Probook 450 G0 Upgrade Options

[Ahmed_Anwar]

   Kindly, I seek help in-order to be able to upgrade my old Probook 450 G0.

I want to upgrade both RAM and Storage and used HWinfo Application to fetch data of my Lap's hardware.

• first of all, the RAM:
  • Lap has 2 4GB SO-DIMMs of DDR3L 1600MHz  and the maximum system capability is 16GB
  • I want first to confirm that system only handle DDR3L as I saw RAM voltage is 1.35V, So DDR3 is out of my options?
  • what is the maximum speed my system could handle as far as I know DDR3 has also 1866 and 2133 MHz but when searching on Crucial.com for possible upgrade options for the lap I only get the 1866 option, So is the maximum speed for RAM in that system is 1600, 1866 or 2133 MHz?   

• secondly, the Storage:
  • I found by HWinfo that system has SATA-controller capable of handling SATAIII with 6Gb/s and BIOS has option to switch SATA speed between 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s, So this info should be true.
  • I found though that my HDD is only Capable of 3Gb/s by HWinfo, it should be SATAII but by searching its product number I found it to be SATAIII supposedly.
  • I want to replace my old mechanical HDD with 512GB SSD as my boot drive and replace the Optical drive with my old HDD for bulk storage using a slim SSD caddy.
  • Is both SATA ports (Primary port for storage and secondary port for Optical drive ) are capable of SATAIII or only the primary one supports SATAIII and secondary is NOT.
  • I saw a post here in the community before stated that to do so in 450 G2 model and be able to see both drives by BIOS and Windows, I have to switch the SATA speed in BIOS to be 3Gb/s only. Is this a result that one of the two drives (HDD in my case) is only capable of 3Gb/s. So If I replaced my old HDD by a new one or by another SSD that is capable of SATAIII, I would be able to switch back to 6Gb/s in BIOS and use the full potential of SATAIII transfer rates in both my SATA ports?

Thx in advance and sorry for inconvenience. 

[Huffer]

A lot of questions. You have to use DDR3L 1.35 volts and max is 16 GB. Max speed is 1600. No need to or benefit from trying to install performance or gaming or faster clock speed memory. 

You can install an SSD of the 2.5 inch SATA kind in place of the hard drive. It appears the sytem is SATA II and the main 2.5 inch SATA bay will have the fastest interface that cvan be used. Maybe SATA II or III and the optical drive port will be one level below that. So you can put a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in the main bay and the hard drive in an optical bay. Just do not expect SATA III speed. But the performance of an SSD through a SATA II connector is still very good. A SATA III SSD will downclock to SATA II if needed. 

You may want to experiment with the SATA III/II switch in the BIOS and see if it even affects performance. 

Post back with any questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed. 

[Ahmed_Anwar]

Dear Huffer,

    A couple of questions:

• If the SATA controller in the Board is capable of dealing with SATAIII, why Optical bay is one level below the main SATA port? Is SATA port itself matters or the controller which control those ports?
• For the RAM issue, does you came with the maximum speed thing out of some document that I could refer back to later or by try and error in similar model before. (HP specification section for that model does not specify the maximum speed system could handle but specify the speed of already installed RAM).

Thx and sorry for inconvenience.

[Huffer]

Been answering questions here many years and had my hands on a lot of HP laptops. The information provided is from experience. It is not recorded in any document that's the problem. Here's my advice: get the faster memory and an optical bay adapter and experiment a bit and I think you will see I am right and if not, well then its good for you. 

[Ahmed_Anwar]

This is to share the knowledge gained from upgrading the storage of Probook 450 G0 in points:

• both SATA ports in Lap are capable of SATA 3 (6Gb/s) speeds, the only limiting factor is the capability of the drive itself. My original Lap HDD was SATA 2 (3Gb/s), So I got SATA 3 speed using the SSD on the primary SATA port and SATA 2 speed using the HDD on the optical SATA port.
• Bootable Drive must be attached to the primary SATA port (2.5'' bay) .
• My BIOS version is 68IRF Ver. F.70 (the latest from HP)
• You must Disable "Fast Boot" option in BIOS or HDD won't be recognized.
• You must Enable both Optical Drive port and Optical Drive booting options in BIOS or HDD won't be recognized.
• Finally, I got all right but Windows 10 64x Pro won't either Shutdown, Restart or Hibernate. I found the solution in YouTube Video which required to flip a small switch found in the HDD Caddy. Some would find it inside the caddy and some on the outside frame of the caddy as in my case. windows issue has been solved since.

For info, I used MX500 500GB as my primary bootable SSD. it's a good option as it's a DRAM SSD one with comparable performance to the SAMSUNG 860 EVO with less price and with reasonable lifetime and warranty.

Its utility software also comes with a handy feature called "Momentum Cache" which i guess using some system RAM caching technique which enables the drive to reach speeds of 2.7 GB/s on average for sequential Read/Write operations.

Thx. and I hope you find this useful. will update again If I upgraded my Lap's RAM. 

[Huffer]

I did base my analysis on the assumption you put a SATA III drive in it and it only ran at SATA II. Sometimes the optical port is downgraded a level just because optical drives cannot fully utilize SATA III. Glad you confirmed the optical port with a HDD or SSD is not bootable.