Dell Latitude D630 Laptop - Add RAM or SSD?

[stuman74]

At my company, they were selling off used Dell Latitude D630 laptops for $75. They are a couple years old, but I still figure a good deal so I bought one for my son. It has a 2.0 GHz C2D processor, 2 GB RAM (PC-6400 DDR2, 2 DIMMs), and an 80 GB 7200 RPM HDD. Not too bad even with Windows 7 on it.

I don't want to pour a ton of money into it since it's a couple years old, but I'd like to get a little better performance out of it so it lasts maybe a couple years. Which of the two would be better for running this with Win7? He doesn't have a ton of programs or files on it and is only using under 30 GB of space (with Win7, Office07, iTunes, etc.)

A.) Upgrade to 4GB RAM (~$40-$45 for 2x2GB of PC-6400 DDR2)
B.) Upgrade to a 64GB SSD drive (~$70-$75)

Sucks that this older ram costs about 2x what the newer/faster DDR3 RAM costs! I just bought 4GB for $18 for my daughter's MacBook!

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[titan131]

I think you would get more benefit from an SSD upgrade.

Edit: and I think it's worth paying the extra for. I have a netbook with 1GB of ram, running Win 7, and it runs OK. I don't think adding 2GB more ram will make much difference since you wont be running very demanding apps anyway (not with that CPU and integrated graphics)

 

[XLNC]

Our company is doing the same thing with D620s and D630s, except the reseller is charging $200 instead. You're getting a good deal. They're great little laptops. Once we got past the initial failures, most of those models have been running smoothly. I used one at work for a year or so, and I put a Vertex 2 SSD in it for a few days.

The boot times dropped from 30 seconds to 23 seconds (power on to login screen). I saw moderate improvements in application launch times, but nothing mind boggling. I only tested web surfing and multimedia. It came with 2GB RAM, and it was sufficient for light use.

I'd say go with an SSD, just because you'll find some other use for it after this laptop dies. Whereas the DDR2, it won't even make a good paperweight in a couple of years.

 

[lmccrary]

Easy Choice - SSD

 

[T_Yamamoto]

SSD for sure

 

[mfenn]

An older laptop HDD isn't going to be very fast at all, so an SSD would be a nice upgrade. However, since the machines only have 2GB, hesitate to say that you should get an SSD before upgrading the memory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm. Is it possible to get both? I would probably prioritize the SSD slightly higher than the RAM, as you can get by with only 2GB of RAM, and an SSD would speed up the pagefile quite a bit when you run out of RAM. But then again, there's no good substitute for good old real RAM.

 

[Zap]

A.) Upgrade to 4GB RAM (~$40-$45 for 2x2GB of PC-6400 DDR2)
B.) Upgrade to a 64GB SSD drive (~$70-$75)

I would do the SSD because it can be used in the next system too. RAM for an old system is a dead end.

I put a Vertex 2 SSD in it for a few days.

The boot times dropped from 30 seconds to 23 seconds (power on to login screen). I saw moderate improvements in application launch times, but nothing mind boggling.

How about including logging in and then starting up your apps right away? I'd imagine you would see much more of a benefit then.

 

[stuman74]

I don't have any additional RAM of that spec on hand, but I did pop in my Kingston SSD that I had in my drawer. Used Acronis True Image to clone it over from the HDD to the SSD. Seems a bit faster for boot and launching apps. Here's a quick vid I took of the boot up with the SSD (I didn't take a vid of the boot with HDD for comparison though).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmexEfz7pk

Seem pretty good? I primarily use a Mac and can't recall what a typical Windows 7 boot time is

 

[mfenn]

Actual time between BIOS and desktop seems to be about 15 seconds which is quite good for such an old machine.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i would buy a new laptop rather than sink anything into this. i just bought an asus i3 for $340 and it came with 4 gigs

 

[stuman74]

i would buy a new laptop rather than sink anything into this. i just bought an asus i3 for $340 and it came with 4 gigs

If the laptop was intended for me and my usage, I agree. But for my boy, this D630 should be just fine. I don't want to spend ~$350 on it. $75 is a real good buy for this. Adding a little more per my first post I think still keeps this pretty cheap and sufficient for his usage.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

If the laptop was intended for me and my usage, I agree. But for my boy, this D630 should be just fine. I don't want to spend ~$350 on it. $75 is a real good buy for this. Adding a little more per my first post I think still keeps this pretty cheap and sufficient for his usage.

by the time you buy win 7, memory, drive etc... youre almost there. there are win 7 pentiums out there for around 300

 

[titan131]

by the time you buy win 7, memory, drive etc... youre almost there. there are win 7 pentiums out there for around 300

By the sound of it he already has win 7, I mean it wouldn't be a $75 upgrade if he didn't.

 

[stuman74]

I already have Windows 7 on it. All I'm considering adding are the RAM possibly and the SSD (which I already have and is worth about $75). So for $150 w/o the RAM upgrade, I think it's allright.

 

[fuzzymath10]

SSD. Not even a close call.
A D630 isn't going to be doing anything graphics-intense so you probably won't even need more RAM. Odds are the hard drive is a Seagate 7200.2 or 7200.3 (I have two D630s and that's what they came with).

They are painfully slow. I've run OCZ SSDs, Intel SSDs, and even a Momentus XT in them and those all work great.

 

[anti.machine]

Throw some cheap ram in it and call it a day save some money and help your son learn a important lesson in patience and when hes ready or he starts working help him buy a more up to date machine.

 

[stuman74]

Throw some cheap ram in it and call it a day save some money and help your son learn a important lesson in patience and when hes ready or he starts working help him buy a more up to date machine.

After a week, this D630 has been working really nice so far with the SSD drive. Still tempted to bump the RAM, but I haven't been able to find 4GB anywhere for less than $38 (which is about double what I just paid for some DDR3 RAM a week or so ago). The OS is Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit, but seems allright I think as-is with the 2GB so far.