I want to upgrade my Laptop

[GaboGG]

I want to upgrade my pc's RAM from the 1 8GB stick it has to 2 32GB ones (if possible) and also, back when I had the default Windows the PC brings, it showed up that it had an Intel Optane disk in an M.2 slot.

 I want to know if I can use said M2. slot for a, well, normal storage and if it uses SATA or NVMe drives, so I know what to buy beforehand.

I appreciate all details that you guys can provide me about it. For what dmidecode (a Linux CLI tool for hardware info) shows me that I have a PCI Express 3 slot available but I don't know if that's the M.2 one and if it allows NVMe (I assume yes 'cuz it says is PCIe, but not sure).

And I earlier mentioned that I wanted to use two 32GB cards? Well, also dmidecode says that the Maximum capacity of the Physical Memory Array is 32GB, does that mean that I can use 32GB of RAM total or each slot? I know is DDR4, but I'm also not sure if the clock speed of the RAM that I will buy has to be of a certain limit. (mine has 2670Mhz, but I don't know if I can buy one of like, 3200Mhz for example)

As you may see, I've done some research and this post is more or less for you guys to confirm what I've researched is accurate and provide me information that I'm missing. I can't really afford to send back whatever I buy, so I really want to go safe. (I'm importing from another country)

I appreciate your attention.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You have done a good job with your research.

Your notebook has a M.2 slot that supports NVMe SSD's.

The slot is PCIe Gen 3.0.

Chapter 1 of the service manual has the drives and drive capacities HP offered in the model series.

Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion 15 Laptop PC

The 32 GB you got from the report is the max memory the motherboard can support and that would be configured as 2 x 16 GB of memory, not 1 x 32 GB or 2 x 32 GB.

You can install DDR4 memory up to 3,200 MHz, but it is only going to run at 2400 MHz because that is as fast as your notebook's processor can run the memory at.

There is a special procedure to remove the Intel Optane memory. 

You can't just go into the notebook and remove it like pulling a tooth, and think you're done. 😊

See the last two sections of the link below for how to properly disable the Intel Optane memory.

Your notebook may not have a BIOS setting to disable the Optane, but if it does, you disable it in the BIOS after you disable it in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software.

HP PCs - Installing and Using Intel Optane | HP® Customer Support

You can use another PC and the HP cloud recovery tool to install the original factory image that your notebook originally came with.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility.  You will need a 32 GB USB flash drive for this.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 and 10 | HP® Customer Support

Since you have to use the tool on another Windows PC, you have to enter the notebook's product number in the tool's search window.

Your notebook's product number is:   5SK15UA#ABA

[GaboGG]

Thanks for all the info!

For one side, is good to know that I can opt for a lower Mhz ram and for 32GB instead of 64GB ('cuz I'm bottleneck by the CPU anyways) to buy a SSD of higher capacity!

Coming back to the Intel Optane part, that means I have to install Windows 10 back into my PC in order to disable Intel Optane properly? (Since I don't see an option to "disable" Intel Optane in my BIOS.)

My BIOS has that thing called Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology and it lists two drives into the Non-RAID Physical Disks:
> SATA 0. 0, [DISK MODEL] 931.5GB
> PCIe 1. 0, INTEL [DISK MODEL] 13.4GB

I kinda recall that it said something else previously, but while I was installing my Linux OS, I disabled whatever it said before and it was left in that state and didn't let me do anything else. Because I wasn't able to do anything with the Intel Optane drive anyways. Can I assume that what I disabled was the Intel Optane so I don't need to do the HP Cloud Recovery part? If so, that means I'm good to go? (Sadly I don't have a M.2 NVMe disk to test out, so hope my research is being good enough)

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

You have the operating system on the 2.5" mechanical hard drive, and you want to have it on the NVMe SSD.

When you have a NVMe SSD installed you can't have Windows on the 2.5" drive.

I assume the Intel Optane memory is not running since you have Linux installed but I can't say for sure.

I think the easiest thing to do would be to use the HP cloud recovery tool on the SSD and then format the hard drive to remove Windows from it and use it for storage only, if you don't plan on removing it altogether.

[GaboGG]

What I intent to do is to use the NVMe slot to have my OS there (my actual Linux install currently is in the 2.5" drive, Windows is nowhere to be seen) and leave the 2.5" disk for backups.

At least all this info has been good enough for me, I've done my order so now I have to wait at least one month if everything goes as smooth as planned. I'll let you know!

Thanks for the help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.