Installing second SSD drive on Predator Helios 300 PH315-55-70ZV in 2022 I could get the second SSD?

Hi all,

Today I just got a new PH315-55-70ZV from Best Buy and purchased and installed the Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD - MZ-V8P2T0B/AM drive in SSD1 and it does not see this drive in the BIOS or in Windows 11 under the device manager. SSD2 has the 512GB SSD drive that came installed in the computer. So it sees the 512GB drive but it only shows that as the drive that's installed.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-980-pro-2tb-internal-gaming-ssd-pcie-gen-4-x4-nvme/6447126.p?skuId=6447126

Did I order the correct SSD Drive?

I see that Crucial recommends this Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS Gaming SSD CT2000P5PSSD8 SSD drive, will this work better or at least be seen by the BIOS or the Device Manager in Windows 11?

https://www.crucial.com/ssd/p5-plus/ct2000p5pssd8/ct20135017

The computer looks cool, I just wish I could get the second SSD drive to work, thanks for any help.

[Edited the thread to add the issue detail]

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jman7777

Update, I refitted the 2TB drive again and it now sees it. This popped up when I right-clicked on the Windows Icon and selected Disk Management:

I followed the instructions in this video to format and everything looks to be working:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D79wPODziEA

Feel free to delete this thread if necessary, thanks.

KanagawaTomasu

Glad you got that sorted out.

I did not think there was a problem with your new drive.

I think my original drive is "similar" to a Samsung 980 Pro.

Sounds like a great choice to me.

How is it working for you now?

jman7777

So far the second 2TB SSD drive is working out well thanks. I've copied a number of files over from my other computer and it is working flawlessly so far with new programs as well as using my old audio interface (RME Babyface). New drivers downloaded and everything is working great.

Only screwup I had was ordering 32GB of DDR4 RAM (what Crucial webpage says will work with the Acer Predator Helios 300) but this is the newest Predator 300 that has the i7 and DDR5. Not a problem returning it, got 32GB of DDR5 RAM yesterday and it is running like a dream.

Setting it up for my music programs now, but hope to be able to run some games on it to really test it.

The fans did turn on 100% during one Windows 11 update during the "Windows is updating" splash screen (it sounds like an airline jet taking off) but once the home screen came up it turned off. It has not done that again.

So far so good. My second Acer Laptop in the past 10 years and very happy with both of them, thanks for the support.

Fernslayer

I have also purchased this laptop and extra SSD drive. Are the 2 SSD ports identical? Should I make the 2TB SSD the boot drive? Should I swap the ports they are connected to (if original SSD is connected to the "faster" port)?

Any information is appreciated.

KanagawaTomasu

There was some concern about the 2nd M2 drive slot on the New model Acer Predator Helios 300.

A popular You-Tube laptop reviewer pointed out that his 2TB M2 drive would NOT fit in the 2nd M2 drive slot, because of components on the motherboard (directly under the M2 drive.)

The link is below:

https://youtu.be/WP3pk-x4ta4?t=291

Fernslayer

Thanks for your response. I did not see your post before I went through the process of installing a Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB (PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD). I did not have any problems inserting or securing the SSD in the second slot but I was not concerned at the time that ACER might have had parts in the way so hopefully there is no ongoing problems later down the line. It seems to work fine. I have not done any significant tests with it yet.

KanagawaTomasu

Say, glad that worked out for you. I later found out that the Samsung 980 Pro and the Samsung 990 Pro only have chips on one side. (There are no chips on the bottom of the M2 SSD.) So it is a great choice for Predator Laptops with this type of drive slot.

Again, glad you found an M2 Drive for that slot.

Cheers

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1160752#Comment_1160752

Just in addition, as I've got a Nitro 5 AN515-56 and my boot drive is a WD SN850 which is just as quick as your Samsung 980 Pro and I put the Acer oem M.2 drive the 500GB WD SN530 into SSD slot #2 and slot #2 is allot slower, just want to make you realize that the second M.2 SSD slot is about 30% slower in read /write speeds and will never be anything near the speeds of your PCIe 4 x4 Samsung 980 Pro boot drive, this is even if both drives were the same in slot #1 and #2 as the primary M.2 slot is always quicker in these laptops.