Upgrade Hard Drive question

[worldwithout]

Need to install new hard drive on my HP model 17-by2053cl laptop. It has a 5400 RPM drive, can I upgrade to a 7200 rpm drive with a larger cache size?

[BeemerBiker]

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@worldwithout wrote:

Need to install new hard drive on my HP model 17-by2053cl laptop. It has a 5400 RPM drive, can I upgrade to a 7200 rpm drive with a larger cache size?

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Yes, there are 7200 RPM drives available for laptops.  They are the 2.5 inch size.

https://www.google.com/search?q=7200+rpm+laptop+hdd+2.5

Page 2 of the users manual indicates your laptop can accept either the 7.2mm or the 9.5mm thick sizes of the 2.5inch

However you also have the better option of replacing your mechanical drive with a solid state such as a 2tb Western Digital

You also have an M.2 socket that can accept SATA-3 solid state M.2 type.

Disassembly video here is here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIPhYTB7A1U

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @worldwithout 

Unless there is a specific reason why you want to install another mechanical hard drive, you have much better options than upgrading to a 7,200 RPM drive.

You can install a much better performing M.2 2280 NVMe SSD since your notebook has a M.2 SSD slot.

You can install a faster 2.5" solid state drive instead of a mechanical hard drive.

Below is the link to the service manual:

HP 17 Laptop PC Maintenance and Service Guide

[worldwithout]

Thanks.  That's great info.  I was already thinking about SSD and upgrade to RAM and PCi-e card to just to build a brand new computer.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

That's the route I would take instead of replacing the slow poke mechanical hard drive with a slightly better slow poke mechanical hard drive. 

And upgrading the memory while you're in there is also a good idea.

[worldwithout]

Thanks. I am looking at SSD too.  My current hard drive is shot, but was never all that fast from the start.  Talking also about upgrading RAM and PCI-e.

[worldwithout]

Wait, M.2 SSD, do those look more like a RAM card?  Maybe I'm confusing upgrading PCI-e with that.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The M.2 NVMe SSD looks like a gumstick.

This is the 1 TB drive capacity for example.

Amazon.com: SAMSUNG 980 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD - 3500MB/s Read Speeds, Turbowrite, For PC/Laptop/Gaming : ...

For the memory upgrade, you can remove the 4 GB DDR4 memory chip and install an 8 GB DDR4 memory chip, so you have 16 GB of memory running in dual channel mode instead of the current 12 GB running in single channel mode.

Crucial 8GB DDR4-3200 SODIMM | CT8G4SFRA32A | Crucial.com

[worldwithout]

Ok.  I thought it was something else.  Didn't realize what it was at first.  As for memory, Was planning to buy 2 8G RAM sticks as I read somewhere that it's best to have matching sticks for compatibility. Thanks for the info.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Most folks recommend that, but I have never had an issue installing different brand memory in a PC with the original chip(s) installed.

Call me a cheapskate.