Upgrade help and info

[Photoray002]

I will say you can install "most" games as far as I know. I have my Steam, Origin and other stuff like older traditional games on my secondary drive. There are lots of tutorials on how to transfer those files over.  I created a folder for each UI to put them in.

Certain things like Windows Apps, while those can be installed on a secondary drive, should be kept on the C drive. Certain apps can break functionality if not.

[Gruntwerkz]

Awesome, thank you much. I'm also going to order the NMMe drive Friday, once it arrives I should be able to test speeds myself to see if I'm getting 3x2 or 3x4 correct?

[Photoray002]

Yes you can do that. Keeping fingers crossed they run x4, then you're golden.

CrystalDiskMark is a good tool to use... https://crystalmark.info/en/download/

[Gruntwerkz]

Okay I’ll give it a shot then, guessing I should install the OS then all the drivers, then try testing it on both ports?

[Gruntwerkz]

So quick check in, I’m confused because a google search of the liteon drives says it’s SATA, now m2 SATA is limited to the 600MB/s correct?

I tested the installed 128gig and it must be running in PCIe 3x2? Check out the results. A SATA m2 wouldn’t have reads that high would it? I notice when looking at reviews for high end 3x4 drives the numbers are much higher. Curious if you think there would be a noticeable increase from a better drive? The stock drive shows up as liteon CA3-8D128-HP.

[Photoray002]

According to the manual (page 2) linked on the first page of this thread, it states HP shipped this series with only NVM3 drives, including the 128GB M.2. Liteon is a budget drive to begin with so I would expect those speeds.

[Gruntwerkz]

@photoray002

I was just surprised because a quick search of that drive led me to believe that it was SATA based, but obviously based on speeds it’s PCIe.

i’m just wondering if it’ll be worth the effort of migrating the OS to a new drive, if I’ll really see much improvement for day to day use or regular gaming. I could just install a second m2 drive and move my steam games over there, as well as my other files then I would be okay with the 128gb primary. I know you said most average users won’t see a substantial difference, just wonder if there would be any at all since the liteon is a cheap drive.

[Photoray002]

Well, what is your main goal here? If you can deal with the speed you have now, I would simply leave it alone and save my money. You could get a bigger drive for game storage and if its an SSD, would speed up the games loading times a lot over a traditional HDD.

You will get lots of different opinions on this subject. 😏   In my personal opinion,  a different drive will be faster on a "benchmark", but in real world naked eye performance for what you're doing, you wont see much difference if any. If you get a bigger SSD, you can absolutely use it for storage only, or use it for the main drive.  This is the point where you have to decide what you feel is best for you. 👍 

Do keep this in mind... If a laptop is new and you remove the original drive, don't wipe it or lose it. Leave it as is until the warranty is up. If you remove that drive and use a different one, then send it in for repairs with that new configuration, HP can void the warranty as I pointed out earlier. It has to be sent back in the original configuration you bought it in, if you ever do need warranty service.  So it might be easier just adding a second SSD for storage and call it good if you cant decide what to do.

[Gruntwerkz]

Well, my ultimate goal is to increase speed if I can, but it’s already super fast with load times. I was reading some reviews of high end NVME drives and I seen a lot of people mention the same thing, well benchmarks were higher they only noticed a slight difference in actual speed.

second issue was storage, I have the 128gb nearly full and haven’t put anything on the HDD. I don’t care to use the HDD so I’ll swap in a spare SATA SSD I already have for that. Looks like my easiest option is to just add a second M2 SSD and migrate my steam over there along with storage of all my school files.

if the difference won’t be substantial in performance (in terms of standard use) then its likely a waste for me to change the boot drive.

thanks again for your help and either way I’ll be sure to safe the stock drives and keep the data intact in it!

[Gruntwerkz]

@photoray002

wellp, yesterday I was bored so I decided to open up the omen to see how the configuration is. Well, under the heat sink for the m2 SSD, there is no second m2 port. It’s odd because the heat sink is setup for the 2, and there’s a second post but not a second m2 port.

so it looks like I will have to just replace the boot drive unfortunately, I’m going to order one Monday, at least 256gb. Should I save all the drivers on a USB drive?