Can I add a nvme ssd and keep the existing HD as a data drive

Ray,

After doing a quick search, it doesn’t seem that your laptop model has an M.2/NVMe slot, only a SATA interface. This means if you want to add more storage to your laptop, I would suggest upgrading to a 1/2TB if it’s within budget.

Personally, I would recommend a Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB if it’s within your budget. When trying to push out high performance on laptops, SSD performance can be a huge difference.

Hope this helps,

Alex

I have this laptop (or at least a Q504UA). My hard drive crashed and, upon opening up the laptop, I saw an M.2 slot. After initially being told by ASUS that it would not support NVMe, I talked to a supervisor who found that the motherboard actually went by a different name, UX560UA. Internally, that model is shown as supporting NVMe 3.0x4 up to 256GB. Internally, Q504UA is not listed a supporting NVMe, but he said these models were both the same, so it actually should support NVMe to those specifications. I was not told a reason for the cap at 256GB other than that it was due to “software and hardware limitations”.

My guess is that, when this model was being developed, Asus only tested it with drives up to 256GB because that was probably only what was available on the consumer market at the time. Now, with larger capacities, it’s theoretically possible the slot could support larger drives. However, Asus said it would not service issues that arose from using NVMe drives above 256GB. You can use your own discretion with that.