Laptop HD form factor

[YJK]

I'm planning to buy an HP 17.3" Touchscreen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 7730U - Windows 11 (17-cp3045cl) from Costco.com:

https://www.costco.com/hp-17.3%22-touchscreen-laptop---amd-ryzen-7-7730u---windows-11.product.400015...

It's a special model that is sold only at Costco.com.

I need to upgrade the HDD to a larger one (2~3TB or more). What "form factor" should I know when I search for a replacement HDD?

Thank you in advance for help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Below are the HP specs for the notebook.

original.pdf (1worldsync.com)

Below is the link to the parts list for the notebook:

HP PartSurfer

I'm assuming you want to replace the 1 TB 2.5" mechanical hard drive and not the 512 GB NVMe SSD?

If so, the drive is a standard 2.5" x 7.0 mm notebook hard drive.

I would not recommend buying a drive that has a thicker dimension than 7.0 mm, because if it is too thick, it won't fit.

When you go beyond 2 TB you will most likely run into a thickness problem.

[YJK]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your kind and useful info. Yes, I meant the HDD to upgrade.

It looks like I need to check the thickness of the HDD for larger than 1TB.

By the way, if I upgrade SSD instead of HDD, are the dimensions of SSD also dependent on its capacity? I'd need an SSD larger than the built-in one of 512GB.

Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The NVMe SSD's would all be the same dimensions.

I believe that if you wanted to install a 2.5" SATA SSD, they would also all be 7.0mm thick because there is no need to add additional disk platters that make the drives exceed 7.0 mm in thickness.

Amazon.com: Western Digital 4TB WD Blue SA510 SATA Internal Solid State Drive SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s,...

[YJK]

Thanks again. I'm learning. I think I'll go with HD upgrade since the Windows OS is probably installed on the SSD (based on my experience with other similar "Dell" laptop with two drives) and I don't want to deal with OS backup and reinstallation as well as SSD swap. And, I found a 2TB HDD with 7mm thickness on amazon, which will fit nicely:
Now, I also need to upgrade the RAM from 16GB to 32GB. I guess there are two 8GB slots according to the specs you forwarded and I need to replace them with two 16GB chips, but just to make sure I'm right, could you confirm this or let me know the fact on the RAM slots?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

As far as the memory is concerned, the specs and the service manual are in conflict.

The specs indicate 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory.

The parts list indicates 8 GB of DDR4-3200 memory that is removable.

The HP specs for the entire model series indicates that DDR4-3200 memory is supported.

HP 17 Laptop PC 17-cp3000 series specifications | HP® Customer Support

HP indicates that 16 GB is the max, but I find that hard to believe.

If you decide to buy the notebook, you can do this to confirm how much memory your notebook can support:

1. In the search box, search for cmd and click Run as administrator.

This will open the command prompt.

2. Once command prompt is opened, type wmic memphysical get maxcapacityEx and hit enter.

There, it will show the maximum RAM capacity your PC's motherboard can support.

The capacity is shown as Kilobytes, so you have to convert it to Gigabytes by dividing the number provided in the report by 1,048,576.

On the other hand, chapter 1 of the service manual for the 17-cp3xxx model series indicates that there is 8 GB of DDR5-5500 onboard memory, soldered to the motherboard, not upgradable.

HP 17 Laptop PC 17-cp3000 IDS Base Model Manuals | HP® Customer Support

So, we have a mystery wrapped up in an enigma as they say.

[YJK]

I see. Thanks again for detailed information. It looks like I have a problem in the area I didn't expect. I need 32GB memory and I think the manual must be correct (limit of 24GB). I now recall that each of my two other HP laptops for TV connection also has non-replaceable RAM chip (unlike the other slot) while in my main Dell laptop the chips are all replaceable. In this regard, Dell laptops are better. Anyway, thanks for all the help you provided!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.