Is an SSD worth it in an old laptop?

[Herr Kutz]

Okay, well the Plextor M3S was a no go. It turns out TigerDirect does not have real time inventory, and I cancelled my order since I know they will not get anymore in stock since it's EOL'ed, despite their claims to be working with Plextor to fulfill backorders.

Anyway, I'm considering going the Samsung 830 route. I do like that it is 7mm so that I could possibly use it as a future upgrade in an ultrabook that doesn't require msata. Samsung's notebook upgrade kit is an extra ~$20 on top of the bare drive, and I don't need the cloning cable since I plan to do a fresh install. Also, the deals are usually more frequent on the bare drive as well so I could prefer to go that route.

My only concern is how to make it fit it my current laptop's drive bay without wiggling since the bare drive does not include the spacer.

I'm wondering if anyone knows whether or not it will be possible to screw an 830 into my current hard drive holder. Here are a couple pictures of it:

Looking at the picture of the drive in Anandtech's review there appears to be a screw hole (and I'm guessing 3 more) on the sides which I think could hold it securely in place as long as it fits the HDD caddy I have.

 

[hal2kilo]

EDIT: Conclusion: yes it appears to be worth it. I have a new question in post 26 if anyone would care to help. Thanks!

The keyword here is old. The laptop is an HP dv5000 from the summer of '06. Specifically, it only has a SATA 1.5Gbps controller, core duo processor, and 2GB ram. Would an SSD give actual real world benefits?

Also, would coming close to filling up the SSD slow it down too much even considering the limited speed I could expect with the SATA 1.5gb/s interface?

Here is the benchmark of my mechanical HDD:

Gave my Dell Vostro 1700 a new lease on life.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I just put my old gen 2 Intel SSD in my 2007 laptop and man it makes a big difference in basic usage which is all that we use it for.

 

[beginner99]

My only concern is how to make it fit it my current laptop's drive bay without wiggling since the bare drive does not include the spacer.

I'm wondering if anyone knows whether or not it will be possible to screw an 830 into my current hard drive holder. Here are a couple pictures of it:

I assuem since ti is a laptop it is made for 2.5" drives? So therefore screws should match.

however since the ssd does not rotate it does not need to be that well fixed, meaning use cardboard as a spacer (if one is required at all, probably better to not use one because it will thermal insulate the drive) and removable, double-sided Tape for fixation (maybe velcro tape on caddy and ssd would work). Of course you should be able to shake the laptop a without the ssd coming lose but ssd are very light and tape should work.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Well I snagged a 256GB Plextor m3 from NCIX for $170, and it is now running smoothly in my system. The performance isn't earth-shattering compared to when I was using my HDD, but I expected that since I'm limited by my other components and only have SATA 1.5Gb/s interface. I do notice things are a bit smoother and installing programs is quicker. Of course, I'm also glad I got the 256GB since my old HDD was only 120GB and was fairly full. All in all I think it was worth it.

Here is an HDTune benchmark to compare with my old drive (remember I'm on SATA 1.5Gb/s).

It turns out that I had to install new drivers for my chipset (?) to get AHCI. I think it worked since I ran "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" in command prompt and it returned with a "0" which supposedly means TRIM is on (which requires AHCI, right?).

And FWIW, my WEI is as follows:

Processor Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2500 @ 2.00GHz - 4.5
Memory (RAM) 2.00 GB - 4.9
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 - 3.6
Gaming graphics 895 MB Total available graphics memory - 3.5
Primary hard disk 218GB Free (238GB Total) - 7.2

3.5 - Determined by lowest subscore

 

[tweakboy]

I just put an SSD in a Sony VAIO with SATA1.5, it does make a difference. Uses less power so battery life is better.

I think your max mbps is 250mbps to 275mbps

Using 1.5 will hurt tho... Be happy if you get 180mbps or more ,,

 

[jhansman]

Put an M4 in my wife's HP SATA 2 laptop (drive was less expensive than any SATA 2 drive I could find), and the difference is definitely noticeable. As previously mentioned, longer battery life, cooler, and (of course) much faster.