Upgrade to SSD or get a new laptop. quick Q.

[Citrusblade]

I’m divided between getting a new laptop and upgrading an old one for less cash.
The upgrade I’m thinking of is some fast memory, a SSD and possibly windows 7 (from vista)

Q. If I pull out the current HD and replace it with the SSD and the win7 disc in the drive, will it install ok?

obviously I'd like to save cash, which is why this is appealing, but moreover none of the laptops in my price range come with SSD drives and I'm thinking they're going to make the biggest difference.

Thoughts?
Most Appreciated.

 

[geofelt]

I’m divided between getting a new laptop and upgrading an old one for less cash.
The upgrade I’m thinking of is some fast memory, a SSD and possibly windows 7 (from vista)

Q. If I pull out the current HD and replace it with the SSD and the win7 disc in the drive, will it install ok?

obviously I'd like to save cash, which is why this is appealing, but moreover none of the laptops in my price range come with SSD drives and I'm thinking they're going to make the biggest difference.

Thoughts?
Most Appreciated.

If you will replace the laptop hard drive with a ssd, you will think you have a new pc. It makes one heck of a difference.
Fast ram will make no real difference. added ram will.

I have replaced two laptop hard drives with a ssd with great results. Fortunately, I have little need for lots of drive space. In both cases I used a
Intel X25-V 40gb drive.

Laptops will often come with a recovery partition that can be used to restore the original image. How well that will work with a failed hard drive, I don't know. I used a windows 7 dvd to do a clean install on each of them. I wanted to insure that the sata mode was set to AHCI. You should be able to reactivate using the product code from the sticker on the bottom of the laptop if you do a clean install.
Some SSD's will come with a laptop kit that allows you to clone your current hard drive to a usb adapter with the new ssd. Then just replace the old hard drive with the ssd. Here is an example of a 80gb drive with a laptop kit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167048
Or, you can use an external usb hard drive enclosure. Why not get a 2.5" external usb enclosure anyway, so you can use the old hard drive as an external backup.

For reliability, I would stick with Intel or Samsung.

Here is a samsung with a laptop upgrade kit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147137

 

[mbryans]

In addition to reliability, for a laptop, you should choose the SSD with low power consumption. This will save your battery.

 

[asnorton44]

What laptop model do you have?

 

[Citrusblade]

I don't have it in front of me right now, but its some kind of HP Pavillion. will be looking at the specs a bit later.
Note, for a lap top, it's actually usually plugged in. My wife uses it around the living room/dining room as having a tower + monitor would be way to intrusive.

 

[Citrusblade]

It's a HP pavillion dv6215 running windows vista on 1 gig of mem.
I'm first thinking that updating the memory is the primary goal. Anyone know what the max is likely to be or where to find out.

 

[geofelt]

It's a HP pavillion dv6215 running windows vista on 1 gig of mem.
I'm first thinking that updating the memory is the primary goal. Anyone know what the max is likely to be or where to find out.

Ram vendors, like kingston, will have upgrade configurators.
Enter your model specifics, and you will get a list of compatible updates. If you have a 1gb stick now, you might do better with a replacement kit of 4gb sticks.

 

[LordConrad]

I'm assuming these are the specs of your laptop:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-dv6215us-turion/4507-3121_7-32339505.html

It looks like the RAM can only be upgraded to 2GB.

1) You can increase the RAM to maximum and install an SSD, and maybe upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit while you're at it.

2) You can buy a new laptop.

Either choice should give you a big boost in speed. Unless you choose a smaller SSD and skip Windows 7 (or get a cheap OEM copy), you might be better off putting the money towards a new laptop.

 

[adampower]

Buy the ssd today. In 6 months buy a cheaper ivy bridge laptop with a 5400rpm spinner. Put the ssd in the new laptop and, in 6 months, you have a dream machine.

Samsung 830s are great
Intel's 520 is awesome
Intel's 320 is rock solid and easy on power but not the fastest
Crucial's M4 is darn good
ANY SSD (okay there were some dogs in the first gen batch) IS A HUGE UPGRADE.


I always edit my posts? Is it just me? If you ever see a post of mine that is not edited... it's probably wrong.

 

[LordConrad]

Buy the ssd today. In 6 months buy a cheaper ivy bridge laptop with a 5400rpm spinner. Put the ssd in the new laptop and, in 6 months, you have a dream machine.

In the mean time, his old laptop with Vista and 1GB of RAM will thrash the heck out of his shiny new SSD as it constantly swaps out to the pagefile. I don't think going this route is a wise idea unless you also upgrade the RAM.

 

[geofelt]

In the mean time, his old laptop with Vista and 1GB of RAM will thrash the heck out of his shiny new SSD as it constantly swaps out to the pagefile. I don't think going this route is a wise idea unless you also upgrade the RAM.

The OP must be paging like crazy now, and very slowly on a 5400 rpm drive. A SSD will be a major impact since it will do so 50x faster than a hard drive.

Replacing the ram with a 2 x 1gb kit will be $30 or so. Not so much perhaps if you don't mind spending on a temporary fix.

I think I would go the ssd route, buying the capacity needed whenever the laptop is replaced.

 

[sains]

Hi ,
am using Samsung NP300V5A-S0CIN i want to replace my HDD with SSD can any one suggest some best SSD Please.