Looking to buy SSD and RAM for my HP computer

Amazon.com: ssd 64

My HD computer has 650 GB HDD.
It is Pavilion G6 bought for $430 at Best Buy.

I would like to do the optibay thing and have 1TB HDD plus 64 SSD.

I searched at Amazon and it's showing three types: Crucial, Sandisk, and Kingston from most expensive to the least expensive. Which would be the best?

Also I want to upgrade the RAM from 4 to 8, which brand should I buy from which website? Do I need to buy the whole 8 GB or just 4 GB?

I searched and it's $40 on Amazon: Amazon.com: ram 8gb

 

Crucial will be the most reliable one, though Sandisk and Kingston are okay as well.

If your laptop came with 2 x 2GB RAM sticks, then you'll have to replace them with 2 x 4GB sticks. If it's just 1 x 4GB, you can simply buy another 4GB stick and put it in. RAM is RAM is RAM, just buy whatever's on sale for your given RAM speed (1333MHz, 1600MHz, whatever the laptop came with). G.Skill is usually the less expensive one.

You can also search for parts on NEwegg as well; that's where I get the majority of my computer parts and they tend to be around the same price or cheaper than Amazon.

 

How do I figure out if it came with 2X2 RAM sticks or 1X4, and what the RAM speed is?

 

Opening up the computer would help. There should be a panel on the bottom of your laptop where you can access the DIMM slots.

 

Thank you.
About the optibay thing: When I search it there's a lot of optibay for MBP instructions.
I found this in foreign language for Pavilion G6: HP-Compaq Pavilion g6 SATA optibay slim SATA optibay slim (12mm)

If I read the MBP instructions will it be self-explanatory for the HP too?

 

The ideas are the same, though it'd be best to read up on one written for your G6 since it's built a bit differently from the MBP and such.

 

I just bought a g6 and am doing the same upgrades. The optical tray is 12.7mm. Search google/ebay/amazon for 12.7mm caddy. They are like $10-20. If you are using the ssd as a primary, you might consider a 128gb.

 

Thank you. Why 128GB?

 

64GB can be a little tight to work with for an OS/Programs drive. The formatted capacity will be lower than 64GB (probably around 48GB?), and Windows 7 itself takes up ~20GB of space, leaving you with only enough room to install maybe four big programs. 128GB allows you to not have to worry about the amount of drive space the programs will use (assuming all the bulk data is on the mechanical drive).

 

Just don't buy that junk. Buy caddy with removable face plate. If they were not cheap for case then most likely the same is for controller and internals.

64 is pretty usable for OS with most average programs and 1 game and even some space for TEMP and wear leveling stuff will be left.
After 128 GB I also started to think that 64 isn't enough but then I though "HEY! Come on! You always want more and less isn't enough for you. Keep being objective!"

 

The way SSD's work (granted: for me) 240GB/256GB is almost too small - especially when 'marketing' GB's are taken into consideration and over-provisioning (OP) is required for an additional 30% or more hit on the effective capacity left to the user.

Not only are the smaller drives crippled with lower performance right off the bat (vs. a 240/256GB SSD with fully populated nand channels) - but they keep losing performance because they are constantly playing catch up with their GC and TRIM routines essentially driving the SSD to it's death (especially if it is kept full or over 70% near to it).

With all those issues - anything less than 240/256GB is simply a 'toy' imo - sure it may work for a few weeks/months - but long term, it is more trouble than it's worth.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/703584-freezing-laptop.html



Unless you want to be having issues like the above poster with your new setup.


Hope this helped?

Good luck.