Question What is a good, cheap 200-500GB 2.5" SATA SSD for my old laptop?

[JamesC01]

I want to breathe some life into my old laptop that has an HDD. What would be a good budget SSD that will actually make a difference in start-up times and maybe responsiveness? So far I've come across the Kingston A400 in 240gb, which seems solid, and is a good price for £24. Is that a decent upgrade? Or are there better options? I've also come across the Lexar NQ100, which is even cheaper, but I've read up and it seems like it's too good to be true. Same for crucial BX500.

I don't need a lot of storage, I won't be playing games or downloading films on it. I just want to install linux on it and use it for programming with light-weight programs like vim.

My laptop model is: Acer Aspire E 15 Start (ES1-512-C5YW)

 

[Lutfij]

I'd certainly steer clear of the BX500 though for the sake of context/relevance, what is the make and model of your old laptop? What sort of storage do you currently have on your laptop? If you could, you could retain your HDD for your laptop have it in a 9.7mm/12.5mm secondary drive caddy then use a 2.5" drive in the HDD's original mounting location with the OS on it. That way you get your OS standalone on the SSD while mission critical data can remain on your HDD, within the form factor of your laptop.

 

[faalin]

https://www.newegg.com/silicon-power-256gb-ace-a55/p/N82E16820301380

256Gb for $19
512GB for $30
1TB for $48

 

[JamesC01]

I'd certainly steer clear of the BX500 though for the sake of context/relevance, what is the make and model of your old laptop? What sort of storage do you currently have on your laptop? If you could, you could retain your HDD for your laptop have it in a 9.7mm/12.5mm secondary drive caddy then use a 2.5" drive in the HDD's original mounting location with the OS on it. That way you get your OS standalone on the SSD while mission critical data can remain on your HDD, within the form factor of your laptop.

It's an Acer Aspire E 15 Start (ES1-512-C5YW). Currently there's a 2.5" 500gb hdd in it. There's no space for another hdd/ssd. The laptop is like over ten years old so I'm not desperate to save the HDD, but I do have a hard-drive enclosure, which lets you put in a 2.5 or 3.5 hdd and use it over USB. I don't see myself having over 100gb of personal data on the laptop anyway. I have a desktop for games and heavier things. I just want it for programming.

 

[Misgar]

I've also come across the Lexar NQ100, which is even cheaper, but I've read up and it seems like it's too good to be true.

I installed a 240GB Lexar NQ100 in an old Acer Aspire R1 I'm giving away, but like many cheaper drives, I don't think it contains a DRAM cache, but instead uses SLC cache for incoming data. DRAM is better, but more expensive.

If you're not too demanding fit a cheap SSD, but I was surprised at how much faster a 240GB Gigabyte SATA drive with DRAM performed in an ancient desktop, compared with a non DRAM SSD the same capacity.

If you have the money, consider a Samsung 860, 870 or similar. They're double or 3x the price of cheap Lexars but you'll find Windows "snappier" on an old laptop.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-El...samsung+sata+ssd+870+240gb,aps,58&sr=8-4&th=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MZ-76E500B-EU-Solid-State/dp/B078WQT6S6?crid=5GGHAURKS6K5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nfXcUdyRSljdclYcPLf5sQKGhO9suXUcZyoSdPtWJevXj-pa56zD8X45_3WTgzn46Kql-WstB7fHGUCCd8xZqE8hpfAVByz6sm9_3NEEVvCE2YczRvZh7YgPAOje1RHUMMXjQI3wVHgYEiPxYcUOZ3e6Zg203t5iWDoh56EnaS9leHEeReNA7DwN15dF_PU8incjGzxGdXCp6Dqq3FolGhJyx108Qw7GdDVU2ZUpPqk.hv71JST2AiKbyz03gZ4Zbi04h1Q2U2qc9w8M0WhTJKc&dib_tag=se&keywords=samsung+sata+ssd+870+480gb&qid=1740490603&sprefix=samsung+sata+ssd+870+480gb,aps,71&sr=8-11&th=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MZ-76E500B-EU-Solid-State/dp/B078WQT6S6?crid=5GGHAURKS6K5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nfXcUdyRSljdclYcPLf5sQKGhO9suXUcZyoSdPtWJevXj-pa56zD8X45_3WTgzn46Kql-WstB7fHGUCCd8xZqE8hpfAVByz6sm9_3NEEVvCE2YczRvZh7YgPAOje1RHUMMXjQI3wVHgYEiPxYcUOZ3e6Zg203t5iWDoh56EnaS9leHEeReNA7DwN15dF_PU8incjGzxGdXCp6Dqq3FolGhJyx108Qw7GdDVU2ZUpPqk.hv71JST2AiKbyz03gZ4Zbi04h1Q2U2qc9w8M0WhTJKc&dib_tag=se&keywords=samsung+sata+ssd+870+480gb&qid=1740490603&sprefix=samsung+sata+ssd+870+480gb,aps,71&sr=8-11&th=1

If you already have a USB caddy, pop the SSD inside, then run something like Macrium Reflect and clone the 500GB hard disk to the new SSD if you decide to continue using an existing Windows setup. Disconnect the caddy after cloning, then fit the SSD into the laptop. When booting from the new SSD the first time, do not have any other drives connected.

If your 500GB hard disk's capacity is larger (or smaller) than SSD's capacity, the cloning sotware should cope by making your C: drive slightly smaller or bigger. That way you can clone a 500GB hard disk to a 480GB SSD, or a 500GB hard disk to a 1TB SSD (if you need more capacity).

If the cloning process fails, I remove the hard disk from the laptop and connect both it and the new SSD to a desktop PC, to perform the clone. Some USB3 caddies don't work particularly well with cloning software.