Changing HDD to SSD and Upgrading Graphics Card

[scandino27]

Hello. In 2021, I purchased an HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop. When I selected the options for it, I elected to have a secondary 1tb hard drive to use for gaming. Recently, I learned that the secondary drive is an HDD while my smaller, main drive is an SSD. As new games require an SSD even for minimum settings, I would like to upgrade. I would also like to upgrade my graphics card, as I am currently using an NVIDIA GTX and they are on the way out. Is it possible for me to upgrade both on my own and what products do you recommend?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The GPU is an integral part of the motherboard and cannot be upgraded.

You didn't mention what size NVMe SSD your notebook came with, but if you want to replace it with a larger capacity drive, I recommend this one:

Amazon.com: SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280, Internal Solid State Drive, Storage for P...

Below is the link to the service manual:

Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion Gaming 15 Laptop PC

[scandino27]

Ah. That is unfortunate about the graphics card. I thought it would be separate as the processor (AMD Ryzen 7) has radeon graphics.

I'm not looking to change the SSD, which is the main drive (yet). I want to swap the HDD secondary drive for an SSD.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Gotcha.

I recommend this 1 TB 2.5" SATA SSD as an upgrade to the mechanical hard drive:

Amazon.com: Western Digital 1TB WD Blue SA510 SATA Internal Solid State Drive SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s,...

They also come in 2 TB and 4 TB storage capacities.

[scandino27]

Thanks for your help. You mentioned that integrated graphics cards cant be changed. Is the same true for dedicated cards?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Yes, none of the graphics adapters in any HP notebook are upgradable unless you have an HP business class mobile workstation that has a removable graphics card.