out without obvious reason. 

 

I can't find anywhere in the Samsung settings where I can choose between 'performance' and 'noise', or whatever. 

 

I'll admit to being overly sensitive to fan noise, especially variable fan noise (I can tune out a 'steady' fan to some extent). I'll have to return it if I can't find a remedy soon. 

 

Edit to add - one difference I noticed between the LG GRam 17 and the Samsung NP950XDB, is the battery voltage, as revealed through Battery Info View.  The LG gram has a voltage of 7,531 mV (7.5 Volts).  The Samsung has a voltage of 17,362 mV (17.3 Volts).  I've never really compared two modern laptops before, but that seems to be a big difference in voltage!   They are both similar capacity - the LG Gram has a design capacity of 80 Wh, while the Samsung has a design capacity of 67 Wh. The label on both suggests a 'supply' voltage of 20V (20V / 3.25A / 65W). 
 

[John Ratsey]

1 hour ago, Steerpike said:

I can't find anywhere in the Samsung settings where I can choose between 'performance' and 'noise', or whatever. 

 

I'll admit to being overly sensitive to fan noise, especially variable fan noise (I can tune out a 'steady' fan to some extent). I'll have to return it if I can't find a remedy soon. 

 

Edit to add - one difference I noticed between the LG GRam 17 and the Samsung NP950XDB, is the battery voltage, as revealed through Battery Info View.  The LG gram has a voltage of 7,531 mV (7.5 Volts).  The Samsung has a voltage of 17,362 mV (17.3 Volts).  I've never really compared two modern laptops before, but that seems to be a big difference in voltage!   They are both similar capacity - the LG Gram has a design capacity of 80 Wh, while the Samsung has a design capacity of 67 Wh. The label on both suggests a 'supply' voltage of 20V (20V / 3.25A / 65W). 
 

The Samsung Settings on my NP935XDB (app version 1.5.4700) has a battery and performance menu which offers several performance modes.

 

The battery voltage difference is the result of different internal connection of the lithium cells which each have a voltage of around 3.75V which can be connected in series or parallel or a combination of both.

 

[Steerpike]

I see that!  I could swear it wasn't there yesterday!  Maybe the settings app got updated in the massive update yesterday (but I doubt it - I'm probably just blind!). 

 

Do you have any observations about the fan on yours, compared to the LG? 

 

Today, I'm running with it plugged in and so far, it's been silent.  I wonder if the battery generates heat when charging, causing the fan to run?  It's plugged in now, but fully charged, so any power coming from the 'wall' is going straight to the motherboard, whereas yesterday, the battery was discharged so a good deal of power from the wall was going into the battery and it makes some sense that that could have caused heating, and required fan activity (task manager suggested absolutely no unusual activity to warrant fan activity). 

 

Another observation - so far, this Samsung device consumes a good deal less power than the LG. Without any tweaking on the Samsung, I'm seeing less power draw in Battery Info View compared to the LG, and it seems like I can run for a solid day without charging, which is more than I can say for the LG. 

 

[John Ratsey]

1 hour ago, Steerpike said:

Do you have any observations about the fan on yours, compared to the LG? 

 

Another observation - so far, this Samsung device consumes a good deal less power than the LG. Without any tweaking on the Samsung, I'm seeing less power draw in Battery Info View compared to the LG, and it seems like I can run for a solid day without charging, which is more than I can say for the LG. 

 

I'm glad you found the setting. It's never easy to find things in a hurry when using something unfamiliar.

 

It's possible that the extra fan noise was triggered by Windows doing background activities such as indexing on the new setup. Such activities are set to stop the moment the Windows senses you are doing something.

 

I don't recall ever being annoyed by fan noise on my 13" Samsung but I don't give it hard work to do (plus it has the i5 CPU). I've also been impressed by the frugal power drain but on that model it's helped by the smaller screen. It's possible that Samsung have done a better job than LG in tweaking settings to reduce power consumption when running on battery but this will also be helped by 15.6" screen which has 20% less area than the LG panel to be illuminated. Also, whereas the LG's standard LCD panel is backlit all the time, the power requirement for Samsung's AMOLED panels depends on what is display. A predominantly black screen with some white text will use less power (I think) than a predominantly white screen with black text although I don't recall exploring the difference.

 

I don't have problems with the Gram 17's touchpad but agree that the Samsung pad is better. I also agree that Samsung seem to have used a coating on the display which takes the edge off reflections without degrading the image quality. The LG LCD panel is among the best of its type but the AMOLED panels are even better. Iconsidered the 15.6 Samsung before I bought my Gram 17 but the available UK versions are predominantly white or thereabouts ("mystic silver") which I don't like.

 

My first Samsung notebook was the 15.4" X60 which I bought in 2006. The 2.55kg (5.5lb) weight was class-leading at the time and the 3 hour battery time was also good. How things have improved!

[John Ratsey]

I've treated the little Galaxy Book Pro to another upgrade. I found a 2TB M.2 2230 SSD on sale in the UK at a lower price than the 1TB 2230 cost in January 2022. The WD SN740 gives a decent performance despite its diminutive size.

That's roughly twice as fast as the 1TB Kioxia SSD (which was faster than the original SSD).

It took Macrium Reflect over an hour to clone the old SSD onto the new one (temporarily housed in a USB enclosure), then less than half an hour to do the physical swap after which I used Minitool Partition Wizard to adjust the partitions to use the new space.

[Steerpike]

On 6/7/2023 at 1:55 PM, John Ratsey said:

I've treated the little Galaxy Book Pro to another upgrade. I found a 2TB M.2 2230 SSD on sale in the UK at a lower price than the 1TB 2230 cost in January 2022. The WD SN740 gives a decent performance despite its diminutive size.

That's roughly twice as fast as the 1TB Kioxia SSD (which was faster than the original SSD).

It took Macrium Reflect over an hour to clone the old SSD onto the new one (temporarily housed in a USB enclosure), then less than half an hour to do the physical swap after which I used Minitool Partition Wizard to adjust the partitions to use the new space.

Has this resulted in any observable improvements in usability? 

[John Ratsey]

22 hours ago, Steerpike said:

Has this resulted in any observable improvements in usability? 

It's currently being tested as I'm on holiday and seems to be running fine. I was wanting more storage space. Higher speed is a bonus.

[eucalipt]

I know is an old topic, BUT

 

Laptop: crappy Samsung book pro 360 5G

 

I saw online upgrading the ssd's with a 2280 nvme M.2 , so i Buyed one .... after I open the laptop....I cannot see where is the the ssd so i can change it........ 

in this post I see it needs to be 2230ssd, but even so ..... I cannot see where is it.

Can anyone advice please ?

[katalin_2003]

Hello @eucalipt and welcome to Notebooktalk.

I'm not familiar with this exact model but I believe the silver rectangle, to the right of the fan, can be pried off. Do it gently with a thin plastic pry tool.

The SSD should be under it.

[John Ratsey]

  

2 hours ago, eucalipt said:

I know is an old topic, BUT

 

Laptop: crappy Samsung book pro 360 5G

 

I saw online upgrading the ssd's with a 2280 nvme M.2 , so i Buyed one .... after I open the laptop....I cannot see where is the the ssd so i can change it........ 

in this post I see it needs to be 2230ssd, but even so ..... I cannot see where is it.

Can anyone advice please ?

 

 

I share your confusion. Your board will only take a 2230 SSD (same as my Galaxy Book 13.3 purchased in January 2022) but this notebookcheck review dated June 2021 of a Galaxy Book Pro 360 13 shows a 2280 SSD. Both notebooks are 13.3" and have the same generation Intel CPU (mine is the i5 1130G7 and the review notebook has the i5 1135G7).

 

The possible explanation is that the version in the notebookcheck review appears to not have the SIM card slot whereas your notebook and mine both have it. It's therefore possible that in order to make space for this on the mainboard Samsung had to rearrange the mainboard and use a smaller form factor SSD. Radiation from the 4G/5G antennae might also explain the metal cover over the 2230 SSD.

 

The conclusion is that don't buy a replacement part before looking inside to confirm that it will be suitable (I've probably learnt the same lesson at some stage in the past). If you can't return the 2280 SSD then find a slim USB-C enclosure for it to create some fast external storage.

 

I'm surprised that you call this notebook crappy. Mine is excellent.

 

[eucalipt]

katalin_2003 : I think you are right, as other 4 people saying the same.

 

John Ratsey :  you might be right, because other few people say that. maybe the confusion is comming from the fact that my model, is not really displayed open and i could not find any tutorials. lack of space it is a problem, but still....i think they could find a way to put in a  "normal" 2280 ssd, but probably it would cost more to redisign everything inside.

I already buyed a adapter nvme M.2 to usb-c   toi be able to use data migration software, so I have it. I will return the 2280 ssd samsung 990 pro, because I do not really need so many  hdd's ( hope shop is going to take it back, since is a small shop ). My ideea was to  have everything prepared , all the parts needed  for the time I open it.

 

I call it crappy because no detailed information can be find on official manufacturer website or in other places. The most anoying thing is the fact that have a SIM card inside and you cannot make calls or send SMS , i really do not understand why is not possible. on book2 I read you are able to send sms, but not to make calls. Imagine this laptop I buyed to replace my ipad, becauise on ipad you did not even received the sms, most stupid thing, sim being used just for lte/data . Otherwise it seems a good laptop.

 

 

Thank you all for advices, I will be back when I have  a 2230 ssd buyed and be ready to mount it inside.

[eucalipt]

ok, I buyed a 2230 wd fast ssd and samsung magician "data migration" do not "see" any other drive then samsung drives :))

gotta find a  data migration software that can do the job. any  advice please ?

Thank you all

[John Ratsey]

I use Macrium Reflect https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.

[eucalipt]

John Ratsey : Thank you for the advice, that was the one i found also and thinking seriously for it after some search, but because of you I installed instant and used it. It does the job perfect.

 

Here are some photos with the process of ssd change, maybe others would like to see.

 

First buy a 2230  nvme ssd of your  choice, after that use a migration software to  "clone" you actual ssd on the the new ssd. IF the new ssd is not a Samsung you must use another software like macrium ( downnload link if you click macrium ), Samsung magician / data migration  would recognize ONLY Samsung ssd's.

After you done all this you can proceed.

 

1. taking off the cover abd revealing the inside, first thing you should do after you reveal the insides is to DISCONECT the battery cable for safety reasons. Whatever you do, DO NOT use any metal tool, or touch with you hads the small electronic components ( electric discharge from you body could damage something ).

 

2. taking off the ssd heat dispenser by pulling it up slowly and gently:

 

3. unscrewing the screw that hold in place the original ssd, removing the original ssd, mount the new ssd

 

4. mount back the ssd heat disperser/cover, gently put it in position and then press it back.

 

5. mounting back the plastic cover, tide the screws and reboot.

 

Good luck to all of you. Things I've noticed  with the new ssd are:

To much storage space, i do not use that much....not even close.

Windows loading faster when opening the lid.

Linux works good, except some issues I am going to work on.

 

[John Ratsey]

Thank you for the guide. I'm not convinced that the metal cover over the SSD is for heat dispersion as a thermal pad would probably be better. As noted previously, I wonder if it's shielding against 4G/5G radiation as the version of the notebook without 4G/5G support doesn't have any cover over the SSD. Only Samsung knows the reason.

 

I hope that your Windows has settled down. I don't recall having any issues.