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Laptop, going from HDD to SATA2 SSD... worthwhile?

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As you may see in my specs, my laptop is not exactly a good one; however, is what I've got for FS2004. After a friend told me what he did to his 2008 Dell laptop, I'm thinking about replacing my DVD drive with an SSD (I've only used my drive 6 times in 4 years). The caveat: somehow Toshiba disabled SATA3 for my laptop, with no solution in sight, so I'm stuck with SATA2 (half of SATA3 speeds).

 

My budget is a modest one; in the US I think I may be getting all what I need (SSD + ODD caddy) for less than USD 80. Currently, my laptop has a 640 GB 5400 rpm HDD. Taking all this into mind, do you think is it worthwhile?

Best regards,
Luis Hernández 20px-Flag_of_Colombia.svg.png20px-Flag_of_Argentina.svg.png

Main rig: self built, AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D (with SMT off and CO -50 mV), 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM, Nvidia RTX 5060Ti 16GB, 256 GB M.2 SSD (OS+apps) + 2x1 TB SATA III SSD (sims) + 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD (storage), ID-Cooling SE-224-XTS air cooler, Viewsonic VX2458-MHD 1920x1080@120-144 Hz (G-sync compatible), Windows 11. Running P3D v5.4 (with v4.5 scenery objects as an additional library, just in case), FSX-SE, MSFS2020, MSFS2024 and even FS9! Lossless Scaling for all my sims. What a godsend...

Mobile rig: ASUS Zenbook UM425QA (AMD Ryzen 7 5800H APU @3.2 GHz and boost disabled, 1 TB M.2 SSD, 16 GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro). Running FS9 there .

VKB Gladiator NXT Premium Left + GNX THQ as primary controllers. Xbox Series X|S wireless controller as standby/mobile.

I've done this to a few laptops, but you really should place an SSD as the primary drive.  The 640 GB 5400 RPM platter drive then would become your storage drive.  You really wouldn't gain much (having an expensive SSD for a small storage drive) by keeping the platter as your primary... the system will move data no faster than its slowest component (the platter drive).

 

HTH

 

Greg

  • Author

Then I'd have to perform 3 operations:

 

1) Swap HDD for an SSD

2) Swap the ODD for the HDD that was removed

3) Install Windows in the SSD... and also FS9. The idea is to leave the SSD as the C:\ drive.

 

Is it still worthwhile?

Best regards,
Luis Hernández 20px-Flag_of_Colombia.svg.png20px-Flag_of_Argentina.svg.png

Main rig: self built, AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D (with SMT off and CO -50 mV), 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM, Nvidia RTX 5060Ti 16GB, 256 GB M.2 SSD (OS+apps) + 2x1 TB SATA III SSD (sims) + 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD (storage), ID-Cooling SE-224-XTS air cooler, Viewsonic VX2458-MHD 1920x1080@120-144 Hz (G-sync compatible), Windows 11. Running P3D v5.4 (with v4.5 scenery objects as an additional library, just in case), FSX-SE, MSFS2020, MSFS2024 and even FS9! Lossless Scaling for all my sims. What a godsend...

Mobile rig: ASUS Zenbook UM425QA (AMD Ryzen 7 5800H APU @3.2 GHz and boost disabled, 1 TB M.2 SSD, 16 GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro). Running FS9 there .

VKB Gladiator NXT Premium Left + GNX THQ as primary controllers. Xbox Series X|S wireless controller as standby/mobile.

Is it still worthwhile?

 

Only you can decide that.  But to use the SSD as just a storage device and keep the slow 5400 RPM platter as your primary OS and sim drive will gain you little if anything.

 

Good luck,

 

Greg

  • Author

Looks like I wasn't clear. The idea is to use the SSD as the OS + programs drive, and leave the HDD as storage.

Best regards,
Luis Hernández 20px-Flag_of_Colombia.svg.png20px-Flag_of_Argentina.svg.png

Main rig: self built, AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D (with SMT off and CO -50 mV), 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM, Nvidia RTX 5060Ti 16GB, 256 GB M.2 SSD (OS+apps) + 2x1 TB SATA III SSD (sims) + 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD (storage), ID-Cooling SE-224-XTS air cooler, Viewsonic VX2458-MHD 1920x1080@120-144 Hz (G-sync compatible), Windows 11. Running P3D v5.4 (with v4.5 scenery objects as an additional library, just in case), FSX-SE, MSFS2020, MSFS2024 and even FS9! Lossless Scaling for all my sims. What a godsend...

Mobile rig: ASUS Zenbook UM425QA (AMD Ryzen 7 5800H APU @3.2 GHz and boost disabled, 1 TB M.2 SSD, 16 GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro). Running FS9 there .

VKB Gladiator NXT Premium Left + GNX THQ as primary controllers. Xbox Series X|S wireless controller as standby/mobile.

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