17.3 laptop i38130u

[kevinj2]

Full disclosure i have been away from HP in product since the old HP4 which was the greatest printer in the world. I digress. I have just purchased my first HP Laptop. got it on sale (hp 17 bs061st 17.3 ) but do not know the model name. Anyway a couple of questions. It comes w 8gb memory, can I/ should i upgrade to 16Gb and if so do I need the non ECC memory.

I heard after I purchased that HP has the worst reliability in the industry annually competing with ASUS with Mac and Dell on the opposite end of the spectrum. Is this true?

I got the i3 8130u processr which by benchmark beat out my 15 and 17  2nd gen processors on speed. I assume true by benchmark but is it sufficient for everyday use?

Lastly, is the HP solid, keybord and monitor to be opened every day and when travelling? I actually bought 2 and they arrive in a few days.

Thanks in advance.

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Are you sure of the specs? The 17-bs061st has the i3-7100U CPU. You can see here on the spec page. 

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-17-bs000-laptop-pc/15551424/model/16778713/document/c0553507...

Now it has 8GB of DDR4 2400Mhz RAM and one empty slot. So you can upgrade to 16GB without any problem. Actually HP DDR4 systems will run with 32GB of RAM, so that wouldbe the actual max.

On page 48 of service manual you can see the steps to upgrade RAM.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05963248

For everyday use 8GB should be enough and the CPU will perform well. The first upgrade I would perform for a noticeable improvement in overall performance would be to replace the mechanical hard drive with an SSD. This will have more effect than upgrading RAM in your everyday usage.

Now reliability I would say is real good and it depends which articles you read and where the info comes from. I have used many PCs and fix them everyday. HP has always been my favourite brand and I like the general feel of HP computers a lot.

Hope it helps,

David

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[kevinj2]

Thank you for the prompt response and I appreciate your candor. I am enclsoing the laptop link I purchased identifying the i3 8130u. I trust when it arrives it will reflecrt that....I hope as the 8130 is 8th gen v 7th.

https://www.staples.com/hp-laptop-17-by0061st/product_24327017

Appreciate the links to the manual for the upgrades.

Kevin

[iomare]

Hi Kevin,

The above reply was based on the model number you gave in your first post hp 17 bs061st

However the model you bought (in the link you gave me is the 17-by0061st , two different series and models. Yes this PC has the Intel® Core™ i3-8130U which will be great or everyday general use. Here is the spec sheet:

https://support.hp.com/sg-en/document/c06030457

It also has a different service manual. The RAM is still 16GB of DDR4 2400Mhz (2x8GB) with the actual max being 32GB (2x16GB).

On page 39 of service manual you can see the steps to upgrade RAM:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05986883

Now in this PC you should check if it has the M2 slot on motherboard. If the M2 slot is present (sometimes HP notebooks which did not come with M2 SSD are missing the actual physical slot on mother board) you could install a PCIe NVMe (superfast) SSD which would dramatically increase everyday performance of the PC.

On page 36 of service manual you can see how to remove the bottom cover (there are screws under the rubber feet which you can peel back to remove).

m2 slot1

So, please disregard the answer above as it was for a different model.

Let me know if you need further help,

David

[kevinj2]

Thanks again. Sorry I misstated the model. 

[iomare]

Your welcome Kevin.

No problem. Let me know if you need any help when you decide to perform the upgrades.

All the best,

David