Background
I am converting my Asus Tuf A16, an all-AMD budget gaming laptop (both CPU and GPU are made by AMD), into a Linux gaming laptop. The main purpose of this exercise is to see if gaming in Linux has become good enough for me to ditch Windows. I only use Windows for gaming and nothing else. If I can play games in Linux without much issues, then there is no need for me to have a Windows machine around.
I used to game on an all-AMD desktop I built myself and the A16 was purchased to replace it because I was moving into a smaller living space. After a few months, I had regrets about this purchase. I was surprised by how hot and loud the A16 got during gaming sessions. There were other issues as well. If I had to do it again, I would replace the desktop monitor for the all-AMD desktop with a portable monitor. That setup would not as small as the A16 but it would not take up much desk space either. It would definitely run cooler and quieter than the A16.
By the way, the original charger for the A16 stopped working after just one month of operation. Asus support was notoriously bad so I did not bother trying get a replacement charger from the company even though it was clearly still under warranty. I found a cheap no-name charger on Amazon and it worked just fine (still running as of this writing).
Procedure
Since the Asus Tuf A16 had an empty M.2 slot (two in total), I decided to install another SSD drive just for Linux and leave Windows drive along (for now). Removing the bottom panel on the Asus Tuf A16 was fairly easy.
There were a total of twelve Phillips-head screws on the bottom of Asus Tuf A16 as shown in picture above. One of them was captive where the screw stayed with the panel when loosened.
In addition to the screws, Asus used latches to hold the bottom panel and the chassis together. A common sight in today’s laptops, including my HP 14, that was a little annoying because a prying tool was needed to release those latches. Following advice found online, I started at the area near the captive screw and worked my way to the rest of the bottom panel as shown in picture above. Three of the four sides had latches and the back side did not have any. I used an iFixit opening pick (see below) as the prying tool. It did the job and did not leave any permanent mark on the laptop.
With the bottom panel removed, the A16 interior and the second and empty M.2 NVMe slot is shown in picture below. The first M.2 NVMe slot, both RAM slots, and a replaceable WiFi/Bluetooth communication module are all underneath the kapton tape. Too bad I do not have any interest to perform more hardware upgrades on this laptop so I left the kapton tape in its place.
I picked up TeamGroup MP44L 500GB from Amazon and installed it in the second slot as shown in picture below. It was not the fastest nor biggest SSD. However, this budget choice was more than adequate for my humble objective.
Putting everything back was straight-forward. Pushed the bottom panel onto the chassis with the sides properly aligned, the latches locked the two in the place. Tightened all twelve Phillips-head screws and I was good to go.
What’s Next
When I started working on this post, I had already successfully installed Debian 13 Trixie on the new SSD. When I finished the post, I also just wiped Windows 11 from the first SSD and turned it into a data drive for Debian. My home network is now strictly Mac and Linux. More on Debian and A16 later.
This post was composed in Firefox on my Asus Tuf A16 running Debian 13 Trixie. The pictures were taken with Pixel 8 and processed in GIMP and ksnip on the A16. No AI tools were used.