I have purchased a version of Asus G751JY (T7370H) laptop back in September. A really nice system, with specs comparable to my desktop.
Unfortunately, the T7370H variant is a stripped down version which only has 8GB RAM and lacks the PCI-E SSD (only 1TB HDD, fortunately, the M.2 slot is still there). I had been using a Samsung Evo 850 120 GB SSD for some time, and, while it’s fast, it’s too small for my needs.
I’ve found an SSD which would be perfect for this laptop – Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD. The SM951 is a direct successor of XP941 SSD which is included in some G751JY models. I’ve bought the 256 GB AHCI version for about 190 €. While the SM951 is almost twice as expensive as SATA SSDs of comparable size (I could’ve bought a 512 GB SATA SSD for the same price), it’s also several times faster.
I’ve also bought an additional 8 GB stick of RAM, as I like to run VMs and stock 8 GB is a little smallish for me.
Now, the fun stuff…
There’s a small problem: G751JY’s M.2 slot is blocked by the SATA 3 bay, where my 120 GB 850 is currently installed. Some members from ROG forums have found a way of using both M.2 and SATA SSDs by installing the SATA SSD without it’s 2.5″ case. But this would void the SSDs warranty.
You say: why not just install the SATA SSD in the second bay (G751JY has 2 HDD bays) ? Well, the second bay is only SATA 2 (Hard-wired. I’ve even tried enabling SATA 3 by modding the BIOS – didn’t work), so the SSD would be capped to about a half of it’s normal speed – not good enough for me.
Why did Asus chose to limit the second port to SATA 2 (the chipset itself is capable of 4 SATA 3 ports) is a mystery to me.
I haven’t decided yet whether I will keep my 120GB 850 or sell it.
Will update this post later.