Question about adding an SSD

[MisterTea86]

I'll state upfront that I'm not very well versed with the technical aspects of PC hardware. My question is this - I own one of these machines and I see there is a slot to add an SSD. I'm also seeing that the maximum space an SSD can be for that slot is 2 TB.

It feels like a stupid question to ask, but - is this truly the maximum limit I could add to the machine? Like, is there a hardware limit on this machine that prevents it from successfully reading from an SSD in that slot that has more than 2 TBs of space/data?

And no worries if this is the case; I can always use an external HDD. But I was just curious.

[Gabe]

In lieu of receiving an answer from barry or the admin, it wouldn't hurt to try a 4TB drive if you have one to try. Though most of the models they have say there is a limit of 2TB, people have found that, at least with some of them, they do support 4TB. That's not necessarily to say this one does, but it may, and again, trying one if you have one to try wouldn't hurt anything.

Be mindful of the space though, as many 4TB drives have chips on both sides. Trying to install a double sided m.2 drive in a space that isn't designed for one could cause damage to the drive and the connector itself due to there not being enough physical space for the chips on the underside. I don't have an AD15, so I don't know if this is the case.

[MisterTea86]

Appreciate the response! Good to know!

I should've clarified that I was mainly referring to the empty 2.5 inch SSD slot near the bottom. If I understand correctly, the M.2 SSDs are the ones towards the top that come with the machine. I probably wont be messing with those yet. My main goal is to add an SSD to that 2.5 inch slot. I believe that is the slot that the manufacturer said could support a drive up to 2 TB.

[Gabe]

Ah, the 2.5" drive. You could still try it if you have one. It definitely wouldn't hurt anything to do so. But if you don't already have one I'd wait for a response so that you don't end up wasting money buying one if it won't, though I'm sure it could still be used via USB in an inexpensive enclosure if it doesn't.

You can also contact barry directly if you want to. He's a tech for the company. His email is barry@minipcunion.com.

[barry777]

According to our current test results, the 2.5-inch hard drive slot of AD15 supports expansion of 2TB; if you have a higher 2.5-inch storage solid-state drive, you can try to install it.
It should be noted that the internal space of AD15 is limited. Please install a 2.5-inch solid-state drive. Installing a mechanical hard drive cannot be installed and fixed due to space issues.

[MisterTea86]

Thank you all for the responses! So, from what I'm reading, the 2.5 inch slot was tested with the use of a 2TB SSD, and that it could potentially read something larger.

I will say, the SSD I had in mind would be significantly larger than 2TB. I was thinking more in the range of 10 or even 15TB. Of course, I'm seeing these sized SSD drives are quite pricey, so I don't want to pull the trigger on one if it will not work.

Either way, it sounds like such a drive could theoretically work if I had access to one? Provided it is a 2.5 inch SSD, of course.

[Mordred]

Thank you all for the responses! So, from what I'm reading, the 2.5 inch slot was tested with the use of a 2TB SSD, and that it could potentially read something larger.

I will say, the SSD I had in mind would be significantly larger than 2TB. I was thinking more in the range of 10 or even 15TB. Of course, I'm seeing these sized SSD drives are quite pricey, so I don't want to pull the trigger on one if it will not work.

Either way, it sounds like such a drive could theoretically work if I had access to one? Provided it is a 2.5 inch SSD, of course.

You will not have any problem related the size of the disk of the BIOS is UEFI and GPT or you want to have multiple partitions lower then 2tb in the disk, this is a thing that is managed by the BIOS, but is important to have your system in uefi mode.