New ssd drive for the wife

pal2511 · 10-24-2012, 09:16

My wife's old laptop that has a celeron in it takes forever to boot up. Some days I swear its a 200 rpm hard drive

I want to get her a hard drive for cheap and I already have an Intel 520 drive but don't know if those are the top of the line anymore.

CitizenOfDreams · 10-24-2012, 09:45

First of all, you need to find out which hard drive interface your laptop has.

If it's old enough to have IDE, in my opinion it's not worth it to spend money on an SSD. IDE SSDs are rare and just as expensive, plus you won't be able to reuse one when you buy a new laptop.

If it's SATA, I personally recommend Kingston HyperX 3K. I have been running one for 4 months in my desktop machine. It works perfect and it's much faster than the OCZ Agility I also tried.

lwt210 · 10-24-2012, 09:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by pal2511

My wife's old laptop that has a celeron in it takes forever to boot up. Some days I swear its a 200 rpm hard drive

I want to get her a hard drive for cheap and I already have an Intel 520 drive but don't know if those are the top of the line anymore.

I know just enough about computers to be dangerous.

Go to crucial.com and see what kind of drives and memory are available for your particular laptop.

Make sure you run scans (I like malwarebytes) to see if you are clogged with malware. I also like Microsoft Security Essentials for anti virus that runs very quiet and doesn't use a lot of resources in the background.

What operating system are you using? I know I have read a lot of good things about Lubuntu for older computers. Might want to read up on that as well.

I have seen basic laptops, brand new, in the 300 dollar range. Depending on what you need, it might be cheaper and easier to get her a new system.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-...g570&cp=1&lp=2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246614

Good luck.

sappy13 · 10-24-2012, 10:04

if you are set on a new hdd instead of a new pc,check out newegg.com. They typically have at least one ssd on discount.

michael_b · 10-24-2012, 10:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by sappy13

if you are set on a new hdd instead of a new pc,check out newegg.com. They typically have at least one ssd on discount.

Newegg is fantastic. Also Microcenter runs some great sales.

-On mobile

zodiacbw · 10-24-2012, 13:26

I would start by addressing the cause of the slow startups, disable or uninstall anything not needed. But yeah, if it's IDE, I would say just get a new or newer laptop. If it's sata, Intel, Kingston and crucial are good. I tend to shy away from ocz as they seem to have a horrible reputation. Don't worry about the speed of the drive, chances are either it's going to be more than the cpu or interface can handle, so you could probably save some cash and get an outgoing model.

pal2511 · 10-24-2012, 13:31

She doesn't have much running. I'm sure its bottlenecked at the hard drive and he only places she goes is her work website and Facebook. I think she is using avg. I do not use it much

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Pierre! · 10-24-2012, 23:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by pal2511

She doesn't have much running. I'm sure its bottlenecked at the hard drive and he only places she goes is her work website and Facebook. I think she is using avg. I do not use it much

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I've seen AVG dog systems down...

Yes, the wrong AV program will knock the heck outta the system speed.

It's easy enough to try out MS Security Essentials...

Particularly if it's the version of AVG that has all the bell and whistles on it...

But have fun shopping!

Billy10mm · 10-25-2012, 09:06

I've done quite a bit of research on SSDs. OCZ is extremely popular due to their benchmark performance given that they use the Sandforce controllers which are very quick for the price. Sandforce has a big reliability problem though with many drives failing or not being detected on bootup by the bios, requiring a restart or two before it's finally found and the machine can boot.

Intel makes their own controllers and are considered the most robust/reliable SSDs out there but the price-per-GB is typically pretty stupid compared to other manufacturers.

I ended up buying a Crucial M4 for my laptop. Crucial uses Marvell controllers which aren't as quick as equivalent Sandforce's, but they've got a stellar reliability reputation and are reasonably priced.

CitizenOfDreams · 10-25-2012, 09:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy10mm

I've done quite a bit of research on SSDs. OCZ is extremely popular due to their benchmark performance given that they use the Sandforce controllers which are very quick for the price.

I personally wasn't impressed with the performance of an OCZ Agility I had in my hands. It benchmarked about two times slower in read tests and about four times slower in write tests compared to my Kingston HyperX 3K. The tests were done in identical conditions - same software, same computer, same controller port, both disks brand new freshly formatted.

Whatever money you can "save" on OCZ drives is not worth it in my opinion.

pal2511 · 10-25-2012, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pierre!

I've seen AVG dog systems down...

Yes, the wrong AV program will knock the heck outta the system speed.

It's easy enough to try out MS Security Essentials...

Particularly if it's the version of AVG that has all the bell and whistles on it...

But have fun shopping!

True but the system I just put a ssd in gave it a huge improvement and its only a core2 duo.

I can load most programs in less than a second vs a few seconds before a chrome window would even open. AVG wouldn't have much to do with boot speed.

gemeinschaft · 10-25-2012, 16:57

I am running a Samsung 830 256gb SSD and I love it.

Samsung is able to maintain strict quality controls on their products because the keep everything in-house.

Give them a shot.

zodiacbw · 10-29-2012, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by gemeinschaft

I am running a Samsung 830 256gb SSD and I love it.

Samsung is able to maintain strict quality controls on their products because the keep everything in-house.

Give them a shot.

Dell uses Samsung as their OEM SSD. Heard lots of good things about them also, the one I've dealt with has been super quick in a core2duo machine.

trajan07 · 10-29-2012, 18:06

second the crucial m4. got one last year for my laptop and so far it's been a great little drive.

md2lgyk · 10-30-2012, 07:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by trajan07

second the crucial m4. got one last year for my laptop and so far it's been a great little drive.

I just installed a Crucial SSD in my 4-year-old Dell laptop. It was easy - less than 10 minutes from cloning the old HD to booting from the SSD. I had already reformatted and reinstalled XP before I switched drives, and the pc was running like new, but the speed difference was still quite noticeable. Boot time, from pushing the power button to viewing the desktop is around 30 seconds.