Lenovo T450 M.2 Slot

2 Exclusive with M.2 SSD. 3 Integrated models only. 4 No longer available on Lenovo Australia and New Zealand online store. 5 Windows 8.1 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 7 Professional through downgrade rights in Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit are no longer available on Lenovo Australia and New Zealand online store. So awhile back I was looking for a laptop and finally picked up the T450. I have a question about M.2 ssd and this laptop. I read around and some people say it works as a boot drive and some say it doesnt. The M.2 slot on the this laptop has 1 notch and Ive seen some M.2 ssd drive have 1 and 2 notch cutout.

Been out of the loop since my T430s, now was thinking to get T450 since I see a few good deals. I noticed Lenovo complete revamped their line up with no external optical drive for 450 (thus, no caddy option for a 2nd drive) and you need to take the whole laptop apart to get to the main hard drive (assuming 2.5' only, either 9.5mm or 7mm with an adapter?). Here is a dilemma, T450 model I was looking into comes with 128GB ssd, good to run OS but not enough storage for media files. If I upgrade it to 1TB or 2TB (dirt cheap now under $100), all these high capacity drives only come in 5400rpm flavor. I seen some 1TB with 7200rpm but only in 3.5'. Fine for storage, but 5400rpm going to cripple OS and running programs.
So what are my upgrade options? Does T450 comes with mSATA and can I upgrade it, or is there just a slot for it? If it does, wondering if I can get something like Sammy 850 EVO 250GB mSATA ($92) for OS and programs, and get 1TB or 2TB for storage (any recommendations?).
What do you guys/gals think?

In this guide, I’ll be taking apart a Lenovo ThinkPad T450s in order to access and upgrade the hard drive, SSD and RAM.

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1. Removing the bottom cover

First of all, unlock and remove the battery.
Remove all screws securing the bottom cover. Pry up and remove the cover.
You can use a guitar pick or any other piece of plastic to split the case.

Under the bottom cover you can get access to the following internal components:
– Hard drive
– RAM slot
– M.2 slot
– Internal battery
– Heat sink and Cooling Fan
– Wireless card
– CMOS battery
– Speaker

2. Upgrade the RAM

The ThinkPad T450s comes with 4GB DDR3L-1600MHz RAM, but it’s also has a spare RAM slot.
In my case, I will add a Kingston 8GB RAM.

Lenovo T450 M.2 Slot Car

Here’s my new Kingston 8GB DDR3L-1600MHz RAM.

3. Upgrade the SSD

Here’s WWAN M.2 slot, I will install a Plextor 2242 M.2 SSD into the slot.

Lenovo T450 M.2 Slot Machine

4. Upgrade the hard drive

Lenovo T450 M.2 Ssd Slot

The T450s comes with HGST 500GB 7200RPM hard drive. If necessary, you can upgrade to a larger capacity hard drive, or replace it with a 2.5″ SSD.