Putting an SSD in an old desktop

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barlowc

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I have a 7.5 year-old Dell XPS 400 desktop computer. It has a 3.0 GHz Dual-Core processor and is maxed-out at 4 GB of memory. It's my "workhorse". It runs 24/7/365 and has since the day I got it. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 32-Bit and it really does a fine job for everything it is used for. To pep it up a bit, I was thinking about putting an SSD in and running the operating system and all my apps off it. The current 1 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA drive would then used for storage.

Newegg is selling a 120 GB Kingston for $80. Though it's a 2.5" drive so I imagine I'll need some kind of mounting kit. And it's SATA III. Is that compatible with regular SATA?
 
Yes it should work. If you have SATA I, you'll definitely be maxing out the bus.

You will probably need a 3.5" to 2.5" converter. A lot of SSD's do come with them
 
I would wait for black friday or cyber monday deals, it's just around the corner. Yes the SATA III drive is compatible with SATA.

You can get a bracket or just install it in one of the 2.5" slot of the computer if you have one open. If you are keeping the original drive in there, then you'll also need another SATA cable, and make sure you have a power connection available also.
 
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FWIW, I recently put a cheap $35 refurbished 60GB OCZ SSD in a Core 2 Duo Dell Inspiron I had. I put Windows 7 on it and the machine flies!!

It woke that laptop right up.
 
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well I have a related question. I have a couple IBM / LENOVO Thinkpads and I want to put an SSD drive in at least one. As pointed out by the op, prices are getting cheaper. Newegg had a 60 gig refurb Toshiba refurb for $39? which may be enough for a carry around T60. Anyway, do I need anything beyond the drive? cables? bracket? I assume the original drive (still good) has something. Thoughts?
 
Originally Posted By: bmwjohn
well I have a related question. I have a couple IBM / LENOVO Thinkpads and I want to put an SSD drive in at least one. As pointed out by the op, prices are getting cheaper. Newegg had a 60 gig refurb Toshiba refurb for $39? which may be enough for a carry around T60. Anyway, do I need anything beyond the drive? cables? bracket? I assume the original drive (still good) has something. Thoughts?


You should be able to remove the old hard drive from the caddy and put the new SSD in its place. Other than that the computer would detect it as any other drive. Just make sure the hard drive bus is SATA, not IDE or that odd ZIF connector (I believe that's what it's called).

Also make sure you're using TRIM capable OS.
 
Originally Posted By: bmwjohn
well I have a related question. I have a couple IBM / LENOVO Thinkpads and I want to put an SSD drive in at least one. As pointed out by the op, prices are getting cheaper. Newegg had a 60 gig refurb Toshiba refurb for $39? which may be enough for a carry around T60. Anyway, do I need anything beyond the drive? cables? bracket? I assume the original drive (still good) has something. Thoughts?



For laptops, they usually need an SSD that isn't as tall. I suggest you do some Googling to find out, or just slide out your existing drive and measure the height in millimeters.
 
OP: the SSDs usually include a 2.5/3.5 adapter bracket. If not, no big deal -- no moving parts so you can just rest it on top of something.
 
Don't go for the cheapest SSD. I have a Kingston and it has problems writing.

Get an Intel, Samsung or Toshiba. For a 120G drive, it might cost $10-15 more to get one of these respected brands, and you won't have any issues. A month ago, Newegg had a special where the Toshiba 128G was only $80.

I have 2 Intels and 1 Toshiba and 1 Kingston. Only the Kingston has problems
 
Yeah, you don't need the 3.5-2.5" adapter bracket. Just leave it hanging or use blue painter's tape to attach it to something
 
Originally Posted By: xfactor9
Don't go for the cheapest SSD. I have a Kingston and it has problems writing.

Get an Intel, Samsung or Toshiba. For a 120G drive, it might cost $10-15 more to get one of these respected brands, and you won't have any issues. A month ago, Newegg had a special where the Toshiba 128G was only $80.

I have 2 Intels and 1 Toshiba and 1 Kingston. Only the Kingston has problems


The brand is irrelevant. Look at the chipset it uses.
 
Originally Posted By: xfactor9
Yeah, you don't need the 3.5-2.5" adapter bracket. Just leave it hanging or use blue painter's tape to attach it to something


I'm not a fan of this approach. If you bump the case and it comes unplugged, you can bet it will corrupt some data. Use a bracket -- do it right the first time.
 
They have a plastic bracket on Ebay for $.99 or you can be creative.

I bought a Sandisk SSD and metal bracket for Dell Inspiron tower. I ended up using zip tie to keep it in place.

Trim is automatic in Windows 7 (so I have been told). I had to download trim software from Sandisk since still running XP.
 
Two places to look for drives...

Other World Computing
And
Data Memory Systems

OWC probably has that 2.5 to 3.5 converter...
 
I used a black cable wrap (zip tie) and tied mine down on a 3.5" HDD tray in my Antec Sonata II.

Unrelated note, I bought mime over 3 years ago and the bootup times it has saved me and loading games it was really worth it.

When I go to work I boot up my computer with an HDD and wow, it takes long to get to the Windows desktop.

I still store files on an HDD, but load the OS and a game I am currently playing at the time onto the SSD.

Great value!
 
Go for it. Price sounds good, not sure how much better a BF sale can/will be. It does make a major difference.
 
Originally Posted By: xfactor9
Don't go for the cheapest SSD. I have a Kingston and it has problems writing.

Get an Intel, Samsung or Toshiba. For a 120G drive, it might cost $10-15 more to get one of these respected brands, and you won't have any issues. A month ago, Newegg had a special where the Toshiba 128G was only $80.

I have 2 Intels and 1 Toshiba and 1 Kingston. Only the Kingston has problems

Interesting. The particular Kingston they have listed (Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III) has pretty good reviews on Newegg.

- 5 Star: 116
- 4 Star: 18
- 3 Star: 3
- 2 Star: 4
- 1 Star: 4
 
Originally Posted By: Falken
I used a black cable wrap (zip tie) and tied mine down on a 3.5" HDD tray in my Antec Sonata II.

Unrelated note, I bought mime over 3 years ago and the bootup times it has saved me and loading games it was really worth it.

When I go to work I boot up my computer with an HDD and wow, it takes long to get to the Windows desktop.

I still store files on an HDD, but load the OS and a game I am currently playing at the time onto the SSD.

Great value!




Faster boot & app loading times are a good value proposition for enterprises to install SSDs.

If it reduces boot time from 3 minutes to 1 minute, that's 2 minutes of time every day. Figure 5 days a week for 50 weeks per year, that's 500 minutes of time saved, or nearly 8 hours -- an entire working day. If someone costs their company $70/hr in salary and benefits, that more than covers the cost of buying and migrating to the SSD!

Spread that out across a typical 3-5 year PC refresh cycle and you've effectively added almost an entire week of productivity. Multiply by hundreds or thousands of employees and it suddenly looks very attractive!
 
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