Need suggestion between expanding RAM or adding SSD

[AshfaqueAnwar]

Hi, I have an HP Pavilion x360 laptop, which is 4 years old and has become very slow now. The current configuration is 1TB HDD with 8GB RAM. In order to increase the performance, I got some suggestions to either upgrade the RAM or/and add a SSD. I checked the "Maintenance and Service Guide" document for my laptop and found the maximum that can be supported is :

1. RAM : 12288 MB (8192 MB + 4096 MB)

2. HDD : 1-TB, 5400-rpm, 7.2-mm hard drive with 128-GB solid-state drive with TLC 

Please suggest whether I should increase my RAM, or add a SSD, or both. I need to do office work on my laptop, so need a smooth and fast performance.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There are many different model x360's and while the service manual may indicate that they come with M.2 slots, the slot is not there unless the notebook came with a M.2 SSD from the factory.

Also, some M.2 slots support SATA SSD's only, some support NVMe SSD's only and some support both.

The service manual is not correct regarding the maximum memory limit. 

The max memory would be 2 x 8 GB for a total of 16 GB.

If you post the product number of your notebook, I can look at the service manual and see what your options might be.

HP Notebook PCs - How Do I Find My Product Name or Number? | HP® Customer Support

Since these notebooks are not easy to take apart, and you already have an 8 GB memory chip installed, it would be easy to add as second 8 GB chip and either add a M.2 SSD or replace the 2.5" mechanical hard drive with a SATA SSD if there is no M.2 slot.

[AshfaqueAnwar]

Hi Paul, here is some more information, and appreciate your help on this.
Product number : 3FQ23PA#ACJ

Serial number : [personal info emoved]

Model : HP Pavilion x360 14-ba123tu

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

OK, so this is the service manual you were looking at, which is the correct one.

Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion x360 14m Convertible PCIMPORTANT! This document is intende...

Your notebook does have a M.2 slot for a SSD, but it appears that only SATA M.2 SSD's are supported, not NVMe.

According to the manual NVMe SSD's are only supported in the 14m-ba2xx model series and the 14-cc0xx and 14t-cc000 model series.

So, I would recommend you do both...install a M.2 SATA SSD in a storage capacity that fits your needs and budget and install another 8 GB memory chip in the empty slot.

The Western Digital Blue M.2 SATA SSD's normally have the best performance for the price, in my opinion.

This is the 500 GB model...

Amazon.in: Buy Western Digital WD Blue m.2 SATA SSD, 560MB/s R, 530MB/s W, 5 Y Warranty, 500GB Onlin...

This would be a compatible DDR4 8 GB memory chip for your notebook.

Crucial 8GB DDR4-2666 SODIMM | CT8G4SFRA266 | Crucial IN

As you can see from the main report, even Crucial indicates you can install 2 x 8 GB of memory.

Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | hp - compaq | pavilion x360 products | Pavilion x360 14-ba123tu | Crucia...

[AshfaqueAnwar]

Thank you so much for all this info and assistance. I will surely let you know about the performance once Ii upgrade my laptop with these.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.