Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

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Caduceus
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Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Caduceus »

My laptop disk drive has been making the occasional weird squeaking noises (especially during booting) and I got my first blue screen of death yesterday. Everything has been backed up, so if my laptop dies in the next minute, my data is fine.

But I'm trying to figure out whether to get a completely new laptop or will upgrading the SSD be good enough. I love this Thinkpad, and it isn't produced anymore. I could buy a refurbished one for $300 or pay $100 for an internal SSD and another $30 for someone to remove my current drive and install the new one for me. My only concern is that with a six-year old laptop, maybe the hard drive isn't the only thing that's wearing out? Or will replacing the hard drive basically return it to a like-new condition?

I am not completely sold on buying a new laptop as this one has a combination of rare features I like: 15" screen, centered keyboard with no number pad, and a fantastic keyboard for typing fast. If only Lenovo would produce an updated version of this ...
madbrain
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by madbrain »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:20 am My laptop disk drive has been making the occasional weird squeaking noises (especially during booting) and I got my first blue screen of death yesterday. Everything has been backed up, so if my laptop dies in the next minute, my data is fine.

But I'm trying to figure out whether to get a completely new laptop or will upgrading the SSD be good enough. I love this Thinkpad, and it isn't produced anymore. I could buy a refurbished one for $300 or pay $100 for an internal SSD and another $30 for someone to remove my current drive and install the new one for me. My only concern is that with a six-year old laptop, maybe the hard drive isn't the only thing that's wearing out? Or will replacing the hard drive basically return it to a like-new condition?

I am not completely sold on buying a new laptop as this one has a combination of rare features I like: 15" screen, centered keyboard with no number pad, and a fantastic keyboard for typing fast. If only Lenovo would produce an updated version of this ...
Can the HDD even be upgraded to an SSD ? Many laptops are not built with upgradability in mind. If it's a standard 2.5in SATA HDD, it could be an easy upgrade, and less than $100 depending on the size you need (you can get a 120GB SSD on Amazon for $20). If it's something proprietary, you may be out of luck. Even if you end up buying a refurb one, you should do the SSD upgrade anyway. It really is a night and day difference with an HDD.
RetiredAL
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by RetiredAL »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:20 am ..... My only concern is that with a six-year old laptop, maybe the hard drive isn't the only thing that's wearing out? Or will replacing the hard drive basically return it to a like-new condition?

My daily driver laptop is a 9 yr old Dell. It's used most days as an adjutant to a much newer desktop. I got it 6 years ago for $300. I have no plans to upgrade the HDD to an SSD. Sure, the SSD will make it boot faster, but once it's up and running, it does everything that I need it to do adequately. If it dies or gets lost while traveling, I'm not going to cry over it. If only the HDD fails, I'm more likely to buy new than just replacing the HDD with a SSD.

Do be aware that MS has drawn a line in the sand and Win11 will likely not run on machine more than a few years old. MS will continue to support Win10 for a number of years even though Win11 has recently be released. I also have a 6 yr old Acer V5, and it will not run Win11. My 1 yr old desktop mother is socket ready for the security module needed for Win11, but that module is not installed.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by madbrain »

RetiredAL wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:20 am My 1 yr old desktop mother is socket ready for the security module needed for Win11, but that module is not installed.
If you have a recent machine, you don't actually need a physical TPM. It should have a BIOS setting for enabling firmware TPM (AMD) or PTT (Intel).
I would strongly recommend not jumping on Win11 too quickly, though. Let early adopters do some more beta-testing. A good way to do that is to leave those BIOS settings disabled and prevent an automatic-update to Win11 in the future.
Also, to me, it's not clear that Win11 offers functional advantages over Win10. The looks are different (I tried it a VM). Besides that, I'm not really sure.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Kagord »

To me, there's 2 advantages to buying a new laptop for casual users, especially using on your lap.

Weight: My current 15" laptop is 2.5 Lbs (LG gram), one handed, effortlessly, I can take it off my lap and stow it on the table
Battery Life: It's a new battery, and at least on mine, the battery life is longer than an older one when new (before degradation)

My dw uses a Lenovo Thinkpad from 2016, I can't stand it because it's a heavy tank, 5.7 Lbs. Also, using Windows 11, I see no benefit, and some hinderances (cannot ungroup taskbar icons, you can do with some hacks though). But at least, Windows 11 is not a disaster, so MS may have broken their every other version sucks stigma.
Last edited by Kagord on Sat Oct 23, 2021 4:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by arthur_vandelay »

I'm a developer and although my current company doesn't issue ThinkPads, the previous companies I worked for issued ThinkPads or MBPs, so I'm a big Thinkpad fan. We have 4 in daily use in our household. I'd upgrade the drive if everything else is in order.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by mary1492 »

xyzzy
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oldlongbeard
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by oldlongbeard »

I would invest in the SSD upgrade. A fresh install of WIN10 will run nicely. I would do a dual-boot with Linux as an option.... a FAST distro like MX, and use that for anything you don't need Windoze for. It will run like a scalded dog on that old hardware.

No sense in sending it off to an early grave. If you do, remove the disk, and send it to me, and I'll give it new life with Linux on a new SSD, LOL.
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Caduceus
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Caduceus »

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the SSD upgrade, if only because I know the drive will be brand new (compared to unknown quality of a refurbished laptop that's identical to mine).

Just hoping to get help with one more question. Does anyone know if the WD Blue Internal SSD Drive:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-1TB-SS...B073SBQMCX

Will this work inside a Thinkpad T530? I used Amazon's tool but it says "it cannot be sure" ... and I'm not sure how else to tell.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the SSD upgrade, if only because I know the drive will be brand new (compared to unknown quality of a refurbished laptop that's identical to mine).
That's the approach I've taken for a number of older laptops, i.e. a HP 4510S ProBook, and it has given them a new lease on life.
Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am Just hoping to get help with one more question. Does anyone know if the WD Blue Internal SSD Drive:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-1TB-SS...B073SBQMCX

Will this work inside a Thinkpad T530? I used Amazon's tool but it says "it cannot be sure" ... and I'm not sure how else to tell.
I've always valued the Leaderboard - Best Hard Drive, SSD and Storage Solutions - StorageReview.com site for recommendations. The Samsung family of SSDs seems to always top their leaderboard so I've always chosen them and cannot say I've ever been disappointed. The Samsung 860 EVO SSD Review (1TB) has been at the top of their leaderboard for quite some time.

The bundled Samsung Data Migration software is designed to help users quickly, easily, and safely migrate all of their data – including their current operating system, application software, and user data – from their existing storage device (e.g. HDD) to their new Samsung SSD. Makes the job quite easy for the numerous times that I've replaced/updated SSDs on various machines.
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lgerla
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by lgerla »

I'm a fan of SSD upgrades and about to do my third laptop.

I use the scan at www.crucial.com. it tells you the exact type of HDD and RAM you currently have, and recommends compatible upgrades.

It gives you plenty of size / speed options and shows where you can buy, such as Amazon, NewEgg, or on crucial.

No matter where you buy, Crucial (Micron) offers free data transfer software to your new SDD. You will need the right data cable for this. I watch YouTube videos for my exact laptop model for how to open the case and install myself.

Bonus with the right case and cable, you can use your old HDD for duplicate storage and it may last longer without daily use.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tibbitts »

I've replace HDDs with SDDs in about a half dozen laptops from various generations and am not as awed as everybody else by the improvement. But the laptops will be faster; you just might not notice unless your hobby is benchmarking laptops. But if you have a 6yr old high-end model, it will still be okay... as long as it's win11 compatible, so you should check on that. Anyway an SDD is cheap so no harm in trying to upgrade, even if just for the remaining life of win10.

Just toss the HDD, if you have (as I assume you do) any reason to believe it's not behaving correctly. Well, recycle it - I just dropped off a box full of laptops (with hard drives) at Best Buy.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

tibbitts wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:33 am Just toss the HDD, if you have (as I assume you do) any reason to believe it's not behaving correctly. Well, recycle it - I just dropped off a box full of laptops (with hard drives) at Best Buy.
Topic drift alert!

For privacy and security reasons hopefully you made sure you'd wiped all data from the HDDs before recycling. Data Removal: Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN is very useful for this purpose.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tibbitts »

Peculiar_Investor wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:40 am
tibbitts wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:33 am Just toss the HDD, if you have (as I assume you do) any reason to believe it's not behaving correctly. Well, recycle it - I just dropped off a box full of laptops (with hard drives) at Best Buy.
Topic drift alert!

For privacy and security reasons hopefully you made sure you'd wiped all data from the HDDs before recycling. Data Removal: Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN is very useful for this purpose.
No, I didn't. Well, I removed each drive and ran ... it was two weeks ago and I've already forgotten, but a "wipe" utility that I'm sure it wasn't sufficient for super-secret data. I ran the single-pass option - no patience for waiting longer. However, I just gave them the broken ones that wouldn't spin up. So yes, someone sufficiently dedicated could repair them and read the data, although the only sensitive data was encrypted. Life is full of risks. And no I didn't smash them or drill holes into them, because doing that is just unpleasant to me for some reason.
Last edited by tibbitts on Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
DiamondplateDave
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by DiamondplateDave »

Disclaimer: I used to be a Lenovo certified laptop tech at a Lenovo reseller. I have not worked on one in many years.
I'm wondering if you know for sure that it's the hard drive. It's possible that the hard drive is making noise, but it also might be the fan, if this unit has one? Whenever I opened a Lenovo (or Mac, for that matter) that had a fan, I would make sure to jam the fan blade to prevent it from over-spinning and loosen the dust with a toothbrush, then blast compressed air through the heaksink (i.e. through the exhaust vent, then pick the dust bunnies out of the fan blades with tweezers. With the older Lenovos it was a matter of removing 2-4 small screws and removing the keyboard to access the fan.
Anyhow, if you like this laptop and it runs well for you, I don't think it's a bad idea to upgrade it to an SSD.
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Watty
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Watty »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am .... a Thinkpad T530? ....
Just FYI, you got lucky and physically installing a SSD on that model is about as hard as changing a battery on kids toy where the battery compartment is secured by a screw. There are lots of videos like this one on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHpQBk-SdLk

There are lots of ways to move your data. I am not a PC guru so the last time I did this I just got an inexpensive USB hard drive enclosure like this so that I could plug the new SSD into a USB port.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-fre ... +enclosure

I then used a free version of Macrium reflect to clone the drive. Once I installed the SSD it booted right up. Your SSD will likely come with software and instructions about how to copy the drive too.

If you get a SSD that is the same size as your hard drive then you will not need to worry about changing the disk partition sizes but even that is not too hard but I don't remember how I did that.
Last edited by Watty on Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
tibbitts
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tibbitts »

Watty wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:17 am
Just FYI, you got lucky and physically installing a SSD on that model it about as hard as changing a battery on kids toy where the battery compartment is secured by a screw.
I appreciated my older laptops where the drives were accessible by access doors as you say, vs. prying the entire clamshell case apart (and always breaking/cracking something.) But I would add that most of the software included with new SSDs (various established brands) hasn't worked for me and I've ended up using Macrium (the free flavor) as well.
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Caduceus
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Caduceus »

Watty wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:17 am
Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am .... a Thinkpad T530? ....
Just FYI, you got lucky and physically installing a SSD on that model it about as hard as changing a battery on kids toy where the battery compartment is secured by a screw. There are lots of videos like this one on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHpQBk-SdLk

There are lots of ways to move your data. I am not a PC guru so the last time I did this I just got an inexpensive USB hard drive enclosure like this so that I could plug the new SSD into a USB port.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-fre ... +enclosure

I then used a free version of Macrium reflect to clone the drive. Once I installed the SSD it booted right up. Your SSD will likely come with software and instructions about how to copy the drive too.

If you get a SSD that is the same size as your hard drive then you will not need to worry about changing the disk partition sizes but even that is not too hard but I don't remember how I did that.
But see, I didn't know a lot about what you were writing about. I have no idea what cloning a drive means, or what changing a disk partition size entails or why it's necessary, or what you mean by copying the drive. When it comes to mechanical stuff, I am the type of person that will screw up things that every other person wouldn't :beer My best friend once drove an hour to my place because a new desktop wasn't working, only to figure out I hadn't attached the power cable.
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Caduceus
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by Caduceus »

DiamondplateDave wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:08 am Disclaimer: I used to be a Lenovo certified laptop tech at a Lenovo reseller. I have not worked on one in many years.
I'm wondering if you know for sure that it's the hard drive. It's possible that the hard drive is making noise, but it also might be the fan, if this unit has one? Whenever I opened a Lenovo (or Mac, for that matter) that had a fan, I would make sure to jam the fan blade to prevent it from over-spinning and loosen the dust with a toothbrush, then blast compressed air through the heaksink (i.e. through the exhaust vent, then pick the dust bunnies out of the fan blades with tweezers. With the older Lenovos it was a matter of removing 2-4 small screws and removing the keyboard to access the fan.
Anyhow, if you like this laptop and it runs well for you, I don't think it's a bad idea to upgrade it to an SSD.
My laptop makes relatively high-pitched squeaks when I turn it on and as it boots up. It makes these regular high-pitched noises exactly 10 times, and then if it fails, it goes to something like "Intel Boot Agent." Since I don't have a backup boot disc, I just turn it off and try it again, and if the noises don't get to ten squeaks, the laptop successfully boots.

Occasionally, when I am just generally surfing, I will hear squeaky sounds and the entire laptop freezes for maybe 5-10 seconds, then when the squeaks are over, the laptop unfreezes. But once it just crashed with a blue screen of death following the squeak. I have run check disk (error checking with the "scan and recover bad sectors" selected), and it took four hours to run but it came back with no errors on the drive, supposedly. It deleted a couple of "security descriptors" and the Event Viewer log didn't show any errors. But after the check disk scan, my laptop has (fingers crossed) not crashed a single time.

Does this sound like something that changing the hard drive would completely rectify? I was kinda worried it might be the RAM or something else, and that I'd still be screwed after going through all the trouble. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Last edited by Caduceus on Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
mary1492
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by mary1492 »

xyzzy
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tibbitts
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tibbitts »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:29 am
But see, I didn't know a lot about what you were writing about. I have no idea what cloning a drive means, or what changing a disk partition size entails or why it's necessary, or what you mean by copying the drive. When it comes to mechanical stuff, I am the type of person that will screw up things that every other person wouldn't :beer My best friend once drove an hour to my place because a new desktop wasn't working, only to figure out I hadn't attached the power cable.
Then you might consider whether you want to treat this as kind of a hobby kind of activity and learning experience, or just pay someone to do it. Bogleheads will tell you how any idiot can replace their own hard drive and add on a room to their house and rebuild their automatic transmission, all before lunch. But no harm in having someone else do this... well, actually I've had laptop repairs done "professionally" that definitely did not end well, so you want to go with someone who's somewhat established in that business.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by madbrain »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:33 am Does this sound like something that changing the hard drive would completely rectify? I was kinda worried it might be the RAM or something else, and that I'd still be screwed after going through all the trouble. Thank you for any help you can give me.
It sounds much more likely to be the HDD based on what you describe. However, before you replace the HDD in your T530, or anything else, it would not hurt to check the RAM also. You can download memtest onto a USB flash drive and boot it. Let it run many passes overnight. This is worth doing on any consumer-level computer (one that doesn't use ECC memory) if hardware problems are suspected. And even if not suspected, not a bad idea to do it once a year or so. RAM does go bad. It's happened to me many times. Definitely test it on an old machine before investing $$$ into it.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by crefwatch »

Because you have a major brand, you will find a disassembly video on YouTube pretty easily. Be sure to buy a huge USB stick (128 Gig ?) and create a Windows fresh install drive before beginning. Write down your Windows license number if you don't have the card. Also save the files you want on another USB stick.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by lazydavid »

madbrain wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:06 am It sounds much more likely to be the HDD based on what you describe. However, before you replace the HDD in your T530, or anything else, it would not hurt to check the RAM also. You can download memtest onto a USB flash drive and boot it. Let it run many passes overnight. This is worth doing on any consumer-level computer (one that doesn't use ECC memory) if hardware problems are suspected. And even if not suspected, not a bad idea to do it once a year or so. RAM does go bad. It's happened to me many times. Definitely test it on an old machine before investing $$$ into it.
RAM does go bad, but squeaking isn't usually one of the symptoms. :)
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by student »

tibbitts wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:06 am
Peculiar_Investor wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:40 am
tibbitts wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:33 am Just toss the HDD, if you have (as I assume you do) any reason to believe it's not behaving correctly. Well, recycle it - I just dropped off a box full of laptops (with hard drives) at Best Buy.
Topic drift alert!

For privacy and security reasons hopefully you made sure you'd wiped all data from the HDDs before recycling. Data Removal: Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN is very useful for this purpose.
No, I didn't. Well, I removed each drive and ran ... it was two weeks ago and I've already forgotten, but a "wipe" utility that I'm sure it wasn't sufficient for super-secret data. I ran the single-pass option - no patience for waiting longer. However, I just gave them the broken ones that wouldn't spin up. So yes, someone sufficiently dedicated could repair them and read the data, although the only sensitive data was encrypted. Life is full of risks. And no I didn't smash them or drill holes into them, because doing that is just unpleasant to me for some reason.
I agree. One just wants to keep the data from low level bad guys, not the CIA. I assume you are not a billionaire with enemies...
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by an_asker »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:20 am My laptop disk drive has been making the occasional weird squeaking noises (especially during booting) and I got my first blue screen of death yesterday. Everything has been backed up, so if my laptop dies in the next minute, my data is fine.

But I'm trying to figure out whether to get a completely new laptop or will upgrading the SSD be good enough. I love this Thinkpad, and it isn't produced anymore. I could buy a refurbished one for $300 or pay $100 for an internal SSD and another $30 for someone to remove my current drive and install the new one for me. My only concern is that with a six-year old laptop, maybe the hard drive isn't the only thing that's wearing out? Or will replacing the hard drive basically return it to a like-new condition?

I am not completely sold on buying a new laptop as this one has a combination of rare features I like: 15" screen, centered keyboard with no number pad, and a fantastic keyboard for typing fast. If only Lenovo would produce an updated version of this ...
Would you mind sharing a link to the site where you can get a decent refurbished Thinkpad for $300? That sounds like something that would be perfect for me :-)
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by mary1492 »

xyzzy
Last edited by mary1492 on Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by an_asker »

mary1492 wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:02 am
an_asker wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:40 am [...]
Would you mind sharing a link to the site where you can get a decent refurbished Thinkpad for $300? That sounds like something that would be perfect for me :-)
All of my machines over the past 10+ years are Lenovo refurbs from Newegg. Here are laptops $100-$325:
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4016%2050 ... ge=100+325
Thanks!!
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tibbitts »

an_asker wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:50 pm
mary1492 wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:02 am
an_asker wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:40 am [...]
Would you mind sharing a link to the site where you can get a decent refurbished Thinkpad for $300? That sounds like something that would be perfect for me :-)
All of my machines over the past 10+ years are Lenovo refurbs from Newegg. Here are laptops $100-$325:
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4016%2050 ... ge=100+325
Thanks!!
I would be extremely cautious about buying a non-factory-refurb laptop, mainly because I've bought a bunch of them over the years from various vendors with mixed results. Certainly the ones I bought weren't really refurbished and/or extremely lightly/briefly used, the way a factory refurb product sometimes is, just maybe lightly cleaned and reloaded with a new instance of Windows. They are typically lease returns or laptops auctioned off by a business or government agency. My refurb buying days are behind me, but I understand wanting certain features that might not be available any other way, so that would be one reason for buy a refurb. The other would be if it's cheap enough and you're okay with trying a few times until you get one you like.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by rebellovw »

I upgraded my Dell T7500 last year with an SSD and a Sata 3 controller - made a world of difference. Now I have to junk it as I bought a new iMac that I absolutely love and also I can't run Window 11 (no secure boot.)

Get a new laptop - with the latest features.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by tortoise84 »

Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the SSD upgrade, if only because I know the drive will be brand new (compared to unknown quality of a refurbished laptop that's identical to mine).

Just hoping to get help with one more question. Does anyone know if the WD Blue Internal SSD Drive:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-1TB-SS...B073SBQMCX

Will this work inside a Thinkpad T530? I used Amazon's tool but it says "it cannot be sure" ... and I'm not sure how else to tell.
Yes it will work and the WD Blue 2.5" SATA SSD is a good drive.

I checked the specs of the ThinkPad T530 here: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PD ... 530_WE.pdf

I actually have a Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 from the same era 2013 and same CPU i5-3210M that I upgraded with a 120GB SSD and it has been running Windows 10 great with fast boot times for web browsing, YouTube, Office apps, etc. It doesn't meet the requirements for Windows 11 however.
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Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by quantAndHold »

You’re talking about replacing the hard drive in a 9 year old laptop. You can do that, but the memory or screen or a cable or something else is going to fail next week. Replacing the hard drive in something this old seems penny wise and pound foolish, when you can get a much nicer laptop for not much more than the cost of the drive and installation.
calwatch
Posts: 1447
Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2013 1:48 am

Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by calwatch »

I have a now ten year old ASUS laptop which was the top of the line when it was purchased, and still going strong on Windows 10 with a 1 TB SSD and upgrade to maximum memory. The display has cracked due to too many drops and I didn't think it was worth the $150 for a new one, so I hook it up to an external monitor. It works fine for most of what I do and much faster than when it was a disc-based hard drive.
madbrain
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Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:06 pm
Location: San Jose, California

Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by madbrain »

rebellovw wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:05 pm I upgraded my Dell T7500 last year with an SSD and a Sata 3 controller - made a world of difference. Now I have to junk it as I bought a new iMac that I absolutely love and also I can't run Window 11 (no secure boot.)

Get a new laptop - with the latest features.
You really don't have to junk it. The T7500 is a desktop, not a laptop. I would think that's a different use case. Also, Windows 10 will continue to be supported and updated through October 25, 2025, unless the EOL date gets pushed farther.
random_walker_77
Posts: 2212
Joined: Tue May 21, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Buy new laptop or upgrade to SSD drive?

Post by random_walker_77 »

mary1492 wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:34 am
Caduceus wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:03 am Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the SSD upgrade, if only because I know the drive will be brand new (compared to unknown quality of a refurbished laptop that's identical to mine).

Just hoping to get help with one more question. Does anyone know if the WD Blue Internal SSD Drive:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-1TB-SS...B073SBQMCX

Will this work inside a Thinkpad T530? I used Amazon's tool but it says "it cannot be sure" ... and I'm not sure how else to tell.
That SSD will work fine in your T530. Any SATA SSD will. There are T530 configurations that come new with SSD instead of HDD. SATA III is the current standard and is backward compatible with all prior SATA standards.
How big is your old hard disk? I've rejuvenated old laptops with smaller SSDs (256MB/512MB), and it really makes a huge difference in boot time. If you know how to do it, it's an inexpensive upgrade that makes a very big difference (since these smaller drives occasionally go on sale for $30-40.

For OP, I think the $30 fee is more than fair to have someone set it up.

If doing it yourself, you'd want a $10 enclosure to connect the old hard drive via USB (example). Probably also a small USB thumb drive that I'd load with either a windows install image (downloaded from microsoft) or w/ a bootable linux image to use for cloning the old drive to the new drive.
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