Which SSD to use in Alienware 15 R2?

[ashutoshkhare21]

I have an old Alienware 15 R2 with 1 TB HDD. I have never looked inside it but it seems it has 2 slots for M.2 SSDs. So I'm planning to buy an M.2 SSD and install it myself.
But I'm bewildered as to which SSD to get for my machine.

I wanted to buy Samsung 960 EVO but I'm not sure if my Alienware would support M.2 SATA or M.2 NVME. I downloaded system specification for my laptop and it says that it has following storage specifications -

Interface - SATA 6 Gbps
Hard drive - One 2.5-inch drive
Solid-state drive - Two M.2 PCIe/SATA drives

It got me even more confused, is it PCIe or is it SATA? Would it work with 960 EVO or should I get 860 EVO? I really want to go with 960 EVO though if it supports it.

Please help me with this first step. Once I get through this, I will probably have to ask about using this SSD to boot my machine.

Thanks for help.

 

[USAFRet]

"Solid-state drive - Two M.2 PCIe/SATA drives"

Will work with either type m.2 drive, SATA or PCIe.

A SATA based drive will be exactly the same performance as a regular 2.5" SATA III drive.
A PCIe drive (960) is the faster, more expensive, ones.

m.2 is simply the form factor.

 

[ashutoshkhare21]

"Solid-state drive - Two M.2 PCIe/SATA drives"

Will work with either type m.2 drive, SATA or PCIe.

A SATA based drive will be exactly the same performance as a regular 2.5" SATA III drive.
A PCIe drive (960) is the faster, more expensive, ones.

m.2 is simply the form factor.

Thanks. So does this mean I can use 960 EVO NVMe with my laptop? Sorry for the naive questions but is PCIe analogous to NVMe and does it mean I can use any SSD, be it NVME or Sata i.e 960 or 860?

 

[USAFRet]

"Solid-state drive - Two M.2 PCIe/SATA drives"

Will work with either type m.2 drive, SATA or PCIe.

A SATA based drive will be exactly the same performance as a regular 2.5" SATA III drive.
A PCIe drive (960) is the faster, more expensive, ones.

m.2 is simply the form factor.

Thanks. So does this mean I can use 960 EVO NVMe with my laptop? Sorry for the naive questions but is PCIe analogous to NVMe and does it mean I can use any SSD, be it NVME or Sata i.e 960 or 860?

It seems you can use either the PCIe based 960 (faster, more expensive per GB), or the SATA based 860 (somewhat slower, less expensive per GB).