What SSD can I use with Acer Swift 5 SF514-51-53xn

I bought Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 Tb, but my laptop doesn't recognize that. I learned that that is an NVMe drive, while my laptop may support only SSD drives, but I'm not sure if that is the reason.

My questions are:

- can NVMe drives be used with Acer Swift 5 SF514-51-53xn?

- how many SSD drives can be used in that laptop? I found only one slot, but maybe some other is hidden under covers (I doubt).

- is there a capacity limitation for an SSD drive there? I had 256 Gb initially, so I hope at least 500 Gb could be used there.

When I used a Linux command inxi, I found that the motherboard is Acer MiniOne_SK V1.13, but I couldn't find information on that.
P.S. I think it's a shame that it's impossible to find such technical specifications on Acer site. I saw that the drive was SATA, but I'm not sure whether that related to the actual drive used (which is indeed SATA) or to the MB capability. It's also a shame I can't ask some Acer technicians about this basic information, because my warranty is out. I hope someone will be able to answer it here, thank you!

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brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, it could be the size of the M.2 SSD or you may have to try again, seating it properly in the slot, 512GB is the recommended size but others have installed larger drives in their laptops but in a different model.
I would suggest you to remove the SSD, insert it at an angle and make sure the pins are fully inside the slot, then secure with the screw but turn slightly tighter than before.
You have only one slot for SSD in your model.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Acer-Swift-SF514-51/45061

ynikitenko

Thanks, @brummyfan2. The problem is those models are very different. Some even have two places for SSDs. I screwed it very tightly, that's why I wanted to know the specifications. Maybe I should just make some soft changes and that would work...

billsey

Specs say: SSD M.2 2280 (reserved PCIe Gen3x4 slot), so NVMe should work fine.

ynikitenko

Thank you, @billsey. Do you have a link to a service manual? Where can I find that?
I found that PCIe slots don't necessarily support NVMe. Moreover, for Acer Swift 1 there is wrong information that it supports NVMe (https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551365/has-anyone-been-able-to-use-an-nvme-drive-in-their-swift-1)
Also they say that NVMe drive can be supported, but the system won't boot from that (https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/930132-do-all-m2-slots-on-motherboards-support-nvme/?do=findComment&comment=11372191).
Could you please at least give a link where you found that data?

billsey

We aren't allowed to share the service manuals, just snippets from them. The Gen 3x4 part is what defines the capabilities of the M.2 slot.

ynikitenko

"We aren't allowed to share the service manuals, just snippets from them". It's a pity, @billsey . Do you think this is just or reasonable? I think if I own a notebook, I must be able to know its specifications if they exist somewhere.
No, as I linked earlier, not all NVMe work out of the box with PCI interface.

So, the end of the story is the following. I exchanged my NVMe SSD for a similar model, but SATA. It was detected by the motherboard and installation OS at once without a hitch. I think that NVMe M2 doesn't work with this model, at least without some hidden knowledge and very tricky work. If someone manages to do that, please write. I'm not sure if I should mark this as the answer and close it.

I also had to install it in legacy mode with BIOS boot partition, I don't know why. It seems to me that it is possible to install UEFI system, and I probably had that earlier, but I'm not sure about that (this time I couldn't manage that to work).

Quite a lot of time was wasted just because of missing and impossible to find specs about the notebook. It's a pity. However, I'm not sure whether other manufactures are better in such things and with Linux, and I doubt it could be answered here.

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