Buy a laptop with a conventional hard drive ?

[rfuerst911sc]

So I am looking at a Dell Precision 7510 laptop to replace my Toshiba . The Dell has 16 ram , I7 processor, 15.6" screen and a 500 HDD drive . The drive is a 7200 rpm SATA . I know the latest and greatest are M2 drives but are modern conventional hard drives ok ?

I web surf , email and spend too much time on this forum 😁 . No gaming but do have a fair amount of pics . This Dell is refurbished and only $339.20 with free shipping . Has Windows 10 pro OS . Just based on age it's a big step forward from my Toshiba. Thoughts ?

[cabmandone]

The SATA will be "okay" but M2 is really nice. I upgraded my Dell and it made a WORLD of difference in boot speed and application loading.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by cabmando

The SATA will be "okay" but M2 is really nice. I upgraded my Dell and it made a WORLD of difference in boot speed and application loading.

Appreciate the feedback .

[cabmandone]

I think a SATA HDD will work fine. As I understand it, you don't get much of a performance boost from SATA HDD but you get reliability. I went M2 because I had a slot for it and got a performance boost as a kicker.

I've done a few SATA HDD "upgrades" but never really saw any performance gains.

[Shifter]

Just a quick look here:

https://www.dell.com/ae/business/p/precision-15-7520-laptop/pd

Hard Drive
Support for two storage devices: one M.2 PCIe solid state drive and one M.2 PCIe/2.5” SATA drive: Dell Fast Response Free Fall Sensor standard
Hard Disk Drive (HDD): 2.5” 500GB, 1TB 7200RPM up to 2TB 2.5” 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Solid State Drive (SSD): 256GB, 512GB, 512GB SED, 1TB 2.5” SATA 6Gb/s
M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive (M.2 SSD): 256GB, 512GB, 512GB SED, 1TB SSD

It says it has support for M.2. If the laptop is cheap enough, you can always upgrade from the spinning drive to SSD or M.2. Solid state is much faster than spinning drives, very noticeable.

[cabmandone]

My bad! I misread what you were saying I was seeing and typing HDD but was talking about Sata SSD

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ So does that mean a HDD and a SSD/M2 can both be used at the same time ? If that is true the HDD could be used just for storage and the SSD/M2 would be used for day to day use .

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

^^^ So does that mean a HDD and a SSD/M2 can both be used at the same time ? If that is true the HDD could be used just for storage and the SSD/M2 would be used for day to day use .

If I recall correctly, yes you could use the internal hard drive as backup or storage and use the M2 with the operating system and apps installed on it.

[nota]

yes no idea on failure rate in real life

but bet the m2 is far longer lived then a spinner as nothing moves
and the M.2 PCIe NVMe is current speed champ > sata ss> sata spinner
and battery life is same m2 >ss >spin

so toss the spinner 7200 rpm SATA replace with as big SS as you need
if you need space I would toss the spin just for longer battery use time

[rfuerst911sc]

I decided to pass on the laptop and look for one that already has a SSD installed . Thanks for the advice guys 👍 .

[cabmandone]

Depending on the age of the Toshiba and the processor speed, you might consider a SATA SSD and a RAM upgrade. Fairly inexpensive and really easy to do. And if the price is really solid on the Dell, You can buy a M2 for $50 on Amazon. Installation is easier than the head unit you installed in Kong.

This is what I put in my Dell. It really transformed the laptop. Boot time from off to fully booted is about as quick as my son's Macbook
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LGF54XR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

[jcommin]

I just completely updated my desktop computer. I do allot of photo editing an appropriate graphics card is a must. However the one I was interested in was too long for my existing case. Finding a case with 5 1/2 bays ( yes I had have 2, 5 1/2 bays) is almost impossible - I finally modified my case to suit the card - works great.

I looked into SATA vs MD and i opted to stay with the SATA. I never had a failure with a SATA and I couldn't justify the price - I put the difference into the graphics card price. I have an external back-up drive for all my files.

[rfuerst911sc]

My Toshiba L505-S5998 currently has 4mg of memory with a max of 8 so that is a limiting factor . Having said that 8 would be an upgrade . Doing some web surfing there are SSD's that will fit/work in my laptop .

I have never cloned a drive but it looks like there are plenty of how to video's out there . So it looks like 150.00-175.00 will get me 8mg of memory and 512 gig of SSD hard drive .

If I were to replace this laptop I would still like to keep it because it has Durametric software loaded and works well for that . I am leaning towards upgrading this laptop and make it my garage computer and get something else for the house .

[cabmandone]

Cloning is easy. The Crucial SATA SSD I installed included and app or something for cloning. I'll take a look. I might have 8gb of ram laying around that I'll give you. I have no use for the cards.

Do you have one or two slots for RAM?

Edit: Awe crap! I must have pitched all my "old" sticks or RAM when I got rid of some of my older systems. All of my newer laptops utilize more than 8gb or ram and I know I had a few 4gb sticks laying around on my desk in my office! Dang it!

You might want to read this. It might help you with RAM
https://www.hardwarecentric.com/1-8gb-vs-2-4gb-ram-stick/

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ Cab don't sweat it I appreciate the offer .

[Rusty Heap]

Costco has great deals on laptops.

[svandamme]

Hard disk on laptop? in 2022?? why?
SSD is faster and insensitive to being tossed around.. so especially more reliable in a laptop.

Windows runs so much better on an SSD
you can have an old cpu, as long as it has SSD it will be usable.
old cpu with disk = runs like a dog


SSD or don't even bother in my book

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ Got it . Thanks

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by svandamme

Hard disk on laptop? in 2022?? why?
SSD is faster and insensitive to being tossed around.. so especially more reliable in a laptop.

Windows runs so much better on an SSD
you can have an old cpu, as long as it has SSD it will be usable.
old cpu with disk = runs like a dog


SSD or don't even bother in my book

I went solid state on an older HP laptop and really didn't see any performance gain. It was as useable with solid state as it was with a HDD. It kind of frustrated me until I read more about SSD's and realized I was expecting something that might not necessarily happen.

[svandamme]

So older HP, was loading same version Windows just as fast with SSD as with HDD?
You did something wrong. That really doesn't add up.


SSD read times is not just a bit faster, it's next level .
And Windows does a LOT of reads. So that is noticable