Hp Envy 17.3" memory and SSD upgrades

[E-jay]

Well I've just purchased an Hp Envy 17-ae108ca, i7-8550U cpu, and is currently equipt with 16gb DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB) Ram, and a 1 TB 7200 Sata HD, and a Nvidia mx150 video cardwith 4GB. This unit is NOT equiped with a 4K monitor, but it is touch screen with a FHD IPS 1920 x 1080. It will be used daily for Photo editing, and film editing, and if I find it not up to the task I'd like to do some minor upgrades to the unit with memory and the hard drive.

So, I would like to know about two (2) items in question, the first is rather complicated - that being since this model came from the factory with a 1 TB HD and NO SSD - here's part a) can a 250 GB PCi-e NVMe internal SSD drive be added and used for boot up and then - part b) can I keep the 1TB drive as a backup storage Drive.

I only ask because I've talked to a number of tech's that have told me 'yes and no'. Their reasons are rather simple, "if it came from the factory with a 1TB drive, the likely hood of HP attaching (soldering) a PCi-e NVMe connector to the motherboard is slim to none."

Secondly I've seen this same model sold with 32 GB of Ram, so I'm going out on a limb and concluding that these are 2 x 16 GB memory cards and not 4 x 8 GB cards. So the question is, how many slots are available for memory on this platform? I'm hoping it's not two (2) slots if you purchased a unit that has 16GB, and four (4) slots if you purchased a unit that has 32GB. 

Obviously by the questions, you should be aware that the laptop will be arriving on Wed. or Thurs. so it's not yet in my possession.

Any help would be appreciated, many thanks in advance - E-jay 

[visruth]

Specs: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c05804877

Page 2, 33, 35: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05635976

Video for upgrade: https://h20574.www2.hp.com/Media/BB0BBA72-60F0-4744-AFB9-91E3E1C87D23/ran_PCPFILES/SML/FruVideo/ran_...

2 slots available for RAM, each supporting upto 8gb. You have 16gb with two sticks in it.

M.2 2280 SSD slot present : either SATA or PCIe NVMe can be put in this.

[erico · Accepted solution]

Maintenence & Service guide on page 2

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05635976

Support for all 7.2mm/9.5mm, SATA 2.5" hard drives

Support for next generation form factor (NGFF) M.2 solid-state drive, with SATA/Peripheral Component

Interconnect Express (SATA/PCI)e co-layout port

Support for solid-state drive + hard drive

Support for M.2 solid-state drive (support storage function, assuming solid-state drive >= 128G, Port1)

Accelerometer / hard drive protection support

Single hard drive configurations:

●1TB (7200) 9.5mm/7mm

Dual storage configurations:

●128 GB SATA TLC solid-state drive (Value) + 1 TB (7200) hard drive

●256 GB PCIe NVMe TLC solid-state drive + 1 TB (7200) hard drive

●256 GB PCIe NVMe Value solid-state drive + 1TB (7200) hard drive

PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 solid-state drive

●360 GB

●512 GB

●1 TB

PCIe NVMe Value M.2 solid-state drive

●512 GB

According to the manual there is support for SATA and M.2 CIe NVMe SSD products.

32 GB  installed memory is not published as being a supported configuration.

[E-jay]

So to the best of your knowledge, if the unit I've purchased only came equiped with a 1 TB Sata drive, adding a SSD can be installed but it would be replacing the 1 TB drive, because you would require a caddy to house the SSD, and it would ultimately be placed where the 1 TB Sata was sitting. Am I reading this right? I'll be studying the manual now that you've included a link. Many thanks for that.

As far as the memory goes, I suspect the 17" Envy units available with 32gb Ram are American, and as the tech's here have told me, those units are configured differently from the units and models here in Canada.

Again, many thanks for your help. E-jay

[visruth]

@E-jay


There is dual drive support.

M.2 SSD slot is present separately.

No need of replacing HDD. I'm not sure why there is a confusion.

Please read the responses above and the Manual completely

Do you have any links to American models of this laptop which have 32gb RAM support?

The whole model series which shares hardware like the model you selected, have 16gb max support with 2 slots.

[E-jay]

 Well there are a few up here in Canada, this place offers the 32gb version. NewEgg Canada, which I believe is a third party online seller. As far as providing you with spec's as to how it was done.... no I don't know how it was done.

[visruth]

I'm not able to get the details of that laptop from anywhere except newegg. May be it is a customised edition from them.

If you can get the product number of that notebook, I'll be able to tell you looking in the HP resources.

With the number newegg listed in that page, nothing is coming up.

Definitely 8th Gen i7 core processor support 32gb RAM, but HP either has not tested it while releasing your model series or motherboard/BIOS may not support it, or simply HP may not want to suggest an upgrade upto 32gb.

You have to take the risk upgrading the memory. I would bet it works, since newegg is selling one like this.

[E-jay]

Again I don't know how it's being done, but I know they are American models with 32gb ram. Here's a link, item being sold by Amazon USA via Prime. If you go online, head over to Amazon, andjust type in 17" Envy 32gb ram, and see how many American Hp systems are being sold with 32mb's of ram. Unfortunately like I said, I can't get one here in Canada.

[visruth]

Indeed it is Configure-To-Order machine coming with customised hardware specs. Hence I'm not surprised by seeing 32gb RAM in features.

So like you, I'm not having anything at my end to check the details until exact product number or full model name such as HP ENVY 17t xXXX Notebook PC ("x" is alphabet, "X" is number) is known.

From what I've read, HP Canada offers no customizable notebooks

You can contact HP sales support in Canada directly to know about it.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

HP US store:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/vwa/custom-laptops/ordr=Customizable

[RiFi]

Hi Provost, I'm so glad I found this thread because it responds to precisely the same question I have.  Forgive me if you've already clearly answered it for someone who isn't a total layman (because a lot of it is Greek to me), but if you could clarify this just one more time, I'd be grateful

Let me ask it this way: If I were to purchase an HP Envy 17-ae108ca, configured with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB HDD, by upgrading to, for example, a 250 GB Samsung 960 Evo with an M.2 2280 form factor, NVMe, a Gen.2 PCIe x4 interface and Samsung V-NAND (just to be precise), will I end up with a notebook having the following configuration? 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB HDD and 250 GB of SSD storage to boot up on?

Also, could you please specify how the 16 GB of RAM is allocated in the HDD bays? I was under the impression that there were 2 bays and that each one could take up to a maximum of 8 GB of RAM, meaning that both bays would be occupied to capacity  (8 +8 = 16) and thus there would be no room for the SSD unless I were to remove 8 GB from one of the bays. This is probably a completely erroneous understanding of how it all works and so I appreciate your expert guidance.

Finally, I know that SSDs make your PC and laptops start up much faster, and programs feel much more responsive since they can load data straight from an SSD without having to wait for a hard drive to spin up to speed, or for the read/write head to find the right sector on the platter. But can you just touch on how to partition the system (is that the right term?), i.e. do I just want the computer to boot up on the SSD while I use the HDD for all other storage? How are program and application performance enhanced if it is done that way? Are there any connectors or other accessories needed to accomplish the upgrade for specific notebook mentioned?

I know I've asked a lot here, so many thanks in advance for taking the time to help!