Installing an SSD drive in my seven year old computer - great upgrade

I bought a Dell XPS in 2007. It is now October 2014.  I have never replaced or changed anything in the computer. I noticed that the hard-drive started making strange noises. Not a good sign. After taking a few minutes to boot up, not a good sign either and very annoying, it was slow to respond, to the simplest task like starting Google Chrome or Microsoft Excel.

Computer has 4GB of RAM and no viruses or spyware.  I checked with Avast and Spybot. The hard drive was a 450GB hard-drive was only half full.  The good news is most of my important files and photos were already backed up to:

• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Google Drive
• External Hard Drive

Two friends said to buy an SSD hard-drive. I pointed out to them that my computer would only support Sata II.  

Samsung Evo 250GB

Decided to take the leap anyway and bought a Samsung 840 Evo 250GB for $138 with tax. I was doing a clean install meaning I wasn't transferring my old hard-drive to the new one.  I didn't get the 3.5" to 2.5" case yet.  Wanted to see if I liked the SSD. So the photo above shows the 840 Evo connected. 

I simply shut off the computer, plugged in the SSD where my old hard-drive was, started the machine.  I forgot to put in my Windows 7 Home premium CD, so I opened the CD drive, put in the CD, closed it and restarted the machine. Easy installation.  

Fifteen minutes later, I'm up and running.  No problem at all during Windows installation. Download Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with no problem.

I also added:

1. Chrome
2. FireFox
3. Camtasia Studio - which runs a lot faster
4. Adobe Reader XI
5. Irfanview
6. Dell laser color printer

I have several more programs to add but will add them later.

When I click on Start, Restart, it takes 34 seconds to shutdown, restart, type in my password, and I'm ready to go again. Amazing! If the computer is already shut down, the start up time is significantly less.  If I had Sata III, I'm sure this would be faster. 

SSD vs HDD (new hard-drive vs. old hard-drive)

Performance - This was really the key for me. I don't restart my computer enough to justify buying an SSD. What I was looking for was a significance performance increase. I frequently have to edit a really huge excel file (50MB). It took forever (35 to 60 seconds) on my old hard drive to save and the same time on a three year old computer with 2GB of RAM and with a HDD hard-drive.  On the newly upgraded seven year old computer with the SSD hard-drive, the edits happen in under five seconds! No more waiting. I was shocked.    

So if you have a old computer with 4GB of RAM, even if it only supports SATA II, and are thinking about getting an SSD, I recommend you invest in one.

Bottom line: for a computer purchased in 2007, this was a shockingly great upgrade for $138.

Chris Menard, Microsoft Office Master Instructor and Mia