Upgrade or replace

454Casull

Estimable
Feb 23, 2015
8
0
4,510
I have a HP laptop of the 17" screen variety. Two 225 GB HDDs, Intel T9550 processor, NVIDIA GT 130(1 GB) and 4 MB RAM. I mostly websearch, copy and paste, play and store music, occasionally watch a dvd movie. Been a while since I burned a cd, what with mp3 and sd cards now. Also store quite a few pictures. Do all my file work in Word. Been wanting a newer version of Publisher for quite a time, but have been stingy. I run Vista and have some experience on 7. From what I've read, I have no desire for 8. My all time fav was XP, though 3.11 wasn't terrible. I really hated giving SWOTL. Anyway, all my computers have failed when a hard drive went away. And I've had this HP for a piece and am getting nervous. My first thought was the tried and true, wait for the fail and buy another. But, since this platform does all I ask, is there any way to upgrade to SSD? My boot time has gotten pretty long in the tooth the last year or so. Might I go with a SSD for OS and a HDD for storage as in the modern models? Are there any other paths to speed it up a tad?
 
Solution
I would upgrade what you have. 17" laptops are becoming less available and your hardware is more than enough for what you do. With a SSD and clean install of Win 7 Pro, your boot up times will be in the low 30's if not faster. All OS's boot up times increase as the number of programs installed increase. I would only run Microsoft Security Essentials, it uses a low amount of resources.

emdea22

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2011
31
0
18,610
If the laptop has two HDDs then it should be possible to add both an SSD and a notebook hdd. Just don't go crazy on the SSD speed because your controller might not be able to handle very high speeds. So just stick to budget SSDs and you'll be fine.
 

454Casull

Estimable
Feb 23, 2015
8
0
4,510
So, I got to looking at the specs. Seems I can add another 4GB RAM. After looking over the info on SSD's, I'd love to go with a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, but as you said-my system might not handle it.

HP HDX18 Notebook PC
Intel(®) Core(™)2 Dual CPU T9550 @ 2.66 GHz
Max Capacity RAM: 8 GB
Memory Slots: 2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M
Vista Version 6.0 Service Pack 2 64-bit
Drive 1: 232.88GB Hitachi HTS723225L9A360 ATA Device
Drive 2: 232.88GB Hitachi HTS723225L9A360 ATA Device

I don't know what this is:
Intel(R) ICH9M/M-E Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller
Intel(R) ICH9M/M-E Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller
Intel(R) ICH9M/M-E Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller
Intel(R) ICH9M/M-E Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller

So would you give a suggestion as to brand and speed I might consider? Short of tearing this apart, I don't know what type it would take. Apparently there are different mounting styles.
 

Rocko1976

Estimable
May 14, 2014
23
0
4,570
I would upgrade what you have. 17" laptops are becoming less available and your hardware is more than enough for what you do. With a SSD and clean install of Win 7 Pro, your boot up times will be in the low 30's if not faster. All OS's boot up times increase as the number of programs installed increase. I would only run Microsoft Security Essentials, it uses a low amount of resources.

 
Solution