ENVY TouchSmart 15t-j000 Quad Remove or Replace MSSD Drive ?

Building out a HP Envy and one of the options is 24GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache or 1TB 5400RPM Hybrid Hard Drive.

I'm thinking going with the 24GB mSSD. Is it easy to remove and replace the mSSD with a larger mSSD or a 'full-size' SSD like 128 or 256 GB?

There is a limitation to 8GB Ram with the 24GB mSSD. I'm not sure why so if I upgrade the HDD to a SSD can I then remove the mSSD if I wanted?

I'm not seeing any help or docs on the HP support site regarding this. Can someone confirm the mSSD is not soldered to the motherboard?

 

I was talking to an HP chat lady and she said there was no mSata slot .

 

That sucks, might even be a dealbreaker for me. Are there two hdd slots?

 

I asked her that too. She said there was only 1 SATA slot (which was the hard drive). What the actual mSSD cache is attached to, she wasn't sure.

 

I would like to know the pros and cons of choosing the 24GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache or 1TB 5400RPM Hybrid Hard Drive. It doesn't say how much cache the hybrid hard drive has, but the price is similar to the other option.

 

Bummer. At least the 17" model has an optical bay that you can (probably) stick a drive into.

 

I have an 15t-j000 and it definitely has an msata.slot.

 

How big is it ? And is it the old one or m.2 NGF ?

 

It's a standard msata as far as I know. Im not sure about the exact size. It didnt look like it would fit more than a standard length card, but I could be mistaken.

 

Standard like cache sized or 128gb-ish range ? I want to get an mSata and use it as my boot drive / prog .

Also how's the screen ? Is it washed out ? If you don't mind me asking .

 

It's a 2 inch bay, which as far as I know is standard mini-sata size.

Disclaimer: I work for HP (although nothing to do with consumer PC's). These are my personal opinions only....
The screen has somewhat limited viewing angles, but I wouldn't say it's washed out (I have the 1080 screen). Looks pretty good when positioned correctly and the angles aren't the worst I've seen. It's not IPS, but it's not bad and I expect it will improve once the backlight is broken in.

 

It's just reports that the 17 inch looks A LOT better then the 15, I don't want to buy it and have to return it .

 

Hmm .. so the HP reps that say there is no mini sata slot aren't right?

So if it's 2'' it can't fit a standard 2.5'' SSD as that would have to go in the hard drive slot. But it should take a 256GB mSATA drive? Anywhere in HP Docs does it confirm this? ( 6.9 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches) ? Amazon.com: Crucial m4 256GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT256M4SSD3: Electronics

Do you know why would the RAM be limited to 8GB with a mSSD as the HP customize & buy wizard shows?

 

You are comparing the 15" non-touch screen to the 17" touch screen. The 15" touch model in best buy had the same IPS display quality as the 17". Keep in mind that IPS seems to be a best buy exclusive for these models in the US for now.

 

I got the 15" HD touch model in Australia.
The monitor is ok when you use it on the desk, but the colour is washed out when you use it on your lap due to the viewing angel...(the opening angel of the lit is very limited...)

And I have some annoying running sound from my HDD.

 

Here is a good news.

I bought a 15t-j000 with:
- NO mSSD Drive
- 1 x 8GB RAM
- basic 5400 RPM 1TB hard disk.


Later, I bought:
- a 80GB mSata SSD.
- another 1 x 8GB RAM

Installed both mSata and RAM.

rebooted and I could see:
- 16 GB RAM
- 74 GB SSD mounted as E Drive (D Drive was assigned for RECOVERY Partition).

Later, I followed the instructions in the following link and was able to setup my mSATA SSD as acceleration Cache for my HDD.

How to Set Up Intel Smart Response SSD Caching Technology | PCWorld

Thats it.

Now, I have 80GB mSATA working as cache for my 1TB Drive with 16GB completely functional.


So, what HP says is not correct. Buy with confidence.


Performance:
I have several other machines with only SSDs. I paid a fortune for the SSDs.
This hybrid system is almost similar to one of those systems. I did notice a little difference. But, way better than the 5400 RPM drives. My windows 8 boots up in about 20 seconds. Please note that your performance improvements starts only after 3 to 4 reboots.


Note:
I was unable to install OS onto the SSD completely though.
My next experiments are:
1. Try to partition my HDD and allocate different cache amounts to different Partitions.

2. Try to install OS completely on SSD. (This is just for experiment).

 

Awesome. I was think about having a 120GB mSATA just for the OS drive, but I have already used half of my 750GB drive installing games and other stuff. Would mean I will need to wipe the system and start fresh again, which I am not really will to do now.
I think I will just do as you have, if performance is really that good, in caching mode?

I can only find the Intel 525 to use I my country, unfortunately the 30GB model looks to small and cost half the price of a 120GB model, which seem no point.
If I try and go up to the next model which is the 60GB model, it is costly and is just over 2/3 the price of the 120GB model.
Looks like a 120GB cache drive might be my only option, but almost seems a waste to be that big just for cache?

Does the bigger the cache drive the better the performance?

Looking forward to the experiments too.

 

>> I think I will just do as you have, if performance is really that good, in caching mode?

Compared to 5400 RPM without cache - you will see a significant difference. If you never used SSD before, you are missing nothing. For all practical purposes, its very effective.

>> Does the bigger the cache drive the better the performance?

Yes it is.

essentially, the system creates a pseudo raid between HDD and SSD and it looks like a single drive.
Then the Intel RAID Controller maintains a copy of the frequently used files on the SSD part of the drive.
The more disk space you have - the more it can keep cache on the SSD and eventually behave like an SSD as most of the files made it to SSD.

But, here is another scenario.
Your OS partition is, say 40GB. Then having all 120GB SSD as cache may not be that useful. Although, it increases the life of the SSD.

Cheers.

 

I got the 1tb Hybrid drive to get the coupon off, is caching better then using an MSATA as a OS / important program drive ?

Can you even cache/raid the mSata with the Hybrid drive and would it even do anything ?

 

Hybrid drives have limited SSD embedded in them and disk manufacturer's firmware handles the caching process.

In case of mSSD, YOU have control over how much SSD you want to use for caching. Intel's software handles caching.

I think your SSD option would be better.

As far as using both of them together should not be a problem as different programs controlling different aspects of caching.

Good Luck.

 

What I'm worried if I use the mSSD as a cache for the Hybrid which already has a cache, the Hybrid cache would cache the same data that the mSata would which would make the point of having both pointless .

So you agree that using a mSata as a main boot drive and the hybrid as a storage with cache is better correct ?

 

I completely agree.

If you can make it work, that would be best option.

 

Hey thanks for the nice answer. Even though it costs more than I wanted to spend the 120GB mSATA Intel 525 work out the cheapest per GB, rather than the 30GB or 60GB.
I have ordered the Intel 525 mSATA 120GB, will be here in the next couple of days.
And there is hope that I could use all 120GB for strictly OS drive in the future. For now looks like be using it as SSD cache.
Had a small 32GB cache drive on a Envy 4 last year, I was impressed with how good it was. Kind of hoping for bigger thing with the bigger cache.
There will be a small handful of games I will be playing at one time, so I am hoping with 120GB it will cache the entire game?
Can you turn on trim for wear levelling?

 

When I got mine in last week, the first thing I did was pop in a 256 gb msata and installed a fresh version of Windows 8 Pro and wiped the 1tb drive before I even unpacked the batter or wall charger.

The thing boots up in 5 seconds or less (to windows 8 login screen).

 

wow that is amasing, I wish I could do my installs using zero power without the batter or wall charger

 

lol, thinking the same thing...

 

Would you mind telling me how you got the unit open to get to the hard drive? I am trying to work through this myself and can't figure out how to get the hard drive panel off. Removing the battery uncovers 1 screw, but I cant find any more and the panel won't open. Thanks.

 

Yea. I want to replace my 24GB mSATA drive also. 256GB mSATA would be nice.

 

- Remove the battery
- Remove the screw
- Use a credit card (or a ply tool) to pop open the small square panel
- you can find memory, and mSSD there.

 

I just called HP. The rep did not understand that I wanted to boot off of the msata drive with a drive that I am going to purchase on my own. After spending 5 minutes slowly explaining exactly what i wanted to do, he said that there is no msata port and that the acceleration cache is soldered onto the motherboard. I do not understand how they do not know there is poart there. HP's listed specs are not as clear as they should be.

I am ordering mine now. worst case, ill just return it if it doesn't. I plan on getting the intel 525 240GB and using it as a main boot drive.

forgot to mention, coupons:

if less than $1000 use custom10, otherwise, custom20 i think it expires on the 20th!

 

can others confirm that we can boot off of the mssd drive as the main os drive? are there special instructions?

i want to format the HDD drive it comes with to use it as an extra drive. I want to boot off of an intel 525 mssd.

thanks.