[SOLVED] Upgrade SSDs in ASUS Zenbook UX51VZ

[gnxum]

Hi

I have a 6 year old ASUS Zenbook UX51VZ (or U500VZ - not sure why it has two names). It was born with two 128 GB SSDs in RAID0 configuration.

I would like to upgrade the two SSDs to two times 256 GB or maybe even two times 512 GB. However, it seems the installed drives are not standard drives. I reached out to ASUS and they told me that I could buy two 256 GB drives from them for 470 € a piece. I told them thanks but no thanks.

I've been doing a little bit of googling and it seems there exists an adapter like this one on amazon, that will let me plug a standard M.2 SSD into my machine instead for a much more reasonable price:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PGBBL4V/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=AG4A6CPO0BVL1&psc=1

Does anybody have any experience with an adapter like that and knows if it can be done or not? And if it can, what do I need to look for when I pick the SSDs? Does my computer have an upper limit to how much storage it can handle? And do I need a specific interface or something like that on the drives I get? And if I do manage o install two compatible drives will I be able to set them up in RAID0 before I install Windows again?

The original drives in the PC are named SD5SE2-128G-1002E. They're seen on the image below.

Thank you in advance to anyone who's able to help me

/Dan

 

[Lutfij]

According to this review, the connector is proprietary and due to the internal chassis depth of your laptop, I don't think that the adapter you're looking at will be a functionally sound decision since it will add height to the connector and then some more with the drives installed.

Regarding the RAID array, I'd also ask you to not mess with it since you're going to have to recreate the RAID array once you replace the SSD's. If you're feeling brave, you can look at this thread to understand how to get into RAID mode.

Also, you might want to reconsider spending on a drive for the upgrade, like this, which is also supported on the laptop(based off of the review linked) but you're looking at faster, efficient NVMe drives for that price for higher capacity in an M.2 form factor.

My point, don't drop anymore money onto the laptop unless you've got money laying around.