Laptop SSD

[Bsuds]

I replaced the HD in my Laptop this morning with a 500g SSD.
Other than fighting with some ribbon cables and not much room to get my fat fingers in there is went pretty smoothly.

My boot time went from 30+ seconds to 6. Chrome loads in 2 not counting the time for my 2 home pages to load.

I have installed several SSD's in a couple of desktops I have but this is the best one for a performance boost. The Laptop does have better specs so it's to be expected.

I am a happy camper today!

[Jlabute]

They are great aren’t they. The future may be Optane, a new class of nonvolatile memory from micron/intel. They plan to release 512GB DIMMS initially. Fast bus, nonvolatile, great for database stuff. Have fun with your SSD. Optane SSDs are much more expensive but much faster.

Geee iPhone too. Your whole life is changing? lol

[Bsuds]

SSD was a birthday present from my DW and the iPhone was cheaper than the accessory for my hearing aides that I will be getting in Jan/Feb.

[TylerM4]

Really can wake up an older device. Anyone buying a new PC today without a SSD as the primary disk is crazy.

Put a M.2 SSD in my latest PC. Wow! Almost as much difference as going from spinning to regular SSD.

[Bsuds]

Really can wake up an older device. Anyone buying a new PC today without a SSD as the primary disk is crazy.

Put a M.2 SSD in my latest PC. Wow! Almost as much difference as going from spinning to regular SSD.

Exactly. Mine is approx 3 yr old i5 and 8g ram and it has made an amazing difference. Worth every penny and even managed to clone and install it myself. Had some fun with a few ribbon cables but did ok.

[Jlabute]

I can hardly wait for a good capacity Optane M.2 to come along. Any time now. That is the way to go.

[Symbonite]

That is the bottleneck on all PC's now is the hard drive. if you buy a new computer make sure you get a SSD in there...if it doesnt then the first thing to do is replace the hard drive with a SSD...no question its the best performance boost your computer will get. used to be lots of memory and speed of processor...but now its the hard drive.

Also if you get a custom built machine and if you get the right Motherboard you can get the SSD M.2 internal card where its directly placed onto the motherboard which is even faster.

With the prices dropping..its a no brainer...if you didnt get it on black friday..there is always boxing day...do it...Now!

[Because_They_Lie]

For a few weeks heading up to black Friday I was hunting for a new laptop but came to discover I have much to learn before making a purchase, especially since I am in the market for a budget friendly laptop under $500.00.

So far I have narrowed my choices down to exclude the Chrome book (even though its most affordable for my budget) but do not like the idea of a Google centric tool when I already have a couple of their devices. I would ideally like to find a quality 2 in 1 - I have learned about the SSD and would like to include that in a lap top 2 in 1.

Any help or suggestions on a great manufacturer and specific 2 in 1 laptop or just a great laptop for under $500?

I am in search of well built quality machine in that price range, not the easiest to come by - if anyone knows - please share.

I have very little knowledge when it comes to computers and have learned much but still looking for a trustworthy suggestion.

Thanks guys.

[TylerM4]

My recommendations:
- figure out what operating system you want/need 1st. Don't even look at the hardware yet, figure out the OS 1st then look for compatible hardware and form factors.
- 2 in 1 devices are nice, but pricy. Do you really need the tablet mode and/or the ultra portability? I see so many people purchase these who never or rarely end up using it as a tablet. Are you aware of the other downsides of a 2 in 1? Typically small screens, keyboards aren't usually as nice, fragile, don't actually work well on your lap or bed (needs a hard flat surface), etc.

If you'd like suggestions, we're going to need to better understand what you hope to use this device for and how you hope to use it. Will it regularly leave the home? What applications/tasks will you use it for, etc.

[Bsuds]

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/ac ... 49612.aspx?

You can always replace the HD with a SSD later on. Then purchase an enclosure for the HD and have a portable for back ups.
I replaced mine for under $100 (did it myself) and if the posties ever deliver I have an enclosure coming from China for less than $6 for my old drive.

[Jlabute]

It seems at this time, purchasing a computer that already had an SSD tends to be a fair bit pricier. You might want to consider getting a laptop with a standard hard drive and months down the road, update it to an SSD.
Also, some laptops now have an optane accelerator which can give you a large speed boost as though the computer had an SSD. The small Optane cache is usually 16GB or 32GB.

If you really must have an SSD already installed, and under $500 with a touch screen on a 2-in-1, might be tough. You can still look at most brands, HP, Dell, Acer, Microsoft, Lenovo, etc. Problem with 2-in-1 under $500 is that they tend to have a slow processor, and/or a small SSD like 64GB or 128GB.

The Microsoft Go an option?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/acer-acer-spin-3-15-6-touchscreen-laptop-black-intel-i3-6100u-1tb-hdd-6gb-ram-windows-10-sp315-51-3684/10497394.aspx?

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/dell-latitude-5285-touchscreen-12-i5-7300u-cpu-2-6ghz-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-win-10-pro-certified-refurbished/12780713.aspx?

[crookedmember]

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/ac ... 02489.aspx?

This is thin, has a metal body and high quality feel. It also has a 1080P IPS display, rather than the awful 720 TFTs usually found in this price range.

It comes with 64GB eMMC storage, BUT under the back cover is an empty slot for an M.2 SSD.

I installed a WD Blue 256GB M.2, which costs about $80 on amazon. It's very fast, up to 525MB/s write.

Installation is easy and you can either clone Win10 from the eMMC to the M.2 using WD software, or do a fresh install of Windows after downloading it from Microsoft. No product code is required.

There are youtube videos to guide you.

I did a fresh install and I'm dual booting with Linux Mint. I rarely if ever use Windows.

It's a very snappy computer with the SSD. The processor is entry level. But for torrents, internet and watching movies, it works just fine.

[Bsuds]

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/acer-swift-14-laptop-silver-intel-pentium-n5000-64gb-hdd-4gb-ram-windows-10-s/12602489.aspx?

This is thin, has a metal body and high quality feel. It also has a 1080P IPS display, rather than the awful 720 TFTs usually found in this price range.

It comes with 64GB eMMC storage, BUT under the back cover is an empty slot for an M.2 SSD.

I installed a WD Blue 256GB M.2, which costs about $80 on amazon. It's very fast, up to 525MB/s write.

Installation is easy and you can either clone Win10 from the eMMC to the M.2 using WD software, or do a fresh install of Windows after downloading it from Microsoft. No product code is required.

There are youtube videos to guide you.

I did a fresh install and I'm dual booting with Linux Mint. I rarely if ever use Windows.

It's a very snappy computer with the SSD. The processor is entry level. But for torrents, internet and watching movies, it works just fine.

With the problems I have run into with Acer computers I will never buy one of them again.

I just got a new to me desktop. Asus mb with an A10 6700 and 12gb DDR3. First thing I did when I got home was order an SSD from Amazon. Now I'm itching for it to arrive so I can install it.

[Urban Cowboy]

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/acer-swift-14-laptop-silver-intel-pentium-n5000-64gb-hdd-4gb-ram-windows-10-s/12602489.aspx?

This is thin, has a metal body and high quality feel. It also has a 1080P IPS display, rather than the awful 720 TFTs usually found in this price range.

It comes with 64GB eMMC storage, BUT under the back cover is an empty slot for an M.2 SSD.

I installed a WD Blue 256GB M.2, which costs about $80 on amazon. It's very fast, up to 525MB/s write.

Installation is easy and you can either clone Win10 from the eMMC to the M.2 using WD software, or do a fresh install of Windows after downloading it from Microsoft. No product code is required.

There are youtube videos to guide you.


I did a fresh install and I'm dual booting with Linux Mint. I rarely if ever use Windows.

It's a very snappy computer with the SSD. The processor is entry level. But for torrents, internet and watching movies, it works just fine.

Geez I'm getting the feeling I shafted myself, given I just sold an Acer with 17" touch screen, 8GB memory, 500GB SSD Hard Drive, Quad Core CPU, and Win 10 Pro installed for $200.

[Bsuds]

Geez I'm getting the feeling I shafted myself, given I just sold an Acer with 17" touch screen, 8GB memory, 500GB SSD Hard Drive, Quad Core CPU, and Win 10 Pro installed for $200.

Yup, Should have gone for $300 min.