I’m looking for a 14inch model that is powerful enough for image/video processing, a good resolution screen (something like 2880x1800) and can support up to 4~8TB. That’s really hard to find!
I’m thinking of buying one of these, which looks perfect except for SSD size. It ships with 1TB and the page shows “Up to 2 TB PCIe® 4.0 x4”. Asus tech support says 2TB is the max but I’m not clear on whether this is the max supported or the max they considered selling it with (and therefore what support can see). From your experience, how likely is it that a brand new high end laptop in 2023 will have support that ends at 2TB?
Not exactly “from experience”, but it’s highly unlikely support ends at 2T. They’d have to intentionally screw it up.
You’ve probably spoken with one of those minimum wage follow the script support people who will be replaced by a LLM, not actual support that’s paid to solve actual problems.
Can you buy it, try it, if it doesn’t work return it? (99.9% , your 8TiB nvme will work just fine)
The only reason I can think of is if they somehow skimped on full 2280 or 22110 form factor and stuck to 2230 form factor, like the Steam Deck does. If this model is limited to 2230 or 2260 drives, then yes, 2TB could be the limit.
I suppose it is possible that they officially only support 2TB capabilities since they do not carry drives of higher capacity yet, just like the Steam Deck only officially support 512 GB SSDs. This does not mean there are no bigger drives; but it does mean 512 GB is the biggest one Steam Deck will come preinstalled with.
Like @risk mentions, if an 8TB fits (and it should), then it should also work. Do be aware you want an 8TB drive with a DRAM cache though, so Samsung 980 Pro, Western Digital SN770, Kingston KC3000 or Adata Gammix S50 Lite to mention a few top contenders.
My Tuxedo is 14" and has 2x M.2 80mm slots and I can plug anything in there.
So unless you buy a laptop with vendor lock, everything fits. Laptop with 2 slots will save quite a lot of money if you want 8TB storage, as 4TB M.2 are somewhat cost efficient while 8TB are ridiculously overpriced.
It may also be wise to only use one sided SSDs, which would limit you to 2TB (depending on SSD vendor,) because of the small form factor. You need to also consider the cooling in a notebook. My friend bought an ASUS gaming laptop and I installed a one sided 2TB SSD in it. It needed a low profile heat sink which barely fit in the chassis or it would overheat and throttle.
You may be better off going with external SSD storage for larger capacities, i.e. Crucial X6/X8.
Which also points to another problem in laptops. Power draw. You don’t want a Samsung 980 Pro in a laptop. It will just suck the battery dry in no time + probably cooling problems.
I use WD blue and Samsung 980 in my Laptops. These are very power efficient and have great power states and are PCIe 3.0 drives, very sane and lightweight controllers and capacity of 1 (980) or 2TB (WD blue)
If you want a laptop mainly for mobility, don’t get gas guzzling PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives if you like high battery life.
There’s also the issue with certain laptops not having any consideration for airflow over the SSDs, which was the problem in my friends laptop. I believe I had him purchase a PCIe 3.0 drive because 4.0 would have been a waste as it wasn’t supported in his model.
But yes, I agree, lower wattage and more power efficient drives are what should be used in a laptop.
[quote=“wertigon, post:3, topic:197919, full:true”]
The only reason I can think of is if they somehow skimped on full 2280 or 22110 form factor and stuck to 2230 form factor, like the Steam Deck does. If this model is limited to 2230 or 2260 drives, then yes, 2TB could be the limit.[/quote]
Found a youtube video where a guy opened up the same laptop which Asus sent him to review it and he sees this. Am I right to read this as the 2280 form factor?
Thanks. It’s really hard to find an 14inch i9 laptop with two slots and a high screen resolution. I see Origin PC with one that’s pretty close but it’s either i7 with good resolution or i9 with less, sigh. This one really fits my needs aside from the SSD
Hmm, I hadn’t considered single vs double sided being an issue. The one in the images I’ve seen installed is single sided. Not sure if it can take double. Hopefully I can find a single sided 4TB if not. USB drives get annoying flapping around so I’m trying to maximize what I have internally, even if sped takes a little hit
Took a risk and bought an 8TB drive. Works like a charm! I ended up installing the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 8TB after reading some more reviews. Amazing how little Asus’s own tech support knows!
Thanks again for all the help. Wanted to post this in case it helped anyone else in the future
