Lenovo Legion 5 17ACH6H - add SSD and maybe other upgrades?

CSR

Purchased in Dec 2021 and running out of hard drive space. Has a 1TB Samsung SSD mzvlb1t0hbl. Looking to fill 2nd slot with a 2TB SSD (I hate having to worry about space...)

Questions:

1) What would people recommend for a 2TB drive to add?

2) If the 2nd SSD is faster (may not need to be) then would it make sense to shift my boot drive to that one? And if so, how difficult would that be? I assume I may be able to just clone the current one over and go from there.. idk. (usage is mostly gaming and watching streaming stuff)

Side questions:

1) what would I need to open the laptop up? Simple kit to use?

2) While in there would it make sense to replace the modem? It came with a Realtek RTL8852AE Wifi 6 802.11ax PCIe Adapter

3) anything else make sense to upgrade or consider? I plan to keep this laptop for a while...

Thanks!

Rye_Bread

Hey, CSR!

1) Looking at the spec sheet for your specific laptop, it looks like one of your slots is a M.2 2242 (tiny boi) and the other one is a M.2 2280 (regular). Based on the model of the Samsung SSD you provided, the 2280 slot is already filled. From what I can tell, Micro Center doesn't stock the 2242 SSDs at the moment. If Lenovo's spec sheet is mistaken (which sometimes happens with slight changes in revisions) and you can fit a M.2 2280, the Crucial P3 and the Samsung 970 EVO Plus are two of my favorites for secondary drives. Check for the correct standoffs and/or markings to make sure.

2) As for moving the boot drive, I'd leave it as is. The existing SSD should already be a Gen 3, and there's not a slot for a Gen 4 from what I can tell. Even a slightly faster Gen 3 wont make a noticeable enough difference to make it worth the time and effort (in my opinion).

1) For opening up laptops and other devices, I tend to recommend the iFixit Essential toolkit. Has everything you need to get going and it's not super pricey. Plus, stickers!

2) I would not touch the network card unless you're specifically having issues with it.

3) Going to 32GB of RAM is probably the only other worthwhile upgrade I'd do, assuming you plan on keeping it for a while. It's not necessary, but can help with futureproofing as some upcoming AAA games are starting to list 32GB of RAM on their spec requirements.

While you're in there, familiarize yourself with the fans and cooling setup, and plan on opening it up every so often to make sure there's no buildup of foreign material.

Best of luck!

Spec sheet:

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/Legion/Lenovo_Legion_5_17ACH6H/Lenovo_Legion_5_17ACH6H_Spec.pdf

 

CSR

Thanks for the great info! I probably have the m.2 2242 then... so that would limit me to a 512gb drive then for a 2nd one I suppose. I appreciate the help! I did see a 1tb and 2tb options by SABRENT (Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2242 DRAM Less Low Power Internal High Performance SSD) but seems the Legion spec say 512gb max. idk if that is an option or not.