SSD UPGRADE M.2

[mccard41]

Hello,

I just purchased a new gaming laptop
HP 15-ax250wm Omen 15.6" Laptop Intel 2.8 GHz 12GB RAM, 1TB HDD

It has a 1TB Hard Drive but I want an ssd installed. The laptop has not come yet but I would like to purchase an SSD to install but can I do this and keep the 1TB HDD installed? I really just want the fast boot times and application launches. I was on the crucial website and entered the model and it said I could upgrade with a 250GB MX500 M.2 Type 2280 Internal SSD. Now this is a different type of ssd - I have swapped a hard drive for a 2.5 inch ssd but I have never undertaken this. My questions are:

- Can I keep the 1 TB Hard Drive and install this M.2 type 2280 in conjunction?
- If yes, will windows know to boot from this drive? Do I have to do any type of configuration?

Thank you for your assistance, I really appreciate it. This is my first post and i am going to try to contribute some of the knowledge I have to help others (I try) Thanks again!

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes you can install an M2 SSD. The PC supports M2 PCIe NVMe SSD (much faster) or M2 SATA 3 SSD (such as the Crucial one you mentioned). You can use your desired capacity.

On page 41 of service manual you can see the steps to install the SSD.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05357609

You can also take a look at this video which might help.

https://h20574.www2.hp.com/results.htm?SID=10862325&MEID=56302E24-377B-429D-AE4F-1D654C0CF807

You will need to reinstall the OS on the SSD by either using HP recovery disks, migrating an image or downloading media creation tool (before installing drive) running and creating a bootable pendrive with the OS on it. Then use this drive to perform a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD. The best way is to remove the 1TB hard drive during this procedure and then place back in the computer and remove the Windows partition.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Let me know if you need any further help,

David

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[mccard41]

Thank you David I really appreciate all of the info - very helpful! You lost me at the different types of M2 SSD. I like Crucial because my only ever ssd conversion went very smooth.  I don't see any of these other types of ssd's listed or maybe I am missing the detail which ones are the faster ones.

If you don't mind do you know which drive would be the fastest from crucial? and if they don't sell these could you share a link of any to show me what you're talking about - I'm very intersted in making this laptop as fast as it can possibly be.  

I am also debating buying 1 more stick of 8gb ram to replace the 4gb.  I am assuming I have an 8 and a 4 since it says 12gb.  Do you also know what the highest amount of RAM I am able to upgrade to?  Any suggestions on increasing this aspect as well would be very helpful.

Or any possible other upgrades I could do - not sure if there is anything else I can do but you never know.

Thank you sir.

[iomare]

Your welcome.

Basically the difference is that PCIe NVMe uses PCI lanes and the SATA3 uses Sata (which throttles the potential of SSD drive). So the PCIe SSD  is about 5 times faster. As an example:

The Samsung 860 evo which is a SATA3 drive has these speeds  

Sequential Read Speed

Up to 550 MB/sec

Sequential Write Speed

Up to 520 MB/sec

The Samsung 960evo which is an PCIe NVMe drive has these speeds

Sequential Read Speed

Max 3,200 MB/sec

Sequential Write Speed

Max 1,900 MB/sec

So Crucial does not make PCIe drives, only SATA drives. So the best drive would be the Samsung 960evo. However some users have had compatibility issues with HP PC and the Samsung 960evo. So the best SSD and which will be compatible is the Samsung PM 961.

Example:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MZVLW256HEHP-PM961-256GB-Internal/dp/B06VYJMLS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qi...

RAM:

Officialy your PC supports max 16GB of DDR4-2400Mhz (2x8GB)

You are correct, there are 2 slots and each slot can have 8GB. You have one slot 4GB and one slot 8GB. You can use your prefered brand such as Crucial. However, HP DDR4 systems will actually support 32GB of RAM (2x16GB). 

Hope it helps,

David