SSD worth upgrade for older notebook?

[Hulk]

I have a Dell Inspiron notebook that is about 4 years old with a 2GHz Core2Duo processor and was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to a SSD drive? Seems like the biggest bottleneck for me with the system is waiting on the hard drive and since the Core2Duo is still a relatively decent processor I was thinking it might be worth it to move to a 120GB SSD.

Also if that is the case is there a way to move my current configuration to the SSD? I recently wiped the drive and reloaded everything nice and clean and would rather not have to go through that again. Only thing I'm wondering is it seems like all the activations, Windows, Office, etc, wouldn't work right? Since the hardware changed I mean.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[corkyg]

Sure. All you need to do is clone your existing HDD to the SSD and then make sure the alignment is good. My reservation would be in having an economic imbalance where the value of the SSD exceeds that of the host notebook. If that's not a concern - go for it.

 

[Hulk]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[kmmatney]

I also have an older Inpsiron (9400) with a Core2Duo processor. I had an Intel 80GB SSD in it (first Gen) and it was great. I just cloned my old drive and it worked fine. The only issue is that I'm still using XP, and the first gen SSDs don't work with Intel's SSD toolbox for manual TRIM. The second generation SSDs can be set to be trimmed at regular intervals in Windows XP, though.

My only issue was that I have several virtual machines, and about 15 years worth of work, and soon started to run out of space. So I ended up getting a 500GB Seagate hybrid hard drive. Although this drive is pretty fast, it no comparison - the SSD was way faster and I do miss it.

It's worth the upgrade - the Core2Duo is still quite fast, and will make good use of the SSD.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Just make sure your laptop is SATA II not PATA. PATA SSD drives are getting rare and pricey.