Dell G5 15 5500 2.5 hard drive installation

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From the service manual, the drive appears to sit with the long side parallel to the notebook side, and that it requires removing a thermal shield over the second M.2 connector (and also requires a bracket and interposer cable to connect to the system board):

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/04/g-series-15-5500-laptop/dell-g5-15-5500-service-manual/installing-the-hard-drive?guid=guid-79e66086-81b8-4a27-81a1-4cc577342c20&lang=en-us

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knengt1983,

This section lists the storage options on your Dell G5 15 5500. 
Your Dell G5 15 5500 supports one of the following storage configurations: •One M.2 2230/2280 solid-state drive 
•One 2.5-inch hard drive and one Intel Optane 
•One 2.5-inch hard drive and one M.2 2230/2280 solid-state drive 
•One M.2 2230 solid-state drive and one M.2 2280 solid-state drive 
The primary drive of your Dell G5 15 5500 varies with the storage configuration. For computers: •with an M.2 drive, the M.2 drive is the primary drive 
•without an M.2 drive, the 2.5-inch drive is the primary drive 

Table 1. Storage specifications

Storage type 

Interface type 

Capacity 

2.5-inch hard drive 
 
SATA AHCI, up to 6 Gbps 
 
Up to 2 TB 
 

M.2 2230/2280 solid-state drive 
 
PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 
 
Up to 1 TB 
 

M.2 2280 Intel Optane storage 
 
PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 
 
Up to 512 GB 

Just bought a new Dell G5 15 5500.

This computer comes with 2 PCIe slot.  One of the slot, the Primary device comes with 512 Gb NVMe.

The second slot is empty and I want to add another M.2 SSD NVMe with capapacity of 1 TB. From the Dell manual it seems that this slot can accept up to 512 GB only.

Will this Dell model accept any third party (Samsung, Kingston, Crucial)  PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe drive? And is there any limitation on the capacity? maybe up to 2 TB.

Please help.

Thanks

Hello. The system does support storage up to 1 TB on NVMe slot. The same can be found at https://dell.to/3gVOFgf on page 15 under storage. However, it is recommended to purchase a drive from Dell to ensure you get warranty on the upgraded part in case of any hardware failure. However, if purchase the drive from 3rd party store then the warranty on the hard drive will not be honored. ^MP

• My G5 15 5500 doesn't have a bracket/heatshield installed for a 2nd M.2 drive. Tech support referred me to sales, and sales referred me to a third party, and third party says they cant help. How do I therefore add a second M.2 SSD? 

Newpc4me,

Contact our spare parts department at the link here to see if they have it in stock.

Hi, I was also confused about this. The Dell G5 5500 service manual shows two different possible configs depending on battery size. In the config with larger battery you get two m2 nvme drives. On builds that have the smaller battery you config you get an m2 nvme drive (root drive) and also a 2.5" SATA HDD slot. 

I noticed someone mentioned a 512GB limit on the m2 drives. This is not true. As the manual says, the board you get will either support m2 type 2060 or 2080 (those specs imply physical dimension on the drive itself/space needed inside the laptop to accommodate the standard size, not speed limitations). If the board supports a 2080 m2 nvme drive then it supports that standard and you can install a 4TB m2 nvme drive in the slot if you wanted to.

On my G5 5500 with RTX 2060 I got the board config with the larger battery (as I was expecting). No option for  2.5 HDD but there is an extra empty slot for an additional 2280 m.2 nvme. I installed an extra 1TB Samsug 970 EVO Plus drive and also bumped the memory up the 32-GB while I was inside. All is well

If you do any upgrades yourself, be carefully opening the G5 the ribbon to battery for the base plate LED light pulls out easy and is difficult to get back in place. It won't do any harm disconnected (other than you loose the baseplate blue bar) but took me 30 minutes to get it back in.

Having this exact same issues. Dell advertises the G-series as upgradable but then doesn't make it easy to upgrade the G5 15 5500 with a 2.5 SSD without a proprietary mounting bracket that is not included. Please let me know if you found a solution.

So the second m.2 slot it had nothing. No screw. No heat sink/mounting bracket. I had to go buy these things, actually borrowed a screw from an external m.2 casing I had which fit perfect. 

Careful getting the case open. The G5 5500 case is the most difficult laptop case that I've had to pry into. You have to use a bit of force to get it open and when you do you're going to pull out the power ribbon for the LED (blue) light on the bottom of the case. It's a very short ribbon. Just be prepared to buy some electrical masking tape, they use that to attach it at the factory and the tape is designed for single use so it won't hold it.  

It's the most annoying laptop case design I've ever dealt with for upgrades. Sad because my previous model (Dell [Inspirion] 7577 GTX 1060 model) had a single screw securing the bottom panel. Design philosophy complete opposite on the two, which just goes to show Dell doesn't really have good design. I don't think anyone is buying Dell for their design in fact, just the reputation for reliability and support. 

@Jdeats did your laptop come with the mounting bracket/heatsink already in it or did you purchase one from Dell or elsewhere? I purchased my laptop with a M.2 SSD in slot 1 but would like to add a second one to M.2 slot two, but it doesn't have the mounting bracket in it. 

That’s exactly what I needed to know! Thank you for that info! 

All you need is a screw to secure the secondary m.2 drive. The stock (root) m.2 that comes with the 5500 does have a heatsink/mounting bracket, but I've had several notebooks from other vendors (Lenovo and HP and my Dell 7577) where the M.2 was just attached to the slot and secured with a single screw. The screw needed is the same size as the screws used on the bottom of the case, it's a standard m2 screw size.

Have a look at this. If you can get Dell to sell you the heat sink used for the other m.2 drive go for it. 

https://www.amazon.com/CO-RODE-Notebook-Computer-Samsung/dp/B01FTI8TM8/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=m2+screw&qid=1597874394&sr=8-5

The case was definitely a PITA to get open, though I was able to do it without disconnecting the ribbon cable. I did have one of the screw bases break off though so I'll have to try and glue that back on eventually, if I even bother with it.

I had actually purchased a 2.5" SSD to install, but mine had the larger battery too and it wouldn't fit, so I had to return it and order one for the M.2 slot. I found a kit on Amazon for $4 that had a heatsink and screws and everything so I have that on the way now. 

Overall this laptop has been great for what I needed. The specs and price were comparable or better than the competition for what I wanted to spend, though they could definitelty have done more to make it easier to work on and upgrade. The materials don't bother me too much as I mostly use it while docked and don't use the keyboard a ton. One thing I will give them is that a lot of these size laptops have dropped the full size key and num pad, but I do love having a full keyboard on my G5. I haven't noticed a lot of marking on the wrist wrest, but again, I don't use the laptop keyboard all that much.   

One last question for you, I ordered mine with 16gb RAM with intentions of upgrading to 32gb at some point. I don't really do any gaming with this, it's really just a glorified work/study/media laptop for me. As mentioned, the specs for the money were better than moving up to a business class laptop though, plus I liked the look and features of the G5 case better than a plain old business laptop. However, you can never have too much speed, memory, or storage. This isn't slow by any means for what I do, did the jump to 32gb make a noticeable difference for you, and do you game a lot on yours? What brand RAM did you go with? Just trying to decide if it's worth the money at this point.