[Lgbpop]

Refurbing an old laptop for the wife. Got a 2.13GHz processor to replace the 1.5GHz Pentium in it, quite a difference. Got an OK price for upgrading the tiny 20GB HDD in it...older ATA/IDE interface, got a 320GB drive for $72.

Then, looking for a larger SATA drive to replace the mediocre 160GB HDD in MY laptop, Newegg had a 1TB HDD for $70, with a $10 promo code price reduction! Go figure.

About time I bought new laptops, methinks.

 

[The White Falcon]

You'll really be surprised once you get a solid state drive.

 

[Lgbpop]

You'll really be surprised once you get a solid state drive.

Has their short life span been lengthened any yet?

 

[Jeff K]

My work issued HP laptop has a SSD, and it has functioned flawlessly for 1.5 years of nearly constant use. It is amazingly fast. Boots Win 10 in under 30 seconds.

 

[The White Falcon]

Yeah, lifespan really isn't an issue anymore. Spinning disks are still commonly used in servers due to capacity and the sheer volume of data, but a home user reasonably won't have performance issues for a long time.

As an example, check the Read/Write speeds here on this little chart. The two on the right are traditional spinning disks, 2.5" 5400 and 7200 RPM. Center is a somewhat newer SATA connected SSD, and the two on the left are new PCIe NVMe drives (the far left only is slower due to having a fanless 5W chip with fewer PCIe lanes). And those speeds don't even match the latest high-end drives, which are pushing 6GB/s (yes, that is gigabyte)read speeds.

Trust me, for a home user, even the 500MB/s of a SATA-driven SSD is very much worth it.

(disk benchmarks came from Crystal Disk Mark)

 

[redhousenine]

I replaced the Celeron processor in my last laptop (bought new in 2007) with a used Core processor (T2050) of the same speed. It really made a difference in performance. I could go better though, like a Core 2 T7600 at the highest, but they are still very expensive on eBay. The laptop I'm using now has a fourth generation Core i3 processor in it, though I'm very disappointed that it can't be upgraded as it is soldered onto the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard with one containing a better processor is the only way to upgrade, but it will screw up the Windows licensing.

$72 is a bit expensive for a 320 GB IDE interface hard drive, regardless if it's new or used. The computer store near me was selling a Toshiba 1 TB SATA desktop drive for $29. That's a good deal, but I'm not fond of Toshiba since they have a bad repetition for failing. It's very odd to find older, smaller drives selling for more online compared to larger, newer drives. I'm not sure if there's a market for vintage computer hardware out there as newer hardware & standards tend to be less compatible with older systems. I suppose the amount of working parts still out there are slowly decreasing and are becoming harder to find, which increases it's value. I've been looking for a PCB for a 15 GB Maxtor hard drive for the last 12+ years, and it's ridiculous how much a 15 GB drive goes for on eBay, even if it's not in working condition. I'm not going to spend more than several dollars including shipping for a drive where I'm going to swap out the PCB board, extract the data off of the one I have and then throw both drives in the dumpster...and that's assuming that it will work.

 

[sousa632]

Yeah, lifespan really isn't an issue anymore. Spinning disks are still commonly used in servers due to capacity and the sheer volume of data, AND PRICE

Fixed it for you


I have a HP Zbook Workstation with a SSD drive and that thing loads Win7 Enterprise quickly, but the HP EliteDesk that I have at home is extremely speedy loading Win10. Core I7 processor, 16Gb ram 256Gb SSD with a 1TB sata drive for storage. I have tons of laptops and desktop pc's in the company I support with no inherent SSD issues. The ONLY failure I've seen of an SSD was an Intel NUC and it was only one after years of service.I still have a bunch I use for training to this day. I also have an HP Revolve 810 which is SSD and touchscreen still works to this day and it's been in service for 4.5 years with no issues. My kids use that one to play around with though being that it's like a large tablet.

 

[thesavo]

I replaced the Celeron processor in my last laptop (bought new in 2007) with a used Core processor (T2050) of the same speed. It really made a difference in performance. I could go better though, like a Core 2 T7600 at the highest, but they are still very expensive on eBay. The laptop I'm using now has a fourth generation Core i3 processor in it, though I'm very disappointed that it can't be upgraded as it is soldered onto the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard with one containing a better processor is the only way to upgrade, but it will screw up the Windows licensing.

$72 is a bit expensive for a 320 GB IDE interface hard drive, regardless if it's new or used. The computer store near me was selling a Toshiba 1 TB SATA desktop drive for $29. That's a good deal, but I'm not fond of Toshiba since they have a bad repetition for failing. It's very odd to find older, smaller drives selling for more online compared to larger, newer drives. I'm not sure if there's a market for vintage computer hardware out there as newer hardware & standards tend to be less compatible with older systems. I suppose the amount of working parts still out there are slowly decreasing and are becoming harder to find, which increases it's value. I've been looking for a PCB for a 15 GB Maxtor hard drive for the last 12+ years, and it's ridiculous how much a 15 GB drive goes for on eBay, even if it's not in working condition. I'm not going to spend more than several dollars including shipping for a drive where I'm going to swap out the PCB board, extract the data off of the one I have and then throw both drives in the dumpster...and that's assuming that it will work.

What brand laptop?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[redhousenine]

What brand laptop?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Old one was an Acer Aspire 3680. At the time, it was probably the cheapest laptop that could be had for about $399. Came with Windows Vista Basic, 512 MB of RAM & a 1.7 GHz Celeron single core processor. It now has 2 GB of RAM, a Core Duo 1.7 GHz processor, and Windows Vista Home Premium via the Windows Anytime Upgrade offer.

New one is a HP 250 G4. I like it because it's still a real laptop and not a tablet disguised as one. However, there are no access covers, and the case snaps together like a tablet, which made installing an additional 4 GB memory module a pain. Initially I went with this laptop because it came with Windows 7 Professional since I wanted to avoid Windows 10. However, I upgraded to Windows 10 via the free upgrade offer and realized that the computer worked much better compared to Windows 7.

 

[thesavo]

If you want to give w10 a second chance, Download the June 2017 version of hp softpaq download manager. Make sure you have the latest softpaqs.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HP_SDM.html

If you want to go back, and don't have the media, there's a chance you can get it from HP.

Call HP and ask for restore media. I have had some success calling the enterprise support number. Have the serial number and p/n ready.
If they try to get you to pay, ask them If they can do it as a courtesy.else hangup and ask the next rep.

If you can get a windows 7 pro disc from another hp, that will work. No activation is nessesaey since it looks at the bios for the product code.

I'll look around. I have an iso of one here, somewhere.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[redhousenine]

If you want to give w10 a second chance, Download the June 2017 version of hp softpaq download manager. Make sure you have the latest softpaqs.

HP SoftPaq Download Manager Release Notes | HP Client Management Solutions

If you want to go back, and don't have the media, there's a chance you can get it from HP.

Call HP and ask for restore media. I have had some success calling the enterprise support number. Have the serial number and p/n ready.
If they try to get you to pay, ask them If they can do it as a courtesy.else hangup and ask the next rep.

If you can get a windows 7 pro disc from another hp, that will work. No activation is nessesaey since it looks at the bios for the product code.

I'll look around. I have an iso of one here, somewhere.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I have already created the original recovery discs for my HP 250 G4. I don't see the need to go back to Windows 7, unless Microsoft changes Windows 10 enough to the point that it will tick me off. (At that point, support for 7 will likely be over). Basically I wanted to take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade, activate it, then revert back to 7, preserving the free upgrade eligibility for the future. But 10 ended up being faster and more compatible with the hardware, so I kept it.

Yes, my HP is new enough to have the product key coded in the BIOS, and this is the way Windows 10 will activate without a product key on hand. I also found and backed up the original drivers and installers on the hard drive along with updated & Windows 10 versions from HP's website to a disc, so that I can preform a clean install of Windows 10 and reinstall the included software (the ones that I want, that is), mimicking a HP recovery disc that would have contained Windows 10 instead of 7.

I have already converted the drive to a GPT partition table using MBR2GPT and turned on UFEI. All of which will need to be reversed for running Windows 7 again.