Which SSD for a laptop from 2008?

[simon_]

My mother has an old Dell Precision M4300 laptop from 2008 which is still well-speced for her needs regarding CPU, display and build quality but which has a very slow HDD.

I'm now trying to find an SSD that I can confidently expect to actually work inside that old beast.

Here's what I know about the compatibility of the laptop:

* The interface is most probably Sata I
* AHCI mode is available in the BIOS

I've found some evidence of SATA II SSDs that seem to work on the M4300 but are nowadays hard to find.

Can anybody recommend a current SSD that is known to work on Hardware from that time?

Cheers,
Simon

 

[Abbott]

Hi,
try the new Samsung series, I have a 840 SSD and is going very well!
Windows 7 starts in about 20 secs!

 

[h9826790]

The Samsung 840 Evo should work fine for that. And quite a good performance to money ratio.

 

[Charlie98]

I put a refurb Samsung 840Pro in my daughter's old Dell laptop from 2007. It improved the usability immensely, even considering it's age.

Any SSD will do... don't bother trying to match SATA speeds, a modern SATA3 SSD is backwards compatable with SATA1 and 2. The newer ones have better technology as well, and the more mainstream SATA3 consumer drives will most likely be less expensive. Find a nice SSD in the capacity you want and go with it!

 

[dud]

My mother has an old Dell Precision M4300 laptop from 2008 which is still well-speced for her needs regarding CPU, display and build quality but which has a very slow HDD.

I'm now trying to find an SSD that I can confidently expect to actually work inside that old beast.

Here's what I know about the compatibility of the laptop:

* The interface is most probably Sata I
* AHCI mode is available in the BIOS

I've found some evidence of SATA II SSDs that seem to work on the M4300 but are nowadays hard to find.

Can anybody recommend a current SSD that is known to work on Hardware from that time?

Cheers,
Simon

I am doing the same thing as I type. I am doing a tech "refresh" of an older Dell M90. I just ordered a Crucial M500 here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148694


After shipping, instant discount and rebate it will come out to about $64. I expect a significant improvement in load times even though the laptop is bottlenecked by it's SATA I interface.

If it works out I plan to install Mint LInux on it ... further improving performance over a Windows machine.

 

[simon_]

Thanks for the heads up everyone! I had a hard time finding any reviews of modern SSDs on old SATA I systems.

I guess I'm settling on a Samsung 840 EVO - mainly for the expected endurance.

Any tips for the installation? I guess I'll have to enable AHCI in the BIOS?

 

[corkyg]

I guess I'll have to enable AHCI in the BIOS?

Yes. That will set the stage nicely.

 

[ronbo613]

You may need to change one of the registry keys:

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > Current Control Set > Services > msahci
3. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
6. Reboot machine, go into BIOS and enable AHCI.

Hopefully, the laptop is not running Windows XP...

 

[simon_]

You may need to change one of the registry keys:

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > Current Control Set > Services > msahci
3. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
6. Reboot machine, go into BIOS and enable AHCI.

Can you explain why this is necessary or beneficial?

Hopefully, the laptop is not running Windows XP...

The laptop is running XP right now. The plan is to install the SSD and then do a fresh install of Windows 7. That should be ok, no?

Thanks for the advice, by the way!

 

[Towermax]

Here's what I know about the compatibility of the laptop:

* The interface is most probably Sata I
* AHCI mode is available in the BIOS

You may be surprised--I've got a couple of Dell Latitudes from the same era, a D630 and a D830, and they are both SATA2. SSDs in each of them have made a huge difference.

 

[Charlie98]

Can you explain why this is necessary or beneficial?



The laptop is running XP right now. The plan is to install the SSD and then do a fresh install of Windows 7. That should be ok, no?

Thanks for the advice, by the way!

Because XP does not handle SSDs natively like W7 or, better, W8 does. If you are updating to W7, that's cool. There are some tweaks that can make an SSD perform marginally better in W7, you can Google it and see if it makes sense for you.

 

[dud]

Because XP does not handle SSDs natively like W7 or, better, W8 does. If you are updating to W7, that's cool. There are some tweaks that can make an SSD perform marginally better in W7, you can Google it and see if it makes sense for you.

How about Linux? Are there any "special" tweaks that I should know about before installation?

Thanks ...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm totally ignorant about laptop generations, but I find it hard to believe the OP's laptop has only an SATA-I controller. If his Mom's laptop was relatively new -- being sold in 2008 -- you would think it performs to SATA-II spec.

But the SSDs are backwardly compatible, and will work even in IDE/SATA mode.

 

[Compman55]

M500 , and no, not just because I own one.

 

[Emulex]

just avoid sandforce controllers with sata-1

 

[Charlie98]

How about Linux? Are there any "special" tweaks that I should know about before installation?

Thanks ...

That's a good question... and one I'm about to find out. The laptop I put the 840Pro into has XP on it now, but I'm fixing to swap in an M500 and install Xubuntu on it. I don't see why there might be problems, just in general maintenance like garbage collection... but there may be a way around that.

 

[Cerb]

I'm totally ignorant about laptop generations, but I find it hard to believe the OP's laptop has only an SATA-I controller. If his Mom's laptop was relatively new -- being sold in 2008 -- you would think it performs to SATA-II spec.

Maybe, maybe not. Having a 3Gbps SATA chip does mean having 3Gbps to use. It was not uncommon for laptops with bay accessories to be locked to 1.5Gbps, for compatibility with multiple generations of ODD bay devices.

Any SSD good for a new deskto will be fine. Since a Precision M4300 was not a battery-miser to begin with, I wouldn't even worry about power consumption.

Crucial M500 or M550
Plextor M5S or M5 Pro
Sandisk Extreme II or Ultra Plus
Intel 530
Samsung 840 Evo or 840 Pro
Toshiba THNSNH "Q" or "Q Pro"

With Windows 7, no tweaking should be necessary, provided you install 7 to the blank brand new SSD.