Today, we're going to disassemble a brand new Asus VivoBook model M515 in order to
install a 2.5" SSD. There are several configurations of the M515
which were released earlier this year, but this particular model has an AMD
Ryzen 5 5500u with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD. While 512 GB
is a respectable amount of storage, there are many reasons why you'd
want more than that. In my case, my wife said she needed more space...
so I bought her a 1 TB SSD. However, there is one caveat: though the
M515 has space for a 2.5" drive, it doesn't have the traditional
SATA connector, as you can see here on a different laptop. Instead, it has a ribbon
connector that requires an adapter, which I'll talk about a little later.
The SSD that I'll use is a run-of-the-mill 2.5" 1 TB
Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan SSD, though you can really use any 2.5"
SATA drive - whether it's a hard drive or an SSD. The only proprietary
item that you'll need is a hard drive cable connector. I bought this particular
one for around $13, and it has your familiar SATA data and power
connector on one end, as you see here, and a ten pin ribbon connector on the other
end. The link is in the description. Apparently, there's a 10 pin A version
and a 10 pin B version, which are used for different VivoBook models. The one
I'm using here is the B version. Now if you have a different VivoBook model,
you'll want to ask the seller which one you need,
Mine came as a kit, so a blue bracket with four screws are included, as well as
some double-sided adhesive and a couple of yellow rubber rails. The tools that
you'll need are a phillips-head screwdriver, and if your bit's too large
you may need a smaller precision screwdriver... and a triangular spudger or
some guitar picks will do in a pinch if you don't have one. And if you don't have
any guitar picks... you could use a spudger to play the guitar. At any rate, make sure
that it's not made out of metal to prevent scratching your computer. And
finally, an ESD strap or an ESD mat is always a good idea to prevent any
electrostatic discharge damage. Before I start, I'll enter the BIOS to find out
what existing hardware I have. After powering up, press the F2 key when you
see the Asus logo, which takes you directly into the BIOS. This dashboard
confirms that I have an AMD Ryzen 5 5500u with a total of 16 GB of
memory. In the middle of the screen, you'll see that the only storage i have
is a 512.1 GB Samsung NVMe SSD.
Let's shut down the computer and start dismantling.
With the laptop flipped over, you can see that I'm working with a model
M515UA-ES56, manufactured in April of 2021. There are 10 screws in total
that we'll need to loosen; the bottom four are shorter than all the others,
while this screw in the top center is slightly longer than these five. Just
make sure that you keep track of which screw goes where. I'll start with this
middle one, then work my way around clockwise from the upper left-hand
corner. As I reach the bottom row, you'll see that the screws are noticeably shorter.
After removing the last screw, we're ready to pry open the shell of the
laptop. If I hold the laptop right-side up, you can see the seam that we need to
separate. It's actually a very tight fit. On this side, we'll need to go under the
USB, audio and micro SD ports. Spinning around to the rear, we'll need to
carefully pry the seam open on either side of each hinge; and finally, the other
side has the seam traveling under the USB and HDMI ports.
I'll take the thinnest pick that I have and start on the left side - so I'll
rotate the laptop on its edge just to show you what I'm doing. You'll need to
squeeze the pick into the seam - and I'll keep that in as a placeholder. You
probably won't need to do this, but feel free to use multiple picks if you have
them. I'm just going to guide another pick along the seam, gently twisting the pick as I go along.
Then I'll go down the front of the laptop...
On the other side, I'll do the same thing, just following the seam underneath the ports.
Let me close the laptop now to show you the rear, where the hinges are. Here we
need to be a bit careful because the seam skips the hinges, creating three
distinct sections. You can see I have the small left section open... and then I'll go
to work on the long middle section. Again, slowly and gently guide the pick along
the opening while twisting it ever so slightly. And since the right section on
the other side of the right hinge was already loose, the shell will fall away as I approach the right hinge.
And here is the bottom half of the laptop.
I'll set that aside...
and let's take a look at the insides. There's this empty tray here that's
large enough to fit a 2.5" drive, so that's what we're going to
use for our SSD. The first thing you'll want to do is disconnect the battery,
which is attached to the motherboard by this one connector. To remove it, you'll
need to slide this small metal bracket up and away from you, as I'm doing here.
Afterwards, lodge a pick underneath this small white block, and pry it towards the
camera so that it pops up towards you. And with that, we've safely disconnected
the battery. Next, let's retrieve our 2.5" SSD and place it in the
tray. You can see that the tray is slightly larger than the drive, as it has
a bit of wiggle room. I'll go ahead and attach the blue bracket to the SSD with
the four screws that came with the kit.
Let's secure the two yellow rubber rails to either side of the drive, and let's
see how that fits in the tray. It's a pretty snug fit, so I probably won't need
the adhesive circles that came with the kit. So let's take the drive out of the
tray, and take a look at where we connect to the motherboard, which is right here.
I'll use a pick to lodge it underneath a small white clip to flip it open.
Now if we take a look at the cable itself, it has a metallic silver side and
an insulated blue side. What you'll want to do is slide it into the clip with the
metallic side down, so that it touches the contacts on the motherboard, just as
I'm showing here - after which you can flip the clip down and secure the ribbon.
Next, I'll take the SATA side of the ribbon cable and attach it to the SSD.
After placing it into the tray, you'll need to bend and twist
and turn the ribbon to find the best route to the motherboard.
There - that looks pretty clean.
Now, we're ready to reassemble the laptop, so all we need to do is go in reverse
order, starting with the battery. Let's reconnect the small white block to the
motherboard, then slip the metal bracket back on. Afterwards, I'll grab the bottom
cover and align it with the hinges and the holes, after which you'll simply want
to press down around the edges so that you hear those oddly satisfying clicks.
Don't forget to press down at the center. Finally, let's refasten the screws into
their respective holes. This time, I'll start with the short screw at the bottom
left corner and move counterclockwise...
and last but not least, I'll finish up with the middle screw.
To make sure that the new SSD is installed correctly, let's power up the
laptop again, and press F2 immediately to enter the BIOS. Zooming into the middle
of the dashboard, you can see that not only do we have the original 512 GB
Samsung NVMe, but also the 1 TB T-Force SSD that we just
installed. And after booting into Windows, you can now format the SSD in the Disk
Management utility and use it as secondary storage. And the best news is
that the wife has enough space for herself.
I hope you enjoyed! - Thanks for watching.