Question About M.2 Slots on My Laptop

[LIQMAN007]

I was told my Alienware 17 laptop had 2 or 4 additional M.2 slots in addition to the regular storage slots. I'm not sure if this is true but if it is and I utilize these slots will it help my laptop performance?
Also what type and size M.2 should I use and what kind of performance change should I expect?

 

[Bsanders31]

I believe your computer would have room for 2 Sata drives and 2 nvme drives but I'm just guessing (most modern gaming pcs do) so if you're talking about an SSD when you say m.2 then yes it will certainly help performance. You will just need to decide whether you'd like to purchase an nvme SSD, which is the faster of the 2 but much more expensive or an M.2 Sata SSD, which is still much faster than an HDD but limited by the Sata drive to the 6gb/s. In general, an nvme drive reads at anywhere between 1500 and 3500 mb/s while a Sata m.2 usually tops out around 540mb/s. You should Google or youtube "sata m.2 SSD vs. Nvme Gen3x4 SSD" and I think it will steer you in the right direction. Next you'll need to figure out exactly how many of these different types of interfaces are available on your particular laptop and finally, you'll need to decide which will work best for you, budget wide. Just remember nvme SSD>Sata SSD>HDD but higher speeds generally cost more.