If you've been researching on gaming laptops lately you might have become aware of a pattern. Specifically, gaming laptops have become more affordable at the expense of delivering less storage and less RAM whilst allowing the user to upgrade these components on his own if he wishes to do so. The Acer Predator lineup is no exception to this.
We've already explained in detail how to upgrade the RAM on the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S and today we're going to explain how to upgrade the storage on the PH315-54-760S.
Specifically, this model comes with an internal storage of 512 GB of SSD. However, it also features an additional NVMe slot for those looking to get a bump in both storage and speed, as well as a SATA slot where you can opt to insert either a Hard Drive (not recommended these days) or a 2.5-inch SSD SATA.
Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S Storage Upgrade in 3 minutes or less
What type of storage does this laptop support?
As mentioned previously, the
Helios 300 PH315-54-760S features both a SATA bay and an NVMe slot. Specifically, for the SATA bay you're going to need a
2.5-inch SATA SSD and for the NVMe slot you're going to need a
PCIe Gen.3x4 SSD. If you're stuck between the two and only want to upgrade one slot we would seriously recommend you go for the NVMe SSD. That's because the read/write speeds are up to 6 times higher than the SATA SSD, meaning you're getting a lot more bang for your buck.
Storage Upgrade Step-by-step
For this tutorial we're going to explain how to upgrade both storage options, there's going to be a generic set of steps to access the internals of the laptop and then a series of steps tailored to the type of storage you're upgrading. In either case, you're going to need a screwdriver a pry device -
such as this one - to pry open your laptop.
Step 1: Turn off your laptop, place it upside down, and remove the screws attaching it. Once you're done removing the screws you need to use your pry to open the laptop lid from the sides like so:
Step 2: Now you've got your laptop's internals exposed and you should disconnect the battery. Remove the tape attaching the battery and disconnect it like so:
How to upgrade the NVMe storage on the PH315-54-760S:
Step 1: Locate the NVMe slot. It's located just above the battery on the right-hand side, on the side of the RAM.
Step 2: Remove the screw located on the side of the NVMe slot. Grab your NVMe storage unit and screw it into place with the screw you removed and insert it into the pins:
Now you've successfully inserted an NVMe storage unit! Congrats!
How to upgrade the SATA Storage on the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S
To do this you're going to need the 4 screws that come with the laptop as well as the connection cable that came with it. Here's what that looks like:
Step 1: You're going to use your screwdriver to remove the 2.5-inch SSD tray located on the left of the battery. Once you've removed the tray you're going to insert your storage unit within the tray and screw it on with the four screws that came with the laptop like so:
Step 2: Screw it back into the storage bay and connect the connector to the end of the SATA storage unit. It should be noted here that you can either use an
SSD SATA unit (recommended) or an
HDD storage unit. The SSD will give you read/write speeds above the 500 MBps whilst the HDD will have a hard enough time going above 100 MBps so it's your call.
 |
Insert the connector onto the storage unit.
|
Step 3: Finally you want to connect the connector to the motherboard, otherwise your laptop won't recognize having any additional storage. This is very simple, simply open up the clasp located right next to the unit and insert the connector there like so:
Finishing touches
Now that you've connected either an NVMe storage unit or a SATA SSD, in either case you need to plug the battery back on. Close the lid, place the screws back on and turn on your laptop. You're going to need to add the new partitions in "Disk management" otherwise the laptop won't recognize the new storage units. And that's it, you've successfully upgraded the storage on the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S.
