SSD drive for Dell Laptop

DavidP24

qsk wrote: »

How do you find the performance improvement?
I have an old Inspiron 1520 (Windows 7 home) which is very slow by current standard. I am wondering whether if it is worthwhile to upgrade it to SSD?

I installed a 2tb Hybrid SSD on my old desktop becuase HD had become the bottleneck, but it is different on a laptop, you do not have space and an SSD is way smaller but costs way more.

When my laptop was slow the biggest factor was ram, win7 used to require 2gb but with updates min is 4gb and ideally 8gb. You can find on Crucial what you max is and what modules to use.

The other thing holding you back may be bloatware, how many apps do you have in system tray, how many programs in MSconfig. These can really impact performance, they not only use valuable memory but they are using the network in background a slowing things down.

Another test is profile bloat, go into control panel and create a new stamdard user, then log out of your current user and log in as that user. It will need some tidying up and you may have to terminate some things it loads in system tray which are set when a new user is created, but once done use it for a few hours and see if any better.

The thing is you can't just throw money at things, you have to track where the problem is, use task manager to see what is using ram or cpu right now, make sure it is set to all user processes and add a few fields called command line and cpu time, Then under performance tab of task mamager load resource monitor, flip between task manager and see what is hurting.

Is your working ram all used up and it is swapping to disk, because if so, you will get better results upgrading ram or reducing what is using it, rather than having it swap to an SSD. If you do swap to an SSD you will have less space. So partition your disk, shrink the existing partition and move your data ro new partition. while you are partitioning create a small partition at the end of the drive, make it double whatever your ram is and call it page. Then right click my computer, properties, advanced system settings, performance, advanced, Virtual, change the page file so not on c but on the new page volume, this makes it faster because is one dedicate contiguous space rather than random sectors on C drive.

Use a program called mini partition wizard to do your partitioning, it can also clone your now smaller C drive to the SSD if you get one, Mount the SSD via USB clone the C then swap the disks. After done you can stick your old drive into a USB3 casing from eBay for under £10 and make it an external USB drive .

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

As I said I would not add SSD until you know what the problem is. I seriously consider it but Ram did best for me.

Some Dell models allow the CPU to be upgraded to a better one in that family, you do not say exactly which one you have. Mine does not need the Dell to be dismantled, just removal of same cover that changes ram and wireless card, the 15R does require a dismantle, video below shows how

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgX02vE1S_Q

a 1520 can be upgraded, this forum says to 9500 at least, you need to check your furmware ro see what is supports.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-inspiron-1520-viable-after-market-upgrades.614972/

this is someone doing it on timelapse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1m0Dg3334U

Before doing that make sure you know the performance improvement you will get by going to cpuboss site, for mine there was a huge family of CPU's, I opted for one below the fastest as the speed improvement/price ratio was far better, I paid £24 for my CPU.

Ram for old models may be expemsive and you may only be able to go up to 4gb, if that is the case then even more important you get rid of the bloat.

qsk

Thanks a lot for the in-depth post. I did upgrade Ram but can only use 3gb-ish due to the 32bit restriction. (1520 does not support 64bit Windows). I have cut down the machine to minimum usage (mainly Offices and internet) but it is still very slow. I'm not sure if the Ram, the CPU or the HD is the bottleneck. Is there anyway to tell?

grumpycrab

qsk wrote: »

... but it is still very slow. I'm not sure if the Ram, the CPU or the HD is the bottleneck. Is there anyway to tell?

Good question. I was looking at an old Acer last week (9 years old but in amazing condition); using Task Manager memory usage was low, CPU usage was low, wifi throughput seemed adequate but iPlayer was stuttering; so I guess the GPU was struggling. But need a simple tool to test graphics capability. Any suggestions?
EDIT: hard disk not struggling either and chkdsk reported no issue.

letsbehonest

A really useful and informative reply, many thanks I have copied and printed it up for future reference

DavidP24

qsk wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the in-depth post. I did upgrade Ram but can only use 3gb-ish due to the 32bit restriction. (1520 does not support 64bit Windows). I have cut down the machine to minimum usage (mainly Offices and internet) but it is still very slow. I'm not sure if the Ram, the CPU or the HD is the bottleneck. Is there anyway to tell?

Well the max is 4gb but your laptop CAN support 64 bit windows, the issue was always drivers

https://mileski.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/dell-inspiron-1520-windows-7-64-bit-drivers/

64bit means you are picking up twice as much data, so really worth it.

Resource Manager on performance tab is one to use but it takes some work.

What AV do you have, some modern ones cripple older machines, the trick is to keep the machine in its era, although I might update the PC Nic to AC, even if you do not have an AC router they tend to be better implementations and you can move then to a new PC.

Are you sure you have no apps in startup (use msconfig to check) but also look at services to disable any non AV updates (an AV program is likely to perceive any change it does not make as an attack).

I know Win7 is not really usable at 2gb, I suggest a minimum of 4gb you can tell by the performance tab of task manager, the amount of free physical ram, if this is too low the memory will be swapping to disk all the time.

Now if you can't upgrade the ram but are prepared to live within the limits of ram available you can set windows to not swap to disk, this means you can only load so much but some apps behave better with a lower limit.

To set this go to

MyComputer, Properties, Advanced system settings,performance, settings, advanced tab, virtual memory, change,

set to no paging file on all drives.

If you AV is set to check all files as they are accessed it becomes a bottleneck, after a full system scan you only need it to read new files.

I hope these tips help

DavidP24

grumpycrab wrote: »

Good question. I was looking at an old Acer last week (9 years old but in amazing condition); using Task Manager memory usage was low, CPU usage was low, wifi throughput seemed adequate but iPlayer was stuttering; so I guess the GPU was struggling. But need a simple tool to test graphics capability. Any suggestions?
EDIT: hard disk not struggling either and chkdsk reported no issue.

The architecture of wifi on laptops is really poor but also for a 9 year old laptop you need to check the bus speed, it may just be too slow to handle the data. You could lower the resolution of iplayer.

To analyse the bottleneck you need to load resource manager on the performance tab and drill down, be.

You can try a wired connection to the router to see if it massively improves, if it does, then you need to examine the wifi, is it connecting at Wireless N, Wireless A.B (superslow) or Wireless G (slow). You can upgrade the NIC to a mini pci AC network adapter from eBay but first check the config of the existing adapter. Getting AC will not give you AC speeds without an AC router but they often have better drivers for N. My wireless AC on an AC router is faster than a 100mb wired connection, obviously I would use 1gb LAN for wired connection if all devices supported it.

Now for graphics it depends on the model but most built in have basic GPU, some do have a better one in which case it would probably be in model name or on a label. You can google the spec of the model and of the gpu itself, most can cope with playing video.

To understand the issue of data transfer from wireless to bus to gpu to bus to cpu to display imagine a circus ring, and within that circus ring there are say 3 smaller rings that fit within the circus ring and so touch each other. Within each smaller ring is a clown on a unicycle, he cycles around the outside of the ring, each time he passes another clown he can pick up some data, he then has to pass it to another clown before he can pick up the next piece of data.

Now he can only get data when he passes and he can only go so fast, sometimes the place where we wants to drop off is not ready so he has to do another turn of his ring and try again when he next passes.

So 64 bit means each clown picks up twice as much as 32bit, 11mb wireless vs 54mb or 600mb makes a difference, a CPU than runs at a certain speed makes a difference.

The slowest component is the hard disk BUT if you have an AV scanning every damn DLL of windows as it is read well that is just nuts.

I can’t say what the issue was without seeing your machine but resource manager with graph each area of activity as it happens, if there are temporary files being created as a buffer to iPlayer then that may be an issue.

You just have to analyse, leave iPlayer playing and see what is going on, also decide what is practical.

NiftyDigits

qsk wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the in-depth post. I did upgrade Ram but can only use 3gb-ish due to the 32bit restriction. (1520 does not support 64bit Windows). I have cut down the machine to minimum usage (mainly Offices and internet) but it is still very slow. I'm not sure if the Ram, the CPU or the HD is the bottleneck. Is there anyway to tell?

What the Service Tag?

A clean install of Windows to an SSD will solve your current issues, as long as the machine is mechanically sound.

DavidP24

NiftyDigits wrote: »

What the Service Tag?

A clean install of Windows to an SSD will solve your current issues, as long as the machine is mechanically sound.

With respect that is bad advice!

You have to first determine where the problem is, wasting money on an SSD when it has not been determined exactly where the fault is located is a waste of time & MONEY.

If the issue is an over badly configured AV package then buying an SSD does not solve the issue, it just moves it to the SSD.

The SSD may be faster but if the problem is bus speed or HD interface, then the throughput of data on that bus or interface will not change.

If the fault is with the NIC then changing the HD will not make a huge difference.

Yes it may feel a bit faster but that will subside as the user gets used to it and the problem will still remain.

You can't manage what you do not track and you can't fix by blindly changing components.

I know several car mechanics who work that way, it makes no difference to them as they are not paying for the parts or the labour.

spud17

DavidP24 wrote: »

So 64 bit means each clown picks up twice as much as 32bit,

Anyone else have a problem with this statement?

2^64 is twice 2^32? Not in my day.

ps posted from my 2006 Dell 6400 laptop, 2GB ram and Windows 10 using wifi.

Gloomendoom

spud17 wrote: »

ps posted from my 2006 Dell 6400 laptop, 2GB ram and Windows 10 using wifi.

I have one of those as my back-up laptop. Same spec and OS.