In January (2020) a family member asked me for advice on a new laptop that would consolidate all of the old tower PC and laptop data. Advice from another family member, sought out before me, was to find a dual drive HP with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB drive. To me, that sounded like a $2,000 investment.
I fielded back my recommendation of buying from a hassle-free provider, "try before you buy," and choose a newer 9th or 10th generation Intel-based system. A mainstream computer outlet was suggested, and I countered with Costco and then Amazon. An older lady with whom I was working brought her personal Alienware laptop because the store sales person had recommended she get a gaming laptop. Seeing it first hand, it was more laptop than she needed, by a long shot. As for my family member, when the nearest city with those kinds of stores is 60 miles away, you benefit from knowing what you want before going in the store.
Over several days we volleyed makes and models between us until I finally saw an opportunity. Woot had some refurbished HP's. I have had good experience with HP's refurbished products. In the assortment was an Envy x360 with a 256 GB m.2 and an AMD Ryzen 2500U (Passmark of 6,824 where my i7-7700HQ gets 6,985). Research indicated it could be upgraded with more than 8 GB of RAM and a secondary SATA disk. It can, but not out of the box. You must buy the drive caddy.
I spent $449 on the laptop. Another $229.99 on a 1.92 TB SATA SSD. Another $16.88 on the caddy. Once all the parts arrived I tracked down a How To. I was not successful finding a How To video for the 15-cp0053cl, but I located the service manual.
The service manual shows how to remove and replace memory and how to remove and replace the M.2 SSD, but it did not show clearly where the memory or M.2 are located. Based on an exploded illustrated parts diagram, the memory and M.2 should be on the underside of the motherboard. I located a metallic shield on the underside that was slightly larger than the area summation of the both. I delicately pried from under one corner of the shield, and to my surprise it popped up quite easily. I moved around under the shield perimeter leaving the black tape as a sort of "hinge." I hinged it back and found both the memory and the M.2.
The service manual says the largest SATA disk is 1 TB. The 2 TB SATA SSD is fully recognized. The service manual says the largest RAM is 12 GB. It supports my combination of 16 GB PC4-19200 and 8 GB PC4-19200 for a total of 24 GB PC4-19200. Having written this original post on March 22, 2020, I came back a month later to comment on a final RAM configuration. I found a forum where one person upgraded their ENVY with two 16 GB PC4-19200 (BLS16G4S240FSD). I ordered a Crucial PC4-21333 (2666) 16 GB (2R) module to match the SK HYNIX 8 GB PC4-21333 (2666V) HP supplied, and it did not work in either slot. It also did not function correctly in a Dell Precision 3520 where the part is listed as supported. Instead of dealing with a RMA, I opted to work with Crucial support, who convinced me the RMA refund was a better no-cost option. Performing a RMA through Crucial meant I would have to pay return shipping. I sent that bad stick back to the seller (via Amazon) and chose to order OWC PC-21333 16 GB modules in a 32 GB (2x module) kit. The modules came in a few days. I tested the modules in the ENVY and all I found was a blinking power light and a CAPS light blinking an error code. The PC4-21333 is, however, supported in the Dell Precision 3520 and I am pleased to report it is working quite well. The ENVY now has the 24 GB of SK HYNIX PC4-19200 RAM formerly serving the Dell Precision. Although this is not ideal, it will suffice.
I hope others find this useful.
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06001791
Supports DDR4 1.2-V 2666 and 2400 memory in the following conƭgurations ● 16-GB (8-GB × 2) ● 12-GB (8-GB + 4-GB) ● 8-GB (8-GB × 1 or 4-GB × 2) Storage Support for a 1-TB, 7200-rpm, SATA 7.0-mm hard drive Support for the following solid-state drives: ● 256-GB, M.2 2280, peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe)3×4, non-volatile memory express (NVMe), SuperSpeed (SS) solid-state drive with triple-level cell (TLC) ● 256-GB, 2280, PCIe, NVMe solid-state drive with TLC ● 128-GB, M.2 2280, SATA-3 solid-state drive with TLC Supports the following hard drive and solid-state drive combinations: 1-TB, 7200-rpm, SATA 7.0-mm hard drive + 256-GB, 2280, PCIe, NVMe solid-state drive with TLC 1-TB, 7200-rpm, SATA 7.0-mm hard drive + 128-GB, M.2 2280-SATA3 solid-state drive with TLCThe parts sourced as follows:
- Amazon (by word of TechBargains) had the Micron 5100 MAX 2 TB for $229.99 (March 2020)
- Amazon had the PartEgg caddy for $16.88. It listed as PartEGG SSD Hard Drive Cable + SATA HDD Hard Drive Caddy Bracket with 2X Rubber Rails for HP Envy X360 15-BP 15-CP000 15-CN 14-CD 15-BP101TX 15m-CN0xxx 15m-CP0011DX 15-BQ000CL
