SSD upgrade with Optane memory

[mjw72652]

I have two HP 15 series laptops, a 15-bs234wm and a 15-da0053wm. The bs had a 500 gb 2.5" SATA hard drive, which I replaced with a WD Blue 1GB SSD, and the speed increase was phenomenal. It now runs faster than my da, which has an 8 core processor vs. the bs 54 core processor. The da has a 1 GB 2.5" SATA drive with 16 GB of PCIe/NVME Intel Optane memory in an M.2 slot. I would like to replace the drive with an SSD. Should I 1.)simply leave the Optane in place and drop in an SATA WD Blue drive, or 2.) should I remove the Optane and uninstall the Optane software and drop in an SATA WD Blue drive, or 3.) should I remove the Optane and SATA drive an put in a PCIe NVME drive? Does anyone have any experience with this and some advice as to the best route to go?

[mjw72652]

Sorry. The bs is a 4 core processor.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I would go with option 3 first.  Disable the Intel RST and remove the Optane drive, install a M.2 NVMe drive.

NVMe M.2 SSD's provide faster read/write speeds than SATA SSD's.

You can either remove the 2.5" drive altogether, or use it for storage.

If you decide to keep the 2.5" drive for storage, you will need to remove W10 from the 2.5" drive, because the notebook will always want to boot from the 2.5" drive if there is an OS on it.

Below is the link to the service manual for the 15-daXXXX model series.

The supported drive types can be found in chapter 1.

https://content.abt.com/documents/90195/15DA0046NR_manual.pdf

[mjw72652]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will do just as you suggest, because the price difference between the M.2 NVMe drive and the SATA is minimal. I  never even thought of leaving the existing SATA in place as storage, but I think I'll do that, since I don't really have any other use for it. I sincerely appreciate the help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, NVMe drives have come down significantly in price. 

Hardly any more expensive than SATA and in some cases I have seen some that cost less.