Should I upgrade to an SSD for my old laptop?

I have an old laptop HP DV5-1015nr (bought in Aug 08). I would like to see if I should upgrade it with an SSD (or possible to do so).
Specs: Core 2 Duo P8400, 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256 MB, 320 GB 5400 rpm

I want to put this laptop in my office at school. I only do some basic things like internet browsing, using MS Office, writing documents with LaTeX, a little bit of programming with Matlab, C++, C with (not too much) graphics.

I may only need no more than 200 GB hard drive.

Thank you.

PS: My current laptop is Clevo W230st, bought in Aug 2013, if it helps the decision.

 

Please tell us that you're not still running the original Vista on that? (I think Vista support dies this time next year, but more importantly; Vista has no awareness of SSD's and is to be highly avoided with one).

If you are running anything more modern (Win7 or better yet, Win10...), then your base hardware and your use case (and more importantly your expectations) will all be a good match for an SSD.

I would not recommend buying a capacity that you know you will use; buy the next step up instead. If you can still find in your location a 320GB SATAIII SSD, that may be the best deal you can get, otherwise, an 480GB to 512GB SSD (nominal capacities) is highly recommended (an M4 512GB SSD is what I used for years in a similar platform as yours).

While OP'ing many not be as necessary on such a platform, if you do get an SSD with effectively double the capacity you need, OP'ing it by 30% or more certainly won't be a detriment either.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/why-over-provision.760922/#post-9766709

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ing-programs-and-winrar.787721/#post-10193062

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ograms-and-winrar.787721/page-2#post-10203225

The above links should give you an idea about OP'ing (which I recommend to do at 33% of the actual available capacity of the drive in question, regardless of whether or not it has any OP'ing inherent in it's design).


I'll emphasis again; for your old platform and your expectations and usage patterns, an SSD will be ideal. If you have a modern O/S on it and NOT Windows Vista. Clean install of Windows 10 Pro x64 highly recommended.

 

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I'm running Win 7 Ultimate on that laptop. I'm not sure if I should upgrade to Win 10 as I'm afraid new OS will slow it down. I haven't tried OP'ing (and honestly the first time to hear about it), but I will definitely look into it.

Thanks again.

 

@hungle I suggest getting a 256GB (or 240GB SSD - it's the same thing), but formatting it to 200GB (that will be ~20% OK, 16% OP). I also strongly suggest upgrading to Windows 10 before switching to SSD, so that you can clean install Windows 10 right away, using this decent guide. Windows 10 won't slow your machine down compared to 7; I successfully installed 10 on older C2D notebook and the results were great, there's nothing to be afraid of.

 

You're welcome hungle. Win10 will not slow it down, rather the contrary, ime.

I would do a variation of what Starlight5 suggested.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...version-windows-10-fine.790446/#post-10237611


In your situation, I would clone the HDD to the new SSD you purchase. Then upgrade to Win10 on that SSD...

If all is working properly, format the drive and do a clean install of Win10 and let itself get all the drivers it needs (at this point you would also ensure you have partitioned the drive to 67% of the actual available capacity (not the nominal capacity it is advertised/sold at).

After OP'ing and a clean install of the current version of Win10 (Build 10586.218), I don't think you will be able to get this system any more optimized (unless MS surprises us with the July 2016 Anniversary update - they have with all previous 'big' releases for me).

Read my response below for how to calculate actual usable space required and OP percentages.

If I/we can help further, let me/us know.

Starlight5,

An SSD advertised as 240/256GB (nominal) isn't (period).

Even if we take a 256GB model:

256 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 256,000,000,000 bytes (in marketing speak).

256,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 /1024 = ~238GB actual user capacity

If 200GB (actual) capacity is needed, not only will OP'ing it to such give a mere ~16% OP... but it will not give any spare capacity for Windows and programs to use as temp space.


Instead, that 238GB capacity is effectively:

~160GB of raw/available capacity and if we give Windows the minimum 25-50GB of free temp space it needs... that gives an effective user capacity of between 135GB to 110GB or less (depending on the actual free space the workflow of the individual and the programs he/she uses actually needs).

That situation becomes more critical if we start with a model with 240GB nominal capacity.

Those numbers then become something like the following:

~149GB 'raw' capacity.
~124GB with 25GB free space for Windows and Programs (don't forget to account for upgrades to the O/S... which might need 25GB or more by themselves...).
~99GB with 50GB free space.


How do I determine what is 33% OP'ing for any particular SSD?

Simple:
When I am FIRST installing the O/S (Win10x64Pro highly recommended), I use the Advanced Setup option and simply enter the MB's capacity the SSD shows as available (this is different for each SSD/HDD I've ever used...) and multiply it by 0.67.

That is the maximum capacity in MB's I will then use on that particular SSD.


In further detail (for hungle's benefit);

I currently use the following partitions and sizes for an SSD that is 480GB (nominal) capacity to get 33% OP'ing:

150GB for the C:\Drive Partition for the O/S and Programs
150GB for the D:\Drive Partition for DATA

Once Windows is installed and running; you can change the balance between these partitions as needed:

If you 'shrink' the C:\Drive by 50GB, you can increase the D:\Drive by 50GB to give you:
100GB C:\Drive and
200GB D:\Drive for your data.



Why do I ignore the manufacturer's built in OP'ing (if any)? Because they only OP the drive to get it past warranty.

I OP my drives to give me the fastest, most responsive and consistent experience that is possible from my SSD's.

And even then; they still do not reach the claims that is the marketing BS we all know and hate.

 

If you buy a new ssd now for your old laptop, I would minimum go for 480/512GB. Because after a while you will probably buy a new computer. No one will put a small ssd from the old computer over to a new. But you will do that if the ssd is big enough. Big is better in all ways

 

@tilleroftheearth I was under the impression that 240GB SSDs are actually factory oveprovisioned 256GB ones, correct me if I'm wrong. =\ While 256GB SSD is certainly too small for main laptop, @hungle also has Clevo W230ST, so I believe smaller 256GB SSD in old second laptop is an OK recommendation.

 

I already mentioned what I think of the OP the manufacturer does...

But for hungle, if he really needs 200GB of actual capacity... then 480/512GB SSD's are probably the only alternative today.

 

Don't it will kill your computer rather then help it. If Win7 is running good then stay there. There are more people looking for Win7 Win10. As for SSD a 480/512gb SSD will be a good upgrade.

 

What are you talking about? Win10 is vastly superior to Win7.

Especially when compared on the same low end platform/components the OP has to use.

 

Yeah, I like to believe that but not from what I read and heard so far. Win10 has done more damage then it helped. All you have to do is go to various Laptop forum and you can see the disdain for Forced Win10 upgrade has caused more lost productivity then it helped. For a Win10 new machine one can no longer go back to Win7 because there is no supported drivers for it. And NOW MS is asking for FB again - that already tells you this is a disaster for Win10 since they can't force people to use it and when they do they re-engineer it to a look like Win7-that in itself should tell one Win10 wasn't the Golden Child M$ likes one to believe. They never did that for Windows 7 asked a second time around for FB-Windows 7 by itself sold itself. That is how a good software sells and created Profit for a company. Every O/S has bugs or security holes to fix to say otherwise is disingenuous as well but even Win10 has to break its 3rd place running and iOS is second that should tell you something already. For something that is on the percentage level of Win8 and not Win7 is evident enough Win10 isn't all it's cracked up to be when people are use software or Regedit to get Win7 functions or look alike back. If people were so happy they wouldn't be using such programs to start with but so far I see lots of software that is being created to do so and people are more then happy by or install them.

 

The Dell Latitude D830 in my signature line runs well on Windows 10. It was basically junk on Windows Vista, and only started to become tolerable on Windows 7 + SSD. Your HP hardware is slightly superior.

I only bought the newer laptop because the machine "swaps" to the SSD excessively and upgrading to 8gb RAM was cost prohibitive versus newer hardware.

SSDs can be filled to near full capacity without major long-term problems. Don't worry about "overprovisioning" and stuff like that too much. But you probably would want to go to a >240gb SSD if you anticipate needing more than 150gb-180gb right off the bat. Leave some room for growth, after all .

BTW, Windows10 + Office + vlc, and a few other tools only takes ~80-90gb. 240gb is a perfectly usable size. But SSDs are cheap, buy what you need.

 

I suggest against partitioning a SSD with less than its available space. TRIM takes care of the un-used blocks, and partitioning just creates more complications.

Not sure why people got onto this whole 'overprovisioning' business. The only way to really properly implement it is at the drive level through specialized commands to change the 'capacity'. Not through user-level partitioning.

 

Thank you. I happened to have an extra 4 GB of RAM after I bought my old laptop a few months. For some reason, that laptop specs were higher than what were advertised. I got a P8400 instead of a P7350, and 1 x 4GB Ram instead of 2 x 2GB Ram. It was on sale at that time for $800 something.

 

A file system, especially after a lot of use, can span the files at random places across the logical address space. If you don't TRIM frequently enough, deleted old files and newly written files may not overlap and the ratio of blocks taken on the drive would creep up. OP through partitioning does force the files system to limit its access to a smaller range and guarantee a certain ratio of free blocks on drive. However if you OP too aggressively and space becomes tight within the partition the file system's own performance will go down. It's kind of a balancing game at times.

The love of OP may have something to do with the fact that Windows doesn't allow you to set a specific TRIM frequency nor notify you the TRIM without 3rd party software. OP advocates are usually heavy users and system default behavior may not keep up, so some OP in partitioning helps to keep them on the safe side.

 

You may run into a BIOS problem with an SSD in an older laptop, Dell for one has trouble with SSDs and 3147 models, only certain SSDs even work, I went to a SSHD for the Dell and have an SSHD on my new HP X360, honeslty it provides much better performance for about 70% less cost. A 500gb SSHD will run you about 40 bucks on ebay, a 750gb SSHD with 12gb will run about $70 bucks
Honeslty a great deal either one and performance for most part will be greatly improved over standard HD almost like a SSD, and with the SSHD it should work fine even in older machines

 

I upgraded to a Samsung 850 Pro 512 for my W230ST, and switched its drive (840 Pro 240) to my old HP. Lots of storage is not my need. My "active" data are not too much although they just keep changing almost all the time.
Anyway, after upgrading, there are a few things I noticed.
1. HP 3D Guard: the program, protecting hard drive and dealing with the drive's head, becomes useless now. Although it's disabled, I keep it there for the Device Manager not showing any Unknown Device.
2. RAM usage: It's using more memory than my current laptop. The same number of programs, using 3 GB on my current laptop, is now using 4 GB on this HP. This is weird!
3. Performance: It is A LOT faster than the HDD. Since I'm not playing any games, the bottleneck now is my CPUs.

 

I upgraded my 7 year old C2D laptop (in signature) with a Kingston 128GB SSD months ago.
From what I observed, loading times have radically decreased for the most part... and overall snappiness of the system improved quite a bit (though, granted, with such old hardware, there are some limitations in overall speeds etc.).

I first upgraded to Windows 10 from 7, and subsequently I just did a clean install of Windows 10 and eradicated all traces of 7.
Upgrading to 10 resolved an issue I had with my laptop while i was using Windows 7... it became unresponsive after trying to wake it from sleep (which started appearing after I installed the SSD actually - the screen was black, and after several times opening and closing the lid, nothing seemed to have worked apart from forcibly shutting down the system and powering it back up again), plus I was able to install some drivers for a mobile phone that were completely non-functional on Windows 7 (could be intentional because of the shift and hype that surrounded Windows 10 in the first place).

Cannot say I had any issues with Win 10 as such in terms of functionality or responsiveness. If anything, it brings a breath of fresh air to my Acer and that annoying problem with refusal to wake from sleep is just a bad memory at this point.
I did a clean Windows 10 install because I saw no point in keeping an option for reverting to Windows 7, and I also wanted a cleaner system.

 

you don't need to do a clean install of windows 10 after upgrading: you can do a clean install directly and win 10 will take the win 7 key automatically.

 

That is not possible as far as I know?

 

nope, it is: the november 1511 build now does it. I have the november 1511 build installed and it took my win 7 key from a clean install no problem.

 

I knew Win 7 key can be used to activate Win 10, but I still upgraded from Win 7.