Seeking a *real* user manual or at least decent documentation

[Hugh-2]

Just customized and bought a new PC and did my best to know what I was getting (!) but some questions remain. It arrived with no user manual and there is none online. For this series HP provides only a generic kind of brochure, I mean they don't even spec the memory or the video or the slots, they do not say a word about Optane nor how to use the M.2 slot(s), it's pitiful.

Trying to buy a monitor and need to know what video resolutions are supported by this PC (basic Intel 630 GPU) and at what refresh rates. (Don't care about games, but I'd run MS Office at a lower resolution with a higher refresh if I could -- better for the eyes).

Went to Intel looking for this info and they said, ask your computer company! Argh.

Pretty sure this is a Berks motherboard but they do not say. I am new to these M.2 slots and now that I have an optane module in mine, if I want to add an SSD to my mechanical drive all I can add is SATA in a drive bay -- I think. A manual might tell me that but THERE ISN'T ONE.

Okay you see a few questions, I was hoping that HP would put this info in a document that you could point me to, but in the meantime any information tidbits would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

What is the product number of your PC?

Use this guide to find that information.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07555

There will be no manuals or decent guides, but there should be some general info regarding memory upgrades, ports, slots, etc., on the specs page.

You can look up the Intel 630 GPU supported resolutions on the Intel website.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/products/98909/graphics-drivers/graphics-for-7th-gen...

[Hugh-2]

Thanks for the quick reply but

1) I think the last four digits of my model number are irrelevant, the way HP builds these. The problem extends to nearly all computers in that 795 custom-build (CTO) product series. I spent a couple of hours chatting and talking and emailing with HP support and the first person said basically if you custom-build a computer they won't document it and you are up the proverbial creek.

Seriously. Nearly all the consumer-level PCs they sell mostly use a couple of different motherboards and a couple of different power supplies and a handful of different chips. The specialized video cards can be documented separately.

A freshman in college IT could do a programming project to create an automated system that could throw together a customized document, explaining all the components that the user has specified and how to use them, etc. It is not rocket science.

2) I already went to the Intel website, as described in my first post, hoping to find video specs for the  630 GPU. What do you think they said? LOL they said to ask either the computer company or the monitor company. That's why I came here, as I explained.

I'm basing my monitor shopping on the display output possible from the computer. I don't have a huge wallet and I am trying to get a balance between economy and performance, and supposedly these Intel products offer that. But without specific details you can waste hundreds of dollars in building the total system.

Case in point: color depth. For aesthetics and for optical health I would like to have genuine 8-bit (or higher) color. This gets you 16 million colors without the artifacts of FRC. Cheaper monitors -- up to $200 and many beyond that -- can't display that much color depth without cheating, they are 6 bits with 2 more created by interpolation. And so on.

Color depth is just one spec. As noted I want to see what kind of refresh rates the 630 will give me and at what resolutions, etc. I was all over that Intel website and you can't find this kind of data which, 20 years ago, any video adapter would give you on a single page of its manual. Or any monitor. It's nuts!

3) My specific model number is not necessary to explain the configuration of all the slots on this motherboard. Why do some Envy models have a Wifi adapter on an M.2 slot? Is that something a user can add post-purchase? And so on and so on.

Anyway this is turning into a novel, sorry! Thanks again for your response.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you any further.