Revamp or replace?

Andrew33

Hi all, I have a Dell XPS1530 with a piddly 60gb HD thats full to the brim and runs incredibly slowly. I've defragged, cleaned up, deleted restore points etc etc and still the HD fills back up almost as quickly as I clean it up.
Question is, I like the laptop, is it worth leaving it in somewhere and getting a bigger HD fitted or will I just run into the same "filling up" probs again? I know the XPS has a solid state HD and there's a limit on the size of them (120gb???) I see a Toshiba laptop advertised with a 320gb HD for less than €350! so what type of money would I be looking at to revamp my own one and where could I get it done by a trustworthy crowd? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Monotype

Solid state drives should not be defragmented.
Early ones of that era were also subject to slowing down when written on a few times.

If you want a speed and size boost, get a new SSD - 128GB, but better with 256GB. You can sometimes get these cheaper if you keep your eyes open. There's a lot of inferior ones around, so watch out for what you are buying and quoted speeds are not often a reliable indicator to choose from.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT128M4SSD2-128GB-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B004W2JKZI
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT256M4SSD2-256GB-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B004W2JL2A/

Alternatively, if it's space you're after, just get a 1TB drive. This could actually be faster than your drive, if the SSD is badly degraded.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scorpio-5400RPM-Internal-Compatible-Playstation/dp/B005DVJJWQ/
Choose amazon.co.uk as a seller on the right hand side for free delivery (and it's cheaper).

The only problem now is your operating system. SSDs won't perform as on Vista, which I assume you'd have on that laptop. You'd want a clean install of Windows 7 (or 8) to keep it running well.

Finally, it is not difficult at all to install a new HDD into a laptop. The more difficult part would be installing the OS, which is more patience above everything else.

Deano12345

If you like the laptop, then I'd be inclined to just get an SSD, something like a Samsung 830/840 or Crucial M4. Theres no size limits on them, other than how much you want to spend. You could pick up a 256GB version of either of the drives listed above for about 180 euro or so I'd say, plus you can always transfer the SSD if you buy a new laptop !

Edit : Ninja'd by Monotype Forgot the laptop would have Vista too, you definitely want 7 or 8, SSD's play much nicer on the newer OS's

smellsfunny

Windows Vista is the worst operating system ever made. Completely slow and buggy, and after a while it gets so clustered that you can't even use it.

All you need to do is install windows 7 and if you know a person who is good at computers he will give get it for you at a "discount". Your 64GB SSD is probably fine. Just any files store on a USB stick or a portable hard drive.

You will be amazed at how quick it will be once windows 7 is on the laptop.

Andrew33

smellsfunny wrote: »

Windows Vista is the worst operating system ever made. Completely slow and buggy, and after a while it gets so clustered that you can't even use it.

All you need to do is install windows 7 and if you know a person who is good at computers he will give get it for you at a "discount". Your 64GB SSD is probably fine. Just any files store on a USB stick or a portable hard drive.

You will be amazed at how quick it will be once windows 7 is on the laptop.

Thanks for all the replies, general consensus is revamp. If I format my HD and install win7 or win8 it should solve things? Cheers :-)

Since you have a 1530 I must ask if you have the NVIDIA 8600M GT GPU? If so I probably wouldn't recommend it because it will most likely fail on you at some point.

Deano12345

Andrew33 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, general consensus is revamp. If I format my HD and install win7 or win8 it should solve things? Cheers :-)

It should be right as rain once you have the new drive and OS !

Andrew33

Deano12345 wrote: »

It should be right as rain once you have the new drive and OS !

I know it has Nvidia something! Will I need to change other stuff if I change the HD and OS? I wouldn't be that "techy" so might need to get it done professionally.

smellsfunny

Andrew33 wrote: »

I know it has Nvidia something! Will I need to change other stuff if I change the HD and OS? I wouldn't be that "techy" so might need to get it done professionally.

Your hard drive mighn't need updating at all. If you've checked the disk for errors then you won't new one, unless obviously you want a bigger one to store more files.

Shops generally charge an arm and leg and could you charge you 200 euro for everything which isn't worth it.

windows 7 license - 90 euro
Labour - 60 euro
128SSD - 90 euro or 250GB Non SSD 30 euro.

If you know anyone anyway techy they could do it for 30 euro with a non SSD hardrive

Andrew33

S'me again! If I formatted my existing drive and bought Windows 8 would this resolve my issues or is my HD "damaged/corrupted" in some way? I've heard that the SSDs have a limited amount of times they can be written/rewritten to?

Wossack

more of issue (imo), is just the small capacity of it - no doubt run into the space issues experienced currently, and I believe SSD's take a bit of a performance hit when run at/near capacity

bit of money investment mind you on a old enough laptop - hows it holding up in other respects? battery life still good etc? mitigating this perhaps, is that the new ssd would be transferable to next laptop..

Andrew33

Wossack wrote: »

more of issue (imo), is just the small capacity of it - no doubt run into the space issues experienced currently, and I believe SSD's take a bit of a performance hit when run at/near capacity

bit of money investment mind you on a old enough laptop - hows it holding up in other respects? battery life still good etc? mitigating this perhaps, is that the new ssd would be transferable to next laptop..

It got a new battery and power supply last year and all my stuff only totals 14gb so I'm thinking my existing 60gb HD might be sufficient with a new OS?