Storage upgrade for HP EliteBook 8570W

[Patronium]

I own a HP EliteBook 8570W and I'm planning on reinstalling the OS. Because of this, it seems like the perfect time for storage upgrade. I currently have a 500GB HDD and a 24GB SSD for cache storage. I found three options to upgrade the storage:

1. Replace the HDD with a 2.5” SDD with the capacity of 1TB
2. Add a HDD caddy and put the HDD in there. And use a 500GB 2.5” SDD on the place of the HDD
3. Remove the cache storage and install a 500 GB M.2 SSD

Which solutions are possible and would you recommend? Energy consumption doesn’t really matter because I use the notebook primarily with the adapter. The first option costs about twice as much as the other ones and I have a lot of idle data, so I prefer one of the last two options.

Thank you for helping!

[WAWood]

@Patronium

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

My limited understanding of these "hybrid" PCs is that the SSD is formatted to serve purely as a caching device for Windows, so having a larger one wil not benefit you in any way because nothing is stored there on a permanent basis.

You would do better upgrading the HDD to one with larger capacity or to an SSD to replace it, for better performance.

Personally, I would go with option 1 as that offers (IMHO) the best improvement in both drive space and runtime performance.

If you want to save money, then go with a 500GB SSD instead, as that will still improve runtime performance.

Good Luck

[Patronium]

By replacing the M.2 drive I meant removing the caching for the HDD and use the slot for a SSD with a capacity of around 500GB. I couldn’t find specifics on the M.2 slot. For the upgrade I was thinking about a Crucial MX300 M.2, 525 GB SSD. Would it physically fit and be recognized by the laptop?

[WAWood]

I don't know if that will work, since if HP has customized Windows to automatically use whatever is connected to the M.2 connector as cache, putting a larger SSD in there will be a waste of time.