What SSDs can I install?

So I recently got an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52 and the stock 1TB HDD is seriously bottlenecking anything I do, I'm hitting 100% usage whenever I have a download going on and the start-up has become considerably slower since I've started downloading programs. Obviously a simple fix would be to wipe these off, but I didn't buy this to use it sparingly so I'm looking for a new SSD.

I had a BX500 in mind as they recently came out and are relatively cheap, however since discovering an internal SSD port I was curious as to how I could utilise this. I used to be pretty tech affluent and still am in most areas, but am very unfamiliar with M.2 and NVMe SSDs and haven't quite got the full grip of it from searching forums.

Thanks to Crucial's very helpful compatability checker, I've discovered that http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/nitro-5-an515-52/CT12437523 is compatible with my laptop, however I'm uncertain both to what competiton there is that is also compatible, and whether it's compatible but with limits such as I'd need to remove the dedicated wireless card to use a PCIE channel regardless of the phsyical M.2 port.

What difference does it being single/double sided have? Can you use double sided in a single port? Does the inbuilt port in the motherboard occupy a PCIE port or are they separate channels?

I was also considering these for reference:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADATA-ASX8200NP-480GT-C-GEN3X4-SSDSX8200-Solid/dp/B07BLMP9ZT
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-A1000-SA1000M8-480G/dp/B07C8XDV11
They most likely operate at much higher levels than I would need them to, but they seem much cheaper than Samsung's ranges for example.

A bit of advice would be appreciated,

Jack

Accepted answers

brummyfan2

Hi,
All the M.2 SSDs you have mentioned are compatible with your model but try to avoid any SSDs with heatsink as you may find it difficult to install them due to thickness, other members reported this shortcoming while using SSD with heatsink, as you intend to buy from amazon, you don't need to worry too much because of their returns policy, I have read good reviews about ADATA and Kingston SSDs, in fact you will notice any difference in speeds between these drives in day to day work, double sided SSDs have more chips in them and single sided SSDs are mostly smaller in size, apart from that not much difference between them.
As for removing WiFi card, you don't have to remove it at all and it won't affect the performance of M.2 SSD, M.2 slot in the motherboard is PCIe port.

All comments

Hulkhogan9

@brummyfan2 I get the impression from other threads that you may be able to help me on this?

brummyfan2

Hi,
All the M.2 SSDs you have mentioned are compatible with your model but try to avoid any SSDs with heatsink as you may find it difficult to install them due to thickness, other members reported this shortcoming while using SSD with heatsink, as you intend to buy from amazon, you don't need to worry too much because of their returns policy, I have read good reviews about ADATA and Kingston SSDs, in fact you will notice any difference in speeds between these drives in day to day work, double sided SSDs have more chips in them and single sided SSDs are mostly smaller in size, apart from that not much difference between them.
As for removing WiFi card, you don't have to remove it at all and it won't affect the performance of M.2 SSD, M.2 slot in the motherboard is PCIe port.