Advice on Hard Drives Set up for G751J

[james_ye]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking of upgrading my G751J to its maximum and one of the aspect is hard drives. Right now I have 2 SSHD 1 TB pre-installed in both bays. I'm planning to do what some adventurous owners had done in the past (https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58104-How-to-add-a-4th-drive-to-your-G751).

So my proposition, there will be total of 4 drives, Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III and 1 SSD PCIe (hoping i would get recommended for a certain model or series as I'm getting nowhere to choose) in Primary slot, 1 TB SSHD in secondary slot and 1 TB SSHD in Optical drive (replacing my blurray drive).

What kind of format should I be using for this set up to maximize above capacity?
Can I do Raid 0 for both SSHD in secondary bay and optical drive?

Feel free to advise any improvement.

Thanks,
James

[Clintlgm]

I would search up "aeolisio" threads he worked out this multi drives configuration in the G751 and even made a bracket for the SSD that would fit it under the hard drive in the 0 slot.
I guess you could run a RAID 0 on your two hard drives if you want to take them chances? There probably fast enough for storage as is. Of course you would want your OS and programs on the SSD

The 2.5 SSD doesn't matter its just a SATA drive. The SSD does matter and you'll have to get that info from aeolisio thread I believe it was a AHCI model Samsung 941, I don't remember so look it up. I do remember that units that didn't come with the SSD installed were difficult to get the SSD to show up and work.

[NeoBeum]

hey, I just saw this, I'll hop on my laptop, so I can post a proper reply...
I have 4 drives in my 751jy

[NeoBeum]

Using my phone to upload









brb pc


That is aeolisio's bracket with a Samsung 950 256GB, and a 850 Pro 512GB under it.

You will need to do a modification to the drive that will sit under the NVME, other wise - you will not be able to fit anything under it.
I highlighted the area in a picture above. U shaped Red.
The 850 Pro chassis will be unusable unless you have an Angle Grinder. It is metal.
You will also be voiding warranty.
Have a pentalobe driverset before you start. I threaded the head when I was rushing to do mine, and it added an hour to the labour. (I had to file a flat head into the sheared pentalobe head)

If you're lucky - ASUS would have configured the secondary SATA ports for full SATA III 6GB/s. Otherwise - it will be running 3GB/s.
There may be a configuration limitation to the HM87. I'm still looking at it all while I'm building the Custom Windows 10/Server 2016 Recovery for the G751.

RAID Configuration is working for me right now on the Desktop test build I have - but at the moment - the configuration in BIOS that has the best results for error is AHCI mode.

You will be able to use almost any drive - however - I recommend low power drives - the G751 - will - WILL throw errors enumerating drives if they are all spindle drives internal and then you start to connect drives via USB. The best I've managed to attach is 5 external drives before the controller had a spit. I'm not sure if it's because of lack of power driving the USB ports - or something else.


When you start tinkering yourself - the last image where I circled a screw is the screw you can leave out for the Optic drive.
I leave it out.

The Caddy you will need is a caddy that is 9mm or less.( Actually... get a 8mm or 7mm just to be safe if they have those... I have 2 sitting on my desk, and I don't have a ruler near by or a caliper) Anything greater, and you will not be able to Plug-n-play with that screw out, and you will need to remove the chassis to access the optic bay.

Um... if I forgotten something I'll add to this post later

Here's a link to the G751 project I'm currently doing, where I'm trying to fault find stuff related to the G751
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?94784-G751JY-Windows-Server-2016-All-Drivers-amp-Hardware-...

These are the SATA Ports as Windows sees them
\_SB.PCI0.RP05 - PCIE NVMe
\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT0 - Primary Bay
\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT2 - Optical
\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.PRT3 - Secondary Bay


OPTIC | SECONDARY | PRIMARY[NVME] - Layout looking at the picture with the screw circled

[james_ye]

Thanks @ PMClintlgm

@NeoBeum
That's almost what i want! So basically you have 3 SSD and 1 spinner(in Optical drive)?

I thought NVMe are not working for G751 laptops. I only saw only a handful of people got it right and apparently took time to figure things out. So how about for you?

I'm not sure but I believe my secondary bay is set for SATA II only. Or if there is a way to check?

Please let me know as I might need further guidance if you don't mind. I'm really bad in computer science.

Thanks in advance.

[Gps3dx]

NeoBeum wrote:

If you're lucky - ASUS would have configured the secondary SATA ports for full SATA III 6GB/s. Otherwise - it will be running 3GB/s.
There may be a configuration limitation to the HM87. I'm still looking at it all while I'm building the Custom Windows 10/Server 2016 Recovery for the G751.

I don't get it... how come same model with same spec ( hm87, same cpu, gpu, ram etc.. ) from factory - one got 2nd bay sata II and the other sata III ???
Any chance one can hex edit an unlocked bios to upgrade 2nd bat to support sata III ? ( W/O hurting the dGPU that sits on PCI-E x16 already, if there's any bus connection between the two, since one should use i7's "internal" north-bridge and the other ( hdd ) should be using the south-bridge.

@Dreamonic - any input would be appreciated... can the 2nd HDD bay be modded in the bios ?
I'm almost sure that the bios UI won't allow it, thus a hex/3rd party bin editing is required.

P.S - on my G751JT ( 4710HQ + G-Sync upgraded ) I got my 2nd bay on SATA II.... even the optical bay is Sata II ( not 1... to my surprise )

[james_ye]

Guys I'm confused with the info read from HWinfo64. Alright guys please find the attached screenshots from HWinfo64. Let me know what you guys think? Is my second bay is SATA III? Right now is equipped with 1TB firecuda SSHD.

I only have 2 identical drives, so I'm not able to swap the drives to find out about second bay if it's being SATA II or III.




Thanks

[Clintlgm]

James it appear from the picture that your 2 1TG drives are both running Gen 3 6 GBS SATA III and your optical drive is SATA 1.5 SATA II would be 3GBS
Then again in the 2nd shot it shows port 0 operating at SATA III and Port 3 operating at SATA II 3.0 GB. Its also stating that your SATA Controller is SATA III 6 GB and has 4 ports, I am also confused

[james_ye]

@Clintlgm
Definitely. Both data are quite confusing.

Is there any other way to know physical SATA supported interface for each slot/drive?

[Clintlgm]

My best guess is that your 0 port is SATA III and your 2 Port is SATA II, The M.2 port is SATA III, that is what was normal for the G751, it is reported here that some of the later manufactured units had SATA III on all three ports.