Hard drive upgrade, Dell L501X

Dell XPS15, L502X, 4 years old.
Original HDD is a WD Scorpio Black 750 GB. To date no problems with it, but I'm replacing the keyboard and figured while I'm there why not upgrade the drive.
Looking at the Seagate Firecuda SSHD, 1TB. Looks like a very simple upgrade to do. But never having done this I wanted to ask if it's as easy as it appears? Pull out the old, plug in the new, clean install Windows 7?

 

Yes, the drive swap is usually straightforward in the manner you describe. Back up your data, download drivers in advance.

Be careful with the "SSHD" products, as they are really not any faster in real life than standard hard drives. "SSHD" is misleading in itself, designed to make people think it's an SSD, when it couldn't be further from it.

The HGST Travelstar 7K1000 is a sensible choice for a 1TB 2.5-inch drive.

Charles

 

Thanks for the fast reply. Never having used an SSHD, but I'm reading all sorts of positive reviews about their performance and at a much more affordable cost than an SSD.

 

That may be, but I can guarantee you that spending a few bucks more for a SSD will give you a great performance boost and a much snappier experience though!

 

What year are the reviews from?

 

The review was from today: http://hddmag.com/2015/06/best-hard-drive.html

From what I have seen online, the price differential between a hybrid and a true SSD is vast. I don't doubt the performance improvement, but for a an older laptop that is used for the basics, (internet, emails, MS Word), hard to justify spending that kind of money.

 

I don't see the firecuda you mention in the OP in that article, first of all.

I do see the WD Dual drive, which has a hefty price premium IIRC (probably why you ended up considering another SSHD).

If you're not looking to shell out for an SSD because you don't use it much, just get a regular hard drive and be done with it. If you want a little more performance go for a 7200 rpm drive (some are very sensitive to vibrations from faster disks and prefer 5400).

In general though, yes, it's as easy as you think.

 

It depends! If you don't need much space the costs will be sigificantly lower -> 1tb (250$), 500gb (100$), and so on. Speaking of SanDisk Ultra II.

If you use your rig daily then it's worth every penny imo! Had done so with a couple of very old rigs and the difference was night and day! Just sayin'!

 

Sigh. . .I was afraid of this. Now I'm leaning on buying an SSD. What the hell. If I don't spend my money my kids will.
I like the value that's available with the Crucial MX300, 525GB unit. It can be had for around $125. I realize it isn't going to win any benchmark tests. But as an upgrade in a 4 year old rig running Windows 7 on an HDD, I have to assume the performance boost will be noticeable and sufficient.

 

I would suggest this:

Do yourself a favor and buy the biggest SSD you can afford and OP it by 33% (or more; if you don't need the capacity, today).

Then, assuming you have at least an i5 or higher CPU and you have maxed out the RAM on your platform (minimum 8GB... preferably 16GB or more...) clean install Windows 10 x64 (Pro, preferred) on it.

Now, use the system as is for the next decade or so...

Everything you do less than the above suggestions will only get you a progressively worse experience, over the remaining life cycle of the platform you want to upgrade.

Good luck.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and All the Best in 2017!

 

What do you mean "OP it by 33%"?
The laptop has an Intel Core i7 -2 630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz; maxed out with 8GB RAM. Running Windows 7 Pro. Recently tried to do a clean install of Windows 10 on another identical laptop and none of the drivers I tried were working, despite MS insisting this laptop is compatible with 10. Dell offers no support for this model any longer. I like 7 so I have no problem sticking with that OS.
Regarding storage capacity, it has a 750 GB HDD now, It won't be an issue scaling back to 500 GBs. I have a 1 TB external HDD, USB 3.0 that can be used if needed.

 

He's referring to over-provisioning - http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4404566/Understanding-SSD-over-provisioning

33% is a bit aggressive - you would probably be fine with a smaller percentage. Do some reading on it and then make a decision based on your use case/workflow.

 

Your i7 2630QM is a great platform for the upgrades I suggested and I would test 16GB of RAM on that system too as it should work without issues...

Dell doesn't provide support for their current models; don't expect any for your older sample.

What doesn't work when you just do a clean Win10x64 Pro install, and have run WU a few times (after rebooting in between)? I would guess all the hardware works 'perfectly' - without any outdated Dell drivers needed.

OP'ing (ty, alexhawker!):

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-from-3-5hdd-to-2-5-ssd.799464/#post-10416856

 

First, thanks for all the info and replies, gents. Much appreciated. I'm a n00b when it comes to these SSDs, so bear with me.
A quick read on over provisioning and I see why it should be done. A tutorial I viewed on YouTube made it look idiot proof, even for me. My question is when does one OP the drive? Immediately after installing it? After the OS is installed? Or does it matter? And can that partition be changed if needed at some future date without losing data?

 

It was a few weeks back. I don't recall every detail but for starters I couldn't find a video driver that worked. Tried Dell, Intel, and Nvidia. Left me with cartoon like graphics. There were a few other issues, also, so I finally said screw it and went back to 7.

 

Start here: http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-gui...ptimization-guide-ultimate-windows-8-edition/ While that guide is for Window 8 (and 7), it also applies to 10.

If Trimming is enabled in your OS, then free space is basically your overprovisioning. And yes, a clean install is better than cloning the drive, and not following tiller's suggestions "will provide a progressively worse experience". And that experience will still be an order of magnitude better than what you are getting from your existing hard drive. With my first SSD, I did everything wrong and it was still a huge improvement.

 

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-from-3-5hdd-to-2-5-ssd.799464/#post-10416856

Quoting myself from the thread above:

Optimizing guides are great if all you do with your SSD/platform is BM them for highest 'scores'.

If you actually use the system - ignore those out of date guides that were bad advice when they were originally published (for real world use...).

 

During the windows install, delete any partitions on the SSD (there won't be any if it's a new drive), and create one on the disk for Windows to be installed to (it will let you know it's going to create a few others for system purposes - that's fine they're tiny and necessary).

To OP, make a partition smaller than the maximum - that extra space is your OP.