There is a lot of discussion of this topic on “Dell Community >  PCs & Accessories > > >Desktops >  Desktops General >  XPS 8900 M.2 Specs,” but it is apparently a closed forum.  Many report use of Samsung SSD models.

My XPS 8900, purchased from Costco in 3/2017, had a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth device plugged into the M.2 socket on the motherboard as delivered.  My current motherboard is one installed by a Dell technician in about March of 2018 because the original was diagnosed with a problem with the 8900 staying asleep.  (It may be identical to the original, as the replacement didn’t solve the problem.)

Yesterday, a Dell sales Rep. said in a chat that there is only one M.2 socket in my 8900 (based on its Service Tag No.).  She also agreed that an SSD that uses the PCIe bus can work in the M.2 bus socket, but it would act as a PCIe 3.0 x1 device, while such an SSD plugged into a PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter is required to obtain the full data transfer rate a PCIe-bus SSD can support.

Because I have a Dell gift card I asked about the availability of PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs and PCIe 3.0 x4 adapters available from Dell.  She told me that “VisionTek PRO - Solid state drive – 500 or 250 GB - internal - M.2 2280 - PCI Express 3.1 x4 (NVMe)” would work at x4 speed with the “StarTech.com x4 PCI Express to M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter Card - for M.2 NGFF SSD - interface adapter - M.2 Card - PCIe x4,” and that the SSDs would work in the motherboard M.2 socket at x1 speed.  (Some Dell Forum posters assert that the M.2 socket on the 8900 motherboard is SATA, not PCIe, but everyone seems to agree that PCIe x4 using an adapter card results in the fastest performance.)

The Rep. also pointed out that “Dell Serial ATA Solid State Hard Drive - 512 GB” is currently on sale for $170.  My understand is that the maximum data transfer speed of a SATA SSD is something like 5 times less than one using the PCIe x4 bus, but still faster than a conventional SATA spinning disk drive.

Can anyone report their experience using either of these VisionTek Pro SSDs, the StarTech adapter card, or the Dell SATA SSD (that I plan to use in a Dell OptiPlex 990)?

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@davidl11 wrote:

I have an XPS 8900 

the boot drive is a 256GB M.2 (2280) Samsung SSD. 

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If you supply the exact model number, we can look-it-up and see if it's PCIe/NVMe or (slower) SATA. I think that would prove what you need.

If it  * IS * PCIe/NVMe ... I think any of those drives will work. The "Pro" drives have a different kind of flash-memory in them and will reportedly last longer ... or just take more writes before dipping-into the (reserved) Over-Provisioning area of the drive.

The pro versions are MLC and the non Pro versions are TLC.

SSD's with Both B and M keys ARE NOT PCI-E.

Write endurance of SSD's

MLC  10,000 - 100,000  Writes then dead.

TLC   1000 - 5000  Writes then dead.

There is a reason why they cost less.

NGFF M2 KEYING

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@speedstep wrote:

The pro versions are MLC and the non Pro versions are TLC.

SSD's with Both B and M keys ARE NOT PCI-E.

Write endurance of SSD's

MLC  10,000 - 100,000  Writes then dead.

TLC   1000 - 5000  Writes then dead.

There is a reason why they cost less.

 

 

NGFF M2 KEYING

 

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Can you comment on the endurance of SLC SSDs in general or on the VisionTech PRO line of SSD?

Here is what I did

Bought NVME SSD

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BN4NJ2J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bought PCIe x4 card (since the onboard M.2 is crippled)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FU9JS94/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Had to use my own screw to hold the M.2 in (the NVMe was about .5mm too long, so yours might work, But it is easy to use any machine screw).

Installed the PCIe into the open x4 Pcie Slot

Followed the directions at :

https://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/29/the-best-way-to-clone-a-hard-drive-least-time-consuming-error-prone/

(used the free version of macrium reflect)

For cloning the exiting 2TB drive (if you want a bootable, then do all 3 partitions. Not just the C drive)

Use F2 on boot of the Dell to change the boot order.

All of this was very easy, and probably only took me about 30 minutes of my time (the clone took 14 minutes additional) but then the 2TB disk was pretty empty

I get full 3500 Mb/s transfer rates according the samsung wizard app. 

Piece of cake!

Just upgraded my XPS 8900 with a NVME WD Black ND750 SSD 1T.  It's now my boot drive and I can't believe how fast this is all running now.

I bought a PCIe card to install the gum stick M.2 on and it's sitting in that unused short 4X slot next to the graphics card. The card I bought still has room to run a SATA stick and is this one from Amazon Dual M.2 PCIE Adapter for SATA or PCIE NVMe SSD With advanced heat sink solution,M.2 SSD NVME (m key) or SATA (b key) 22110 2280 2260 2242 2230to PCI-e 3.0 x 4 Host Controller Expansion Card by YATENG

It was straight forward to install and I cloned my C: drive, shutdown, unplugged the SATA plug from the original boot drive and Window 10 took care of the rest.

Hi. I would also like to upgrade my boot drive to a SSD, but I have found this topic so confusing I'm not sure which models are compatible and which are not. I have an XPS 8900, and would like to use the M.2 slot for the SSD.

Will the Micron model below (MTFDDAV256TBN) work on my desktop as a boot drive? https://www.amazon.com/Micron-256GB-Solid-State-MTFDDAV256TBN/dp/B07BH7FRHP

Additionally, will I need any other parts, like a SSD board, or do I just plug this in the M.2 slot and I'm ready to go?

I would greatly appreciate any guidance on the subject. Thank you in advance for your help.

I recommend that you go to crucial.com and use their tool to find compatible SSDs. Here are the results I found: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-8900#ssd

I recommend that if you are using the SSD as the boot drive you get at least a 500 GB SSD. 

See the Service Manual for instructions on how to install the SSD in the M.2 slot. You will need the screw that holds the SSD down. I am not sure what size the screw is for the XPS 8900, but for the XPS 8910 it is M2x2.5.

Hi, I have a XPS 8900 and recently upgraded BIOS to 2.8.0. I would like to Purchase either a 2.5" SSD or a M.2 card SSD. I've read lots of posts and I think I understand the PCIe X1 issue versus X4 issue. From what I've read, I can either purchase a PCIe X1 to X4 add-on card for the PCI-express x16 slot or purchase a m.2 card for the 2nd m.2 slot in my PC. Now for my question:

What is the easiest method to add a 1TB SSD to my Dell XPS8900? I know the 2.5" SSD will be 6GB or slower and I'm guessing adding a compatible m.2 card to the existing m.2 slot will also be limited to 6GB or slower. Is it worth adding a PCIe add-on card to take advantage of the faster speed? 

My decision to get a SSD is because my HDD is now going on 5+ years old and I'm paranoid my HDD might fail and I'll lose everything. I've been backing up my data for years but when my system crashed and I completely reinstalled Windows, and none of my backups could be restored so I lost everything. I was using a free backup program.

For a primarily non-techie kind of guy, what 1TB SSD would you recommend? I've seen SSDs which claim to plug into the m.2 slot and have a built-in X1 to X4 for faster speeds but then I've read the XPS 8900 m.2 slot can't be faster than X1.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Although I'd love to have the fastest speed available, I don't have much luck doing very technical computer things. Thanks in advance for your help.

Bob

I think I would go with a 2.5" SSD. The XPS 8900 was one of the first with an M.2 slot, previous models had an mSATA slot. I think that support for the M.2 slot has evolved somewhat from what is in the XPS 8900. I would stay away from PCIe cards because some have reported issues with compatibility and ability to boot from the SSD.

For a 2.5" 1TB SSD, I would recommend a Samsung 860 EVO and not the Samsung 870 QVO. 

Benchmarks prove that an M.2 NVMe SSD is faster than a SATA SSD but there are lots of arguments that in real-world performance there is no noticeable difference. If you never had an SSD I think you will be pleasantly surprised; the fastest SSD is not going to overcome the limits of the CPU or memory affecting performance.