My PC has an apparent SSD drive size limit of 1TB?

[Glenpet]

Hi

I was looking to upgrade some of the drives in my Dell XPS 8930 (purchased May 2019).

The drives I wanted to upgrade were:
- a 1TB NVMe M.2, to a 2TB version
- and a 500GB 2.5" SATA SSD, also to a 2TB version.

Though looking through the specs for my machine, it indicates my PC has a limit for any SSDs of 1TB.

So I was a bit puzzled about the apparent 1TB limit, and was wondering if there was a way of getting round this 1TB limit?

The specs of my current drivers are:
- Samsung Evo Plus 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2
- Samsung EVO 850 2.5" 500GB SATA SSD.

Many thanks

 

[Quartz]

Are you sure you aren't looking at Dell's sale options? You should be able to fit any size SATA SSD or NVME drive.

 

[Glenpet]

This info I found from the official documentation for my PC, on the Dell Support site. I also contacted Overclockers and they seemed to back it up by saying my max size is 1TB for any SSDs, again I do find this puzzling why the limit?

 

[Tetras]

It might be because the M.2 slot only supports single sided modules and at the time the specs were produced, I think all 2TB (or higher) M.2 drives were double sided.

I believe the restriction does not apply to hard drives or SSDs in the 2.5 format, which would support my theory.

 

[Armageus]

Crucial (who make SSDs) offer a compatibility advisor on their web site:

Dell XPS 8930 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial UK

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for Dell XPS 8930

uk.crucial.com

They list drives bigger than 1TB as being compatible, but as @Tetras mentioned, all of the ones they list are Single-Sided e.g. P3 Plus 2TB or T500 2TB


So all of these models should be ok:
My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Crucial P3 PLUS 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-07B-CR) = £129.95
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £149.99
• 1 x Crucial P3 PLUS 4TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: HD-07J-CR) = £242.98

Total: £530.92 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

 

[Tetras]

Crucial (who make SSDs) offer a compatibility advisor on their web site:

Dell XPS 8930 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial UK

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for Dell XPS 8930

uk.crucial.com

They list drives bigger than 1TB as being compatible, but as @Tetras mentioned, all of the ones they list are Single-Sided e.g. P3 Plus 2TB or T500 2TB

I checked Kingston's configurator and they actually list a double sided M.2 drive (KC3000) as compatible, so unless Kingston have made an error, maybe the tech specs are just limited to what Dell would supply for the machine?

 

[Glenpet]

Thanks everyone for the help on this, and clarifying that it is possible to use drives of more than 1TB. I will have a good look at both Crucial and Kingston configurators before making a choice.

Thanks again