Page 1 of Buying an SSD to upgrade a 4yo laptop

the missus was moaning a bit about her laptop (the one that was refusing to do a win10 update but has been "fine" since.

it is slow to log in, but I reckon that's cos she uses it quite rarely so has to download 100s of spam emails to thunderbird, and sync dropbox photos she's taken on her phone, and then apply windows updates, or not;)

it's only got 4gb ram, and a 500gb hdd, it's about 4years old, i5 so not destined for the scrap heap yet, despite the battery not holding charge any more.

so, I see now and again 480gb ssd about £40 now and again, hopefully this week a few more, would it be worth upgrading ram, and to an ssd, or just the ssd?

She only uses it for email, youtube, spotify, web browsing, no gaming, doesn't need anything fancy, so would I be right in thinking any old ssd will do? on hotukd you see various comments about paying an extra x for a Samsung evo etc, but as we don't intend to run bench marks on it, or compare to any other machines, i think cheap and cheerful will be fine,  unless there's any makes which are known to be particularly unreliable, but I assume they all come out of 1 or 2 factories anyway ;)

and I don't think I need a "kit" bundle, as I've got a few enclosures, and can use easeus or clonezilla to copy from old to new right?

doesn't seem long ago i would be offering advice like this rather than asking it! Funny how quick and easy it is to become out of touch!

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I know next to nothing about SSDs (still use a hard drive in my laptop)

This might be worth reading

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/ssd-buying-guide,5602.html

From what little I do know, I think you'll see much more of an improvement by upgrading the storage than the RAM. Also something about better performance from SSDs with onboard DRAM caches? I keep hearing that that on Youtube tech videos, but I don't really know what it means.

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thanks, yeh, all that stuff doesn't interest me like it used to, maybe I should ask the kids ;) i know i don't want nvme cos that won't fit, i want a normal rectangle one, that 's the same shape and size as normal sata laptop hard drive :)

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I swapped a knackered hdd to a ssd in an old netbook a few years ago. It's still used to run old software and has never given any trouble.

It was so easy to do that I've totally forgotten what the process was!

I think I did order one that was the same size as the original hdd so it just slotted into the allocated space.

4GB is pushing it but a move to an SSD that isn't struggling for RAM is an amazing upgrade in performance.
The difference is unbelievable.
I'd get the SSD and see and then maybe stick more RAM in if needed.
I've been creating a photo book lately and was often at over 3GB usage just for the browser (tried FF, Chrome and Edge..).

Ste

I used Macrium Free last time to create a bootable copy of the existing HDD (connected by USB3), swapped over and all done. Very easy.

Ste

I've done two PC tower SSD upgrades for people and the difference is stunning. As for laptops mine is a Toshiba 4gb Core 2 Duo. For everyday internet browsing stuff and Youtube it works perfectly adequately. Fitted a 540 Samsung SSD to it a few years ago. A massive boost in performance in boot times and swap file performance.
Then if you want to go even more retro than my ancient Toshiba I've upgraded my old Dell Inspiron 1501 Athlon 64 with 2Gb laptop to an SSD drive. Gave it to a mate. Even that has no problem with browsing either even now with Win 10 on it.
One thing to look out for on older laptops and even some only a few years old is the wifi card in them. For less than £10 you can upgrade your connection speed. It is amazing how recently they were still fitting 802.11g 56 Mbps cards in them. I upgraded both the Dell's and mine.

Music Obsessive, Sufferer of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) Motorsport Coach. Sarcasm Specialist.

does my 19 year old Dell Tower unit with 3.5" floppy drive need upgrading yet?

depends what you use it for, what OS, and if it's on the internet or not :)

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Quote:
marksparks999 says...
"does my 19 year old Dell Tower unit with 3.5" floppy drive need upgrading yet?"
Can it run The Secret of Monkey Island?


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