SSD Compatibility for SF314-51

Trying to upgrade the SSD in my Swift 3 sf314-51. My understanding is that any NVMe M.2 drive up to 512GB should work. So I purchased a 500GB WD Blue SN500 Drive and installed it. But the laptop doesn't see it. Can't even get it to show up in the BIOS. Putting the original SSD back in and it works fine. Before I try to return the WD drive assuming that it is dead, I want to be sure that it's actually compatible and I'm not missing something in the installation. Can anyone confirm this should be compatible? Or let me know if I need to do something in the BIOS to make the laptop see the new drive?

Accepted answers

billsey

There is no problem with SSD size, it's the NVMe that's tripping you up. Some of the SF314-51 SKUs support NVMe and some do not. With the latter you need an M.2 SATA drive.

All comments

Sathish2388

dtaylorl.. Hi! please check on this link https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/model/NX.GKBEK.002 ... It can hold only up to 256GB SSD..

dtaylorl

Thanks for the reply. However, if I’m reading correctly, I believe that page is only saying that the model ships with a 256 drive, not that it is the maximum it can be upgraded to. I’ve seen several other threads about this model indicating it can take up to a 512 drive.

billsey

There is no problem with SSD size, it's the NVMe that's tripping you up. Some of the SF314-51 SKUs support NVMe and some do not. With the latter you need an M.2 SATA drive.

dtaylorl

Thanks. Is there any way to check which SKUs support nvme?
edit: full model # on mine appears to be SF314-51-31N1

billsey

They just have:

Solid State drive

M.2 2280 128GB/256GB/512GBSATA SSD (SATA 3.0)
M.2 2280 256GB/512GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x

in the manual. No clue from that when they made the switch, other than systems with 128GB drive are going to be SATA and 256GB/512GB drive could be either. Can you send the WD Blue back and get the SATA version, either from WD or another manufacturer? It'll have slightly less performance than an NVMe will, but it's not huge and the larger SSDs have really been dropping in price. I just dropped a 2TB NVMe into my GX-281 due to a black Friday sale and love the quiet and boot time.

dtaylorl

Stock drive was 128 SATA so looks like it’s not compatible. I can send it back for full refund. I did get a good deal on Black Friday, so that’s too bad but I’m sure I’ll find something a good deal on a SATA somewhere. Problem solved, thanks for your help!

tomec

After the stock Intel 250gb drive started giving me blue screens back in 2019 i've just changed it for a 250gb Kingston sa2000m8256g, no problem ever since, It's a NVME.

Last week just changed that for a 1TB Kingston SNVS1000G with no issues what so ever, 931.5 GB recognized, around 2200MB/s read speed and 1800MB/s write speed sensible the same as before with the 256GB unit.

Posting for general information.

billsey

@tomec as stated earlier in the thread there are two different motherboard types and the earlier ones only support SATA drives in the M.2 slot. There is no good way we've yet found to tell which is installed in the machine. You obviously have the newer motherboard with NVMe support.

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