Question HDD replaced with SSD - typical effect on netbook type pc

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Our school uses really old (maybe 9-10 years) netbook type mini pc's along with smartboards. They take about 5 minutes to fully boot up and load everything. I heard through the grapevine that over spring break, they are finally going to replace the Seagate 500GB hard drives with SSD's.

I'm wondering - roughly on average, what % of total bootup time should a SSD shave off? Currently, the Seagate spinny HDD has a maximum throughput of about 130 MB per second. The new SSD's will have a maximum sustained throughput speed of over 400 MB per second. Just comparing that, it would make it seem like the bootup time could be 1/3 of the current time, but I'm not sure it works exactly that way.....

 

[Tech Junky]

Depends on the interface. Those old drive could be using ide/pata and the speed difference could remain the same. It's just going to prevent complete failure.

I swapped the drive in my car from a spinner to an mSATA awhile back due to age concerns as well. It's a bit snappier but, still not quite as fast as it could be if it were a SATA connection. Upgrading the whole system just for more speed would cost too much for the slight day to day benefits.

At least with the new drives they should last quite awhile and perform a bit better.

 

[tcsenter]

If it's a really anemic low-power CPU it might be something of a bottleneck.

 

[solidsnake1298]

If it's a really anemic low-power CPU it might be something of a bottleneck.

Even on a low power CPU having an SSD would make a massive difference. The significantly higher RANDOM I/O performance of an SSD is what really makes a system feel snappy. And compared to mechanical HDDs, SATA SSDs are more like 10-20x faster for random I/O throughput vs 2-5x faster when only looking at sequential throughput.

In terms of boot time, I would be surprised if it took longer than a minute. In my experience, even a slow computer should boot in under 30 seconds when equipped with a SSD.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I have an OLD HP netbook lying around with N3350 (I think) CPU and an HDD. It is AWFUL to use. Wanted to upgrade it to an SSD but the damn thing is really hard to open even with all the screws removed. I hate the idea of taking it to a shop for them to open it up and charge me $20 for that.

 

[In2Photos]

I have an OLD HP netbook lying around with N3350 (I think) CPU and an HDD. It is AWFUL to use. Wanted to upgrade it to an SSD but the damn thing is really hard to open even with all the screws removed. I hate the idea of taking it to a shop for them to open it up and charge me $20 for that.

Have you checked the iFixit website for a tutorial?

 

[kschendel]

I don't know how this is relevant to your specific situation, but ... up until a couple years ago, the "family" computer was a 2009 iMac. The computer did web and email stuff, almost nothing else. In I think 2016, I replaced the hard drive with an SSD, hoping to get a few more months out of it, and the difference was so massive that we kept it until one specific app started having issues. (It was a genealogy app, if memory serves, and we ended up not using it any more for other reasons!) The "few months" ended up being 3+ years.

I'm not foolish enough to try to predict boot time effects exactly, but ... if those machines take more than a minute to boot with an SSD, I'd start looking for other reasons, such as bad network setup or something.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Have you checked the iFixit website for a tutorial?

I found a youtube video of it being opened but my netbook was shut so tight that trying to open it would have resulted in breaking some plastic at the edges so I gave up. I guess people who repair laptops for a living may have a better chance and/or better tools.

 

[In2Photos]

I found a youtube video of it being opened but my netbook was shut so tight that trying to open it would have resulted in breaking some plastic at the edges so I gave up. I guess people who repair laptops for a living may have a better chance and/or better tools.

You use several "picks" to slide around the outside where the top and bottom shells come together. These pop the clips apart.

 

[tcsenter]

Even on a low power CPU having an SSD would make a massive difference. The significantly higher RANDOM I/O performance of an SSD is what really makes a system feel snappy. And compared to mechanical HDDs, SATA SSDs are more like 10-20x faster for random I/O throughput vs 2-5x faster when only looking at sequential throughput.

Oh there will be real improvement, I was saying if the CPU is a really anemic model then clearing a storage performance bottleneck can shift the bottleneck to the CPU and not realize all the improvement that one might with a more capable CPU. I've definitely seen it a low-end CPU hindering storage performance after SSD upgrade.

I have an OLD HP netbook lying around with N3350 (I think) CPU and an HDD. It is AWFUL to use. Wanted to upgrade it to an SSD but the damn thing is really hard to open even with all the screws removed.

What model is it? Most netbook-ish designs use a soldered storage memory module (e.g. eMMC or eUFS), not upgradeable.

 

[igor_kavinski]

What model is it? Most netbook-ish designs use a soldered storage memory module (e.g. eMMC or eUFS), not upgradeable.

It's a 10.1 inch kinda thick white model with a 320GB HDD. It's stored away somewhere in my room under some pile of other stuff so can't really tell you the exact model.

You use several "picks" to slide around the outside where the top and bottom shells come together. These pop the clips apart.

These seem to be made of plastic. How strong are these? I think there's more chance that these will break when trying to pry apart those damn shells from each other.

 

[In2Photos]

These seem to be made of plastic. How strong are these? I think there's more chance that these will break when trying to pry apart those damn shells from each other.

They are very durable. I've used them to pry apart several phones, laptops and other devices. I've yet to damage one.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

This one has a Pentium J2900. Not only will they be upgrading the HDD's to SSD's, they will also be upgrading the RAM from 4GB, so that should help as well. It's a stopgap measure that should help out for 2-3 years until they have the funds to completely replace the netbooks used with our smartboards.

 

[igor_kavinski]

This one has a Pentium J2900.

Better to first upgrade just one and see if it's worth it.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Better to first upgrade just one and see if it's worth it.

The tech guys ran a bunch of tests on one with the upgraded SSD and RAM, and evidently the perfmance is much snappier for everything. That's why they decided to deploy the upgrades across the whole building over spring break.

 

[Ranulf]

On average load times are cut in half.