mSATA SSD upgrade

[Envyq006tx]

Hello, I have a HP Envy Touchsmart q204tx laptop and I found a mSATA slot when I took the back cover off last time. I have gone through the service manual and it doesn't talk about the mSATA slot anywhere! Can I still get an SSD and use this slot to plug it in?

[Huffer]

I looked at the Manual and you are right. It does not mention it or even depict that slot at all. The setup looks just like the Envy 15j-1xx series in which that slot was useable for an mSATA "acceleration cache" disk of 16 or 32 gigs. On that model series, the mSATA slot cannot be hold a bootable drive if a 2.5 inch SATA hard drive is present. I guess it is possible HP has somehow disabled the slot on your model, otherwise you would think it would be mentioned in the Manual. I hate to have you buy an mSATA disk only to find out it is not recognized by the system but I think there is a chance it would work. You do need to understand its limits, however. I owned several laptops of that era which used the mSATA acceleration. Some Thinkpad models also used that system and the HP Envy 15-j and 17-j series and some of the HP business notebooks and Ultrabooks. You use the Intel Rapid Storage app to set up a kind of RAID array between the mSATA and the hard drive. It does improve bootup time and opening of apps but is nowhere near as good as running the OS from an SSD. The setup also tends to be a bit unstable is why its in the rearview mirror technology-wise although the current Optane technology is a direct descendant. Post back with any more questions. 

[Envyq006tx]

Thanks a lot for your reply! So is it better to replace my 2.5 inch HDD with a SATA SSD than to a mSATA to my system? And other than ram and HDD is there anything else that is upgradable in this model?

[Huffer]

Yes it is better to use a SATA 2.5 inch disk. What else besides RAM and HDD would you want to upgrade?