HP 255 G9 pre purchase decision

[VXVaayu]

Hi, I'm deciding to buy a laptop in the coming year, my main use case is to have a cheap portable workstation. I'm heavily swayed towards the HP 255 G9 (Ryzen 5 5625U) as it's a 6 core cpu that can reach over 4ghz. Plenty of cpu power, even better than the quadcore chips on the G10 series.

I have a couple of doubts tho-

1) Are there any models with a touch screen? (Even any upcoming models)

2) What generation of M.2 SSD does it support? (I'm planning to use an eGPU and want to know if it's a PCIe 4.0 x4 or 3.0 x4)

3) What is the maximum ram and speed support? ( On the 16gb ram model, how many sticks of ram come preinstalled and logically can I upgrade it to 32gb/64gb 3200mhz? Would be amazing if it was 16x1 instead of 8x2)

4) Are there any battery upgrades? (41Wh seems slightly low, I'm outside all day and often forget to keep a charger, getting a larger battery is well worthwhile for me)

Thanks for your time

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Here is the Service Manual which answers most of your questions:

Manual 

1. No touchscreens are listed in the equipment list

2. It appears from the specs that the M.2 slot is for Gen 3.0 PCie modules. Don't take that as having anything to do with an eGPU, however. An eGPU wpould be connected to the USB-C port and it would need to be Thunderbolt which this model does not have. In other words, an eGPU will not be possible. 

3. DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM max 32 gigs. 

4. The battery is what it is. It's a 3-cell and only the one type of battery will fit. 

Post back with any more questions. 

[VXVaayu]

Thank you for your quick response, there goes my plan for hooking up the eGPU via the m.2 slot, no touchscreen also a huge bummer, tho I don't get why it would only support 32gb, is it software limited? Anyway, I guess I'll sit out this laptop generation and maybe go for an alternative 

[Huffer]

32 gigs is the official maximum there is a chance it would take 64 gigs but my best guess is no on the AMD models.