[SOLVED] Rather than retire my HP Pavilion Slimline s3620f PC, I thought I'd like to give it a little boost with an NVMe SSD to replace the current ST1000DM003

[RayLeiter]

The mobo is the HP Irvine with Intel E5200 @ 2.5 GHz and 4 GB ram (2 DIMMs). It has 2 PCIe slots(1 x1 and 1 x16). I don't know for sure but I suspect the PCie slots are ver. 1 or 2 -- Not 3.0.
I would need an adapter board for the SSD and install it in the PCIe x146 slot.
Problem is: I don't know what adapter board OR SSD to buy. I'm running Win 7 Pro.

 

[USAFRet]

If it currently has just a spinning HDD, just put in a SATA III SSD to replace the existing HDD.
You'll never notice the difference.

 

[RayLeiter]

Thanks for the suggestion. When you say "You'll never notice the difference.", I'm assuming you mean any difference between NVMe and SATA III?
Would this SATA III SSD occupy the PCIe x16 slot or would it have a form factor such as 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch and thereby occupy one of the 'normal' drive bays?
If it would occupy the PCIe x16 slot, then I wonder if it would require an adapter of some sort, such as when an M.2 drive is wanting to occupy a PCIe slot?
Do you have any specific suggestions regarding the particular SSD?
Thanks;
Ray
BTW: I notice you identify as USAFRet which I assume is U.S. Air Force Retired. Also you have the word 'Titan' associated with your identity, as in "Titan Missile".
I was in the USAF (1962-1966) on Project 465-L (SAC Command Control System).
Our missiles (ATLAS E) were going out of service when I arrived at Forbes AFB, Topeka, KAN.

 

[USAFRet]

2.5" format SSD is a direct drop in replacement for a standard 2.5" or 3.5" spinning drive.
Same connection to the motherboard and power supply.
Your case may have a dedicated mount point for a 2.5" drive. If not, an adapter to mount iti n a 3.5" space is maybe $5.

Recommended drives would be a Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 EVO.

For a LOT of use cases, the user sees little difference between a SATA III SSD and an NVMe SSD. Even though the benchmarks and published numbers for the NVMe drives are higher.
Coming from an HDD to any SSD is a huge difference.
And this especially applies in an older system.
-----------------
USAFRet does indeed indicate USAF.
Titan, however, simply refers to my term of service and experience here at Tom's. Never messed with the Titan missiles...
I was mostly on fighter jets, with a small detour into B-52.

 

[RayLeiter]

Thanks again for the help. I'm not going to replace the HDD, rather my intention is to make the SSD the boot drive and the HDD the general storage facility. I'll have to clone the HDD to the SSD and then re-connect them so the SSD is drive 0 (bootable device).
Also, thanks for the recommendations.
Ray

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks again for the help. I'm not going to replace the HDD, rather my intention is to make the SSD the boot drive and the HDD the general storage facility. I'll have to clone the HDD to the SSD and then re-connect them so the SSD is drive 0 (bootable device).
Also, thanks for the recommendations.
Ray

To utilize the new SSD as the OS drive, 2 options:

Clean install on the new drive. This dictates a reinstall of all your applications as well.
or
Migrate from old to new. This can work, if the size of the drive and the consumed space ont he existing drive are applicable.
Then, you wipe the old drive completely and use as desired.

We can walk through either option.

 

[RayLeiter]

Thanks for the offer to walk through it. I have already done a similar thing with my HP Pavilion dv7-6c64nr laptop. It originally had only one 2.5 inch drive(750 GB). I added another 2.5 inch drive and then some time later, I replaced the 1st drive(boot) with an SSD. It is now quite acceptable. I think I can follow the same basic procedure for the Slimline desktop.
I'm probably a little crazy to do this given that I just ordered an HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Small Form Factor PC. I find it especially difficult to get rid of older machines.
Thanks again,
Ray

 

[USAFRet]

No prob.
We're here if you have further questions.