Ideal Internal SSD Hard Drive for Acer Aspire?

Hello

My laptop is running incredibly slow, and I will buy an internal SSD hard drive. I wonder what I need. I barely download anything, so a disk smaller than 200 GB would be fine, the only thing I need is speed.

Would this SSD hard drive be compatible with the computer?
SanDisk Ultra Plus Solid State Drive (SSD)

Or would I perhaps need to buy a «kit» like this?
New Kingston SSDNow KC300 Maximizes Power Efficiency for Business and Consumer Use | Kingston Technology

If a kit is not needed, than I'd rather be without it.

My computer was bought in 2009 and it's an Acer Aspire 5535 with 2.1 GHz and 4 GB DDR2 RAM.

Is any internal 2,5" internal SSD hard drive compatible with the Acer Aspire?

 

You don't need a kit, just an ordinary 2.5" SSD. Anything should work.

That said, the reason your notebook is slow might be that it's kind of old and it - most likely - uses Windows Vista, which is incredibly slow.

As for the SSD - with your notebook being manufactured in 2009 it's bound to use SATA II so that will limit the speed, the SSD itself would be capable of faster speeds.

 

Thank you for a great reply. What I need the Acer to be able to do, is run smoothly when I use Skype and Google Chrome at the same time. E.g. have a video chat open and also have a Youtube video running in the background and many tabs on Google Chrome with news, blogs, etc.

Do you think a upgrade to Windows 8 and also a SSD hard drive would be all that's needed for this use?

 

I'm not a big fan of Win 8 and I'm not sure that you'll be able to find drivers for Win 8 for all components at this point - as I pointed out the notebook is not exactly new.
I would use Win 7 if possible - not only is it very similar to Vista in terms of how it looks (you won't need to re-adjust yourself) but it's also significantly faster.

I might turn out that Windows update and fresh install (which always helps) is enough - if not, then the next step would be SSD.

That said you might want to consider 128GB one. While I personally find it too small (I use 256GB one), 128GB is far cheaper and I'm not user investing money in a 5 year old notebook is what you want to do.

 

I don't download movies, so 128 GB would be plenty. I am currently using less than hundred GB. Hmm, I can't say I am much of a Windows 8 fan either, but I don't want to hold on to the old interface when Microsoft is letting it go, so I might as well adjust now. The adjustment isn't much of an issue, so I don't mind, but you mention that some drivers may not be available, was there any specific you thought of?

I am using the computer for Skype, YouTube, Word, Excel and reading news and blogs in Google Chrome. If the laptop is able to handle those simultaneously, then I am fine.

Let's say I'd buy a brand new HP with these specs. Would that be a lot better than my current Acer from 2009 (with a new SSD)?

HP Pavilion 15
Processor: 2 GHz AMD A6-5200 APU
AMD Radeon HD 8400G/8670M with 1 GB dedicated memory
8 GB memory and 1000 GB storage capacity

 

It's hard to tell of the new notebook would be better without knowing what's holding you back now - it might be the CPU or HDD or Vista or a combination of all of those.
Surely new notebook would be faster but that's not the point - what matters if it makes financial sense to buy a new one rather than upgrade the current one and that's not an easy question considering I have no way of telling what's slowing you down as this point.

As for Win 8 - MS seems to be reconsidering its (dumb) idea of making an interface suited for people who check facebook all day long, so I'm not sure if Win 9 will actually resemble Win 7 or Win 8. That said Win 8 has been released in 2012 whereas you notebook had been released in 2009 so there might be drivers missing. I have no particular driver on my mind but you juts need one to be missing and you're screwed.

 

Thanks again. The CPU in my current PC has 2.1 GHz and the brand new I am considering has 2.0, but due to being 5 years newer, do you think the CPU in the HP would be way faster?

I guess with regards to Windows 8, I could just install it and see if it works, and if it doesn't I could do what's needed to switch to Windows 7. I have nothing of use on my hard drive, so I don't mind formating.

 

Yes it would be way faster. You can use this ranking to compare both CPUs- the newer one is not exactly twice as fast but at least close to being twice as fast.

 

You could also try Win8 Enterprise evaluation copy to see how it fares in your hardware, when buying SSD, consider avoiding Kingston V300 models.
Download Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation

 

If I install Windows 7, are you pretty sure all the needed drivers are available? I've been in contact with a seller of software, and he thinks it won't work (I am not sure he's done any research, though)

 

No I'm not sure because I haven't checked that either- I can't without the notebook - but considering Windows 7 had been launched at the end of 2009 and your notebook was launched in 2009 too it seems unlikely that Windows 7 wouldn't have drivers for (then) contemporary components.

 

One more thing. What to choose: 64 or 32 bit.

 

Always 64bit. Most of the time it might not make a difference but here and there it does, so it's worth having 64bit Windows.

 

I have installed the SSD and Windows 7 now, and it's like getting a brand new laptop.

Starting the computer used to take 70 seconds, now it takes 26.
Opening BBC's website used to take 59 seconds, now it takes 2.
Opening Skype used to take 44 seconds, now it takes 5.
Opening the browser while Skype is running was impossible before the upgrade, now it just takes seconds.

So far, everything's great. But I have encountered one major problem. The reason I needed the upgrade was first and foremost to get Skype to run faster, but now I cannot get the web cam to work. It's a Crystal Eye web cam that's part of the Acer Aspire 5535 hardware, but I can't find a Windows 7 driver. Any advice?