Precision 7710 - Drive Adapter Interposer Connector and Cable - WYWRF

[ygohome]

Hello,

 

I have a Mobile Precision 7710.  It has two slots for PCIe Gen3 NVMe M.2 SSDs.   It also has a 2.5" SATA3 drivebay caddy, near the removable battery.  I currently have two M.2 PCIe SSDs.  I'm considering a 3rd to put in that vacant 2.5" area.

 

Dell has advertised that it is possible to install a PCIe m.2 SSD in that 2.5" area by purchasing a  Interposer Connector and Cable.

 

Does anyone know if that interposer allows for PCIe Gen3 SSD speeds?  (for example up to theoretical 3500MBps?)  Or will it be limited to SATA3 SSD speeds of about 550MBps?

 

I'm also unsure if I'd need anything else to secure an 2280 M.2 in that area where it's normally meant for a 2.5" drive.  Will it just flop around in that caddy area or do I need to order another part I'm unaware to secure it?

 

Thank you,

 

Benny

 

Edit:  *I was wrong about WYWRF, that is just the normal already existing connect for SATA drives.  Please read my follow-up replies further below

[ygohome]

Actually, I'm not sure I have the correct part linked above.  That might be the connector for a regular old SATA drive and not for an m.2 NVME SSD.  I need to do some more research.  I'm pretty sure I remember way back when Dell said we could purchase an interposer cable connector to use m.2 in that 2.5" area.  I need to find the correct cable part.  I'll be back after I research more.

[ygohome]

I found this chart listing the parts I may need:

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000178253/m-2-nvme-device-specifications-and-upgrade-requirements-for-precision-optiplex-latitude-and-xps-systems

Precision Systems

System	Maximum internal drives supported	Drive configurations supported (max)	PCIe lanes	Parts to install a M.2 device into a M.2 slot	Parts to install a M.2 device into a 2.5-inch bay	Additional information
7710 7720	3	3x M.2 1 x 2.5-inch 2 x M.2 + 1 x 2.5-inch	M.2 slots support 4X. 2.5-inch supports 2 x.	1 x HR8P8 - Thermal cover (includes cover and thermal pad) 1 x 4270E - Screw (secures cover on top of the M.2 drive).	1 x 745TM - 2.5-inch metal bracket (most units already include this part). 1 x Y1WJX - M.2 bracket (mounts to 745TM). 4x 2864D - M3X3 screw(most computers include these. These secure the Y1WJX M.2 drive carrier, or a 2.5-inch drive into 745TM) 1 x WPTND - M.2 Interposer Board(installs into Y1WJX) 5x 4270E - M2.0*3 L screws 1 x HR8P8 - M.2 thermal cover	Find instructions on the Dell Community Forum page.
7510 7520	2	1 x M.2 1 x 2.5-inch 2 x M.2 1 x M.2 + 1 x 2.5-inch	M.2 slot supports 4X. 2.5-inch supports 2 x.		1 x 745TM - 2.5-inch metal bracket (most computers include this part). 1 x Y1WJX - M.2 bracket (mounts to 745TM). 4x 2864D - M3X3 screw(most computers include these. These secure the Y1WJX M.2 drive carrier, or a 2.5-inch drive into 745TM) 1 x WPTND - M.2 Interposer Board(installs into Y1WJX) 5x 4270E - M2.0*3 L screws 1 x HR8P8 - M.2 thermal cover	Find instructions here on the Dell Community Forum.
5510 5520	2	1 x M.2 1 x 2.5-inch 1 x M.2 + 1 x 2.5-inch	M.2 slot supports 4X. 2.5-inch bay is wired as SATA.	1 x 88DJK - Thermal pad (no plate required) 1 x 4270E - M2 x3 screw	1 x XDYGX - Cable 2 x 3XYT5 - Rubber side isolator 1 x 3FDY3 - Metal hard drive bracket (some units may already have this installed even if a 2.5-inch drive was not ordered from Dell originally).	Discussed on the Dell Community Forum page
3510	1	1 x M.2 1 x 2.5-inch	M.2 slot supports 4X. 2.5-inch bay is wired as SATA.		1 x X3YR8 - M.2 end bracket 1 x 1 x2MT - Thermal cover 2 x 4270E - M2 x3 screws	Discussed here on SpiceWorks
3520	2	1 x M.2 1 x 2.5-inch 1 x M.2 cache drive + 1 x 2.5-inch	M.2 slot supports 4X. 2.5-inch bay is wired as SATA.		1 x 2FFR0 - End bracket 1 x X3DN4 -Thermal plate 1 x 4270E - End screw

[ygohome]

Instructions link:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/laptops-general-locked-topics/adding-2nd-m2-ssd-to-precision-7510/647f6333f4ccf8a8def59eb7?commentId=647f640bf4ccf8a8de062e4c#M884913

 

 

Now I just need to find out where to buy all these weird parts

 

Found them:

Y1WJX - M.2 bracket  and WPTND - M.2 Interposer Board  together as a set:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/296839655402

 

Found the thermal cover directly from Dell:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-copper-plate-for-m2-pcie-ssd/apd/hr8p8/storage-drives-media

 

 

Very cool.  Still, I'm not totally sure these will supply PCIe Gen3 NVMe speeds, but I think they will. We shall see.

[Aaron44126]

I seem to remember that this drive ran at a lower speed than the others.  I think it is still PCIe3, but two lanes instead of four.

[Edit] I think that is what the "4X" and "2X" mean in the table that you have embedded above.

[nforce4max]

Done that for my 7710 and one of my 7510s, the only real inconvenience is cost as sellers tend to overprice the adapter.

[ygohome]

Ahh, yeah.  The chart does say that the 2.5" area has x2 PCIe Lanes instead of x4 lanes.  It'll be faster than sata though, so that still good

[ygohome]

I finally got around to adding the interpose and adapter, etc to my 7710.  I also got a new Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB PCIe.  That is the newer gen PCIe SSD from Samsung, but it's backwards compatible to work in my PCIe gen 3 laptop.  It was a good price on amazon, so I got one for my Dad too who has matching 7710 laptop (we work together).

 

I bought the 7710 in late 2015 and it arrived in early 2016.  It's had the OEM Samsung SM951 PCIe 512 GB as the C: Boot disk;  and the Samsung PM951 PCIe 1 TB as the D: Data disk;

 

Both of those disks were at least 80% filled, so I was wanting to upgrade.

 

I cloned D: 1 TB SSD to the new 2 TB =  the 2TB becomes my D:

 

Then I cloned C: 500 GB SSD to the 1 TB = the 1TB becomes my C:

 

Then I formatted the 500 GB SSD to be empty = the 500GB becomes my E: <== this one goes in the interposer 2.5 caddy adapter area.

 

Now I have doubled the capacity of my C drive, doubled capacity of my D drive and also have an extra 500 GB SSD using the interposer to use for whatever.

 

Very happy!  The interposer does run that E: 500GB PCIe via x2 lanes instead of x4, but still way faster than standard sata3 and it's basically just bonus storage.

 

I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro to clone the disks and extend the partitions.  I like it alot and I paid for lifetime unlimited upgrades a few years ago so its now my go-to for this sort of thing.  Although there are other great cloning utilities such as Clonezilla.  Clonezilla was a favorite of mine for many years and it is still one of the greatest for cloning, but I like the GUI of the MiniTool and it's very intuitive.