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    Razer Blade (2016) M.2 Swap

    Discussion in 'Razer' started by ranmasaotome510, May 20, 2016.

  1. ranmasaotome510

    ranmasaotome510 Notebook Guru

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    So i got my hands on the 2016 Razer Blade, was hoping to be able to replace the internal SSD with the Sandisk X400 1TB M.2 Drive. (Warranty be damned), and to my surprise, the bios does not even detect the drive at all... Have windows installation going from USB, and it cant see the drive either. (I went into bios to make sure and its not showing as a drive being detected....

    To be sure, i plopped the drive into an enclosure i have for M.2 Drives just in case, and can see its working just fine... even formatted before hand from RAW to NTFS just in case... but still nothing. Whats going on here? Am i missing something?
     
    ranmasaotome510, May 20, 2016
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  2. KillerFry

    KillerFry Notebook Consultant

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    Hey there;

    Yes, you are missing something. The Sandisk X400 is an M.2 SATA drive, but the Blade uses an M.2 NVMe. While they use a similar interface - the M.2 - the controllers are not compatible.

    Right now I don't think there are M.2 NVMe drives larger than 500/512GB, but I could be wrong.
     
    KillerFry, May 20, 2016
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  3. ranmasaotome510

    ranmasaotome510 Notebook Guru

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    I think i answered my own question. Apparently the Sandisk M.2 SSD Drive is not PCIe, and is only SATA. How come is M.2 apparently capable of different protocols... ****in aye man...!!
     
    ranmasaotome510, May 20, 2016
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  4. gametime10

    gametime10 Notebook Geek

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    Yep, same problem with the Razer Blade Stealth. You can sometimes find a Samsung PM951 1TB PCIe SSD on eBay.
     
    gametime10, May 20, 2016
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  5. hfm

    hfm Notebook Prophet

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    Awww man, part of me wants to get that x400 for my 2014. The other part wants me to just continue managing the 512 so my backups stay smaller. I've always got at least 70-80GB free. I think I'll continue to fight the urge.

    Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P
     
    hfm, May 21, 2016
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  6. Re1axo

    Re1axo Newbie

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    Hfm, so x400 is fine for 2014 model?
     
    Re1axo, May 26, 2016
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  7. hfm

    hfm Notebook Prophet

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    If it's a SATA m.2 2280, which it appears to be, it should be. The only way to truly know is try it. I find it hard to believe there would be some compatibility issue.

    Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P
     
    hfm, May 26, 2016
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  8. Re1axo

    Re1axo Newbie

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    Right now there's 2280 Samsung MZ-V5P512BW and SanDisk SD8SN8U-1T00-1122 for same price but twice capacity. Is samsung so much better?
    cant find any review of Samsung 950 series
     
    Re1axo, May 26, 2016
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  9. hfm

    hfm Notebook Prophet

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    You could compare paper specs. I highly doubt you would notice a difference between them in day to day use. Benchmarking maybe.

    Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P
     
    hfm, May 26, 2016
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  10. NeMi

    NeMi Newbie

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    Will the upcoming 1TB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVME ssd be compatible with the Razer Blade 14 (2016)?

     
    NeMi, Jun 30, 2016
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  11. gametime10

    gametime10 Notebook Geek

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    Should be... as should the new Samsung 1 TB PM961 and SM961
     
    gametime10, Jul 1, 2016
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  12. hfm

    hfm Notebook Prophet

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    I'm surprised Razer hasn't added a 1TB model as a purchase option.

    Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P
     
    hfm, Jul 1, 2016
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  13. foamspoon

    foamspoon Notebook Enthusiast

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    I get abnormally low Random write and Read IOPS with the 950 Pro Razer Blade 2016. Anyone else experiencing this?​

    upload_2016-7-10_13-10-19.png
     
    foamspoon, Jul 10, 2016
    #13
  14. Acquacow

    Acquacow Notebook Enthusiast

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    I wouldn't call 80-100K low...

    Are you plugged into a power source? Are you running a "max performance" power profile in your OS?
     
    Acquacow, Jul 20, 2016
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  15. foamspoon

    foamspoon Notebook Enthusiast

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    Would running a max performance really help? Yes I am plugged in. I prefer a balance tweaked power setting.
     
    foamspoon, Aug 2, 2016
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  16. Acquacow

    Acquacow Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah, if you aren't on max power, the CPU will step down in clock speed, and will force sleep cycles on processes. This will limit your peak I/O capabilities.

    For best perf, you need to go into your bios and disable speedstep, and disable c-states...

    -- Dave
     
    Acquacow, Aug 6, 2016
    #16