G501, Installing an M.2 SSD

[animaSola]

Hey Guys,

I know the G501 comes with a M.2 slot to PCIe x4, but will a normal M.2 SATA 3 drive be able to run fine? I'm contemplating between these two drives:

ADATA SP900 - SATA3 (SGD 157)
http://www.newegg.com/global/sg/Prod...-950-_-Product

Kingston HyperX Predator - PCIe x4 (SGD 337)
http://www.newegg.com/global/sg/Prod...-542-_-Product

If the ADATA can't be installed, I guess I have only once choice. Thanks!

[Kalevispetke]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/...your-next-ssd/

This article says yes, you can use the SATA. (If I understood everything right )
The M-keyed M.2 slot gives access to both PCIe x4 and SATA buses.

[animaSola]

Thanks Kalevispetke

[eidolon]

In fact, the FHD G501JW configurations I've seen come with a SATA 3.0 SSD (& 1 TB 5400 rpm HDD) instead of a PCIe SSD. (Unrelated, but the FHD configurations only have a 4-cell, 60 Wh battery as well )

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultra...specifications

[animaSola]

For anyone who needs the info, I can confirm that yes it is backwards compatible (using it in my machine now), you can install a SATA 3 M.2 SSD. To open the G501 though, you need a TS5 sized screw driver, which is not so easy to find.

[daff__]

For anyone who needs the info, I can confirm that yes it is backwards compatible (using it in my machine now), you can install a SATA 3 M.2 SSD. To open the G501 though, you need a TS5 sized screw driver, which is not so easy to find.

How do i open it up when i removed all the screws?
I cant get it open. It's kind of stuck. Any tips?

[animaSola]

How do i open it up when i removed all the screws?
I cant get it open. It's kind of stuck. Any tips?

Apart from the 10 torx screws, there are 2 philips hidden under the rubber bumpers which was pretty hard to remove (i carefully used a knife so i wouldn't damage it). See this teardown to get a glimpse: http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/in...grade-options/

But even after removing all the screws, still had a bit of a difficult time removing it for the first time so I used a pry tool and an old credit card.

[wificardgeek]

You can use the SATA. Because your M.2 drive is a SATA protocol drive rather than NVMe. Using it disables two of your SATA ports and you happen to have found one of the two that it disabled. Moving your SATA SSD over one column should fix it.

[suhaimihm]

i install transcend 256gb pcie x4 ssd. but no appeared either at bios or at disk management. anybody can help.

[cl-Albert@ROG]

i install transcend 256gb pcie x4 ssd. but no appeared either at bios or at disk management. anybody can help.

Welcome to the forums!

You may want to check which G501 model that you have, but for the G501JW it sounds like there are different motherboard versions to support SATA3 or PCIe M.2 SSDs as in the thread below, so you might still need to confirm that your model really supports PCIe M.2 SSDs.

Not sure if your local ASUS support or store can help at all, but if you want to send a Private Message to me at cl-Albert with your serial number, I can try to check for you.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?83477-G501JW-NVMe-M-2-SSD-Support