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How to add a 4th drive to your G751

joshindaphils
Level 11
I was looking to add additional SSD capacity to my machine for some VMs, spinning disk were getting crushed after a few VMs. First I was looking at attaching the SSD via USB3 though I wasn't thrilled at doing that due to SSDs being sensitive to power loss, as well I didn't want to forgo the storage capacity of my 1TB spinning disk. While I was reviewing SSD options I saw a shot of the PCB on a 2.5" disk and it was rather small... struck by this I tested the SATA3 port that shares the bay with the PICE SSD, and it worked as anticipated.

A little bit of research latter, measuring the available space and then some pixel counting to determine the length of the SSD PCBs I ended up going with the Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD.

Other than removing the PCB from the plastic case, no mods are needed. Simply plug the drive in the available SATA3 slot. There is plenty of room and the friction fit of the SATA port is more than enough to secure the drive, if you are feeling paranoid you could drop some hot glue between the drive and connector.

Attached are some pics showing, before / after, fit, drive, clearance, back plate to give you an idea where the screws hidden by the sticker are, screen caps, etc.

Looks like any drive with a PBC length south of 40mm should fit fine, the 850 Evo 250 and 120GB drives will currently give you the most clearance of any SSD available (according to my research). It is not currently possible to get any larger capacity than ~250GB from an SSD with a PCB length needed for an easy fit. It is not even necessary to remove the PCIe disk to install, the Evo goes in cleanly.

Hope this helps someone out.

Photos below:
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47,853 Views
52 REPLIES 52

d0r1n
Level 7
i have a 1tb 850 evo too,that litlle is the ssd board if i dismantle it?

hmscott
Level 12
joshindaphils wrote:
I was looking to add additional SSD capacity to my machine for some VMs, spinning disk were getting crushed after a few VMs. First I was looking at attaching the SSD via USB3 though I wasn't thrilled at doing that due to SSDs being sensitive to power loss, as well I didn't want to forgo the storage capacity of my 1TB spinning disk. While I was reviewing SSD options I saw a shot of the PCB on a 2.5" disk and it was rather small... struck by this I tested the SATA3 port that shares the bay with the PICE SSD, and it worked as anticipated.

A little bit of research latter, measuring the available space and then some pixel counting to determine the length of the SSD PCBs I ended up going with the Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD.

Other than removing the PCB from the plastic case, no mods are needed. Simply plug the drive in the available SATA3 slot. There is plenty of room and the friction fit of the SATA port is more than enough to secure the drive, if you are feeling paranoid you could drop some hot glue between the drive and connector.

Attached are some pics showing, before / after, fit, drive, clearance, back plate to give you an idea where the screws hidden by the sticker are, screen caps, etc.

Looks like any drive with a PBC length south of 40mm should fit fine, the 850 Evo 250 and 120GB drives will currently give you the most clearance of any SSD available (according to my research). It is not currently possible to get any larger capacity than ~250GB from an SSD with a PCB length needed for an easy fit. It is not even necessary to remove the PCIe disk to install, the Evo goes in cleanly.
Hope this helps someone out.


joshindaphils, that's a neat trick, and for all but the larger SSD's it works great - and better cooling too as the whole board / chips are exposed to cooling. 🙂

Did you put something under the 2.5" bare board for insulation, non-conductive tape, or?, to keep the board from short out against the PCIE x4 SSD mounting plate?

There is another mod that has been done to remove the PCIE x4 mounting plate and install the PCIE X4 SSD bare with the 2.5" drive above it - using strips of tape to hold them in, and both fit.

Perhaps combining both methods, removing the outer 2.5" shell, and mounting both bare, without the PCIE X4 mounting plate or the 2.5" caddy would provide the best cooling and clearance?

Here is the other mod, unfortunately the poster hasn't come back and posted photo's of the strips of tape method of mounting, the only pictures he posted were of the total tape coverage - which raised SSD temps to 50c - he later posted that the temps went down to 36c after removing all that tape locking in the heat.

46681

46680

Asus G751 coming with Maxwell GTX 980M and GTX 970M
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-g751-coming-with-maxwell-gtx-980m-and-gtx-970m.761783/p...

Thanks for posting all the great photo's!

joshindaphils
Level 11
HMScott,

The friction fit of the drive and the sata port holds things in place really well. The drive is kept a fair distance away from the plate even though it is not evident from the photos. I have no concern about shorting the drive out.

If you wanted to be extra sure a small square of foam tape would provide 100% protection.

That tape job scares the heck out of me though hehe.

Dorin,

Sadly no, there are several more chips necessary to provide the 1TB capacity. Here is a link that shows the PCB of the 1TB model: http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-850-pro-ssd-review-showing-3d-v-nand/

Another note I forgot to mention in regards to disassembling the drive is that it uses pentalobe head screws. I just used a jewelers flathead to get it open just fine though.

-Josh

joshindaphils wrote:
HMScott,
The friction fit of the drive and the sata port holds things in place really well. The drive is kept a fair distance away from the plate even though it is not evident from the photos. I have no concern about shorting the drive out.
If you wanted to be extra sure a small square of foam tape would provide 100% protection.
That tape job scares the heck out of me though hehe.


joshindaphils, whenever bare conductors hover over a metal plate, it is a good idea to put some kind of non-conductive covering on the metal plate. Non-conductive tape, doesn't need to be foam / thick, should be enough.

Vibration can sometimes cause board flex; if the gap is large it might be ok, but to be safe it is good to cover the bare metal. I think the PCIE X4 mounting plate has dimples in it to raise / touch the M.2 board only on non-conducting places - that is why it doesn't have a non-conductive covering for the M.2 drive.

Yeah, that tape job in his photo's immediately raised a red flag for holding in heat from those chips, he hadn't thought to check, so good thing he posted it and we caught it for him. He hasn't come back yet to post images of the strips of tape method, but I can imagine how to do it without covering the chips, I just hope everyone else that tries it realizes they need to be careful with the tape placement 🙂

Sargatanas
Level 7
Very nice!!!! I have also a 250 model on my table without any use. Gonna give it a try too 🙂

joshindaphils,
Great Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, will try only when i am desperate enough to void my ssd warranty!!

HMScott,
Did such arrangement caused heating issue, for both HDs when in idle and full load condition??

ManjuprasadMBasangi wrote:
joshindaphils,
Great Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, will try only when i am desperate enough to void my ssd warranty!!

HMScott,
Did such arrangement caused heating issue, for both HDs when in idle and full load condition??


ManjuprasadMBasangi, if you follow the link I gave to the original post on notebookreview.com I asked about heat, and he checked it out and found at idle the M.2/2,5" SATA temperature was 50c with all the tape covering the chips/board, so he used strips of tape and the idle heat reading dropped to 36c, which is the same as I have for my M.2 SATA cards in my G750JH - so I think that with careful tape placement - to avoid covering components that generate heat - the method can work well.

There are several posts after this post with the images that discuss the heat issue and resolving it, also some posts of interest before this post by him, me and others.

Asus G751 coming with Maxwell GTX 980M and GTX 970M
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-g751-coming-with-maxwell-gtx-980m-and-gtx-970m.761783/p...

joshindaphils
Level 11
HMScott,

I hear where you are coming from.

I have an education in electronics and have worked with PC hardware for decades, I've probably left blood in more computers than most people will touch in a lifetime. I say this just to lend a little more weight to my statement; I am not concerned about a short. If my G751 spent a good deal of it's time in a backpack / in travel I would probably consider using adhesive to secure the drive to the port just to be extra safe.

If you check the pics out closely you will see the drive does not overlap with the raised section at all.

I'm not saying to others do not insulate your drive from shorts, by all means do it! It won't hurt, and may very well help. Just saying I found it not to be necessary.

joshindaphils
Level 11
HMScott,

Also keep in mind you are looking at the 'bottom' of the drive. The board and ports all sit on this side, everything else where a normal HDD would go is all empty space. The photos are a bit deceiving, it it a comfy fit. As well the M.2 bracket takes up almost no space that would intrude on a regular HDD other than the mounting and heat sink areas.