Dell Studio XPS 1340 HD replacement with SSD

Hi,

Lately I've experienced many problems with my 250GB (7200RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive on my 3 year old XPS 1340. I've read many forums on the "clicking" problem and found no solution even after flashing the latest firmware (R211337) , it still continues to freeze every now and then and it starts to make even more strange noises like beeps. I still like this laptop and would prefer to keep it, so I thought of replacing it with a SSD..

Now, I haven't been up to date with all the computer stuff since '09 and things are a whole lot better now lol. I don't know what type of SSD I should go for and what connection type I need, SATA II/III? Since my motherboard is old, would it be worth buying the latest SSD even if it's speed is limited by it? Also, I've noticed the price of SSD's are a bit dear these days?

Help would be appreciated thanks!

 

The 1340 will only support SATA 2 speeds. SATA 3 SSDs will run at their advertised SATA 2 speeds. You can buy a SATA 3 SSD (will be backwards compatible) and if you get a SATA 3 laptop later on and put it in there, it will run at SATA 3 speeds.

 

... and for the most part (Tsunade will agree with me on this) you won't notice any practical difference between SATA 3gb/s and 6gb/s anyway (unless you somehow have a workload that is doing huge, sustained sequential r/w).

Don't buy OCZ. Everything else works great.

 

Thanks! Very much appreciated!

 

I am using a SATA III SSD on a SATA II laptop, and have no issues. A SSD is the best upgrade I've ever bought, the speed increase in startup/load/install times is really a night and day difference.