HP laptop needs a makeover

[Bushwack44]

Question: New Thinkbook 15 came in (thanks again for everyone's help) and now I have a 10 year old HP Envy 14" laptop, maxed out at 6GB RAM running Windows 10 (with its original 5400 RPM drive). It runs well, s-l-o-w as molasses, but it runs well. Will replacing the hard drive with an SSD result in a significant speed bump? Or is the 6GB of RAM a major hurdle that can't be overcome?

[The War Wagon]

I've got an old Duo-Core Dell, that came with 2gb of RAM. Now running 8gb, but I'm still running 7Pro.

I did add a SSD, and it boots in less than 10 seconds! Word processing and net surfing is all I ever do with it, and it runs just fine for that. I've even streamed movies on it with Wi-fi!

[therealnickb]

Yes. I saved an older dell by swapping in a ssd.

[Dragunov]

Question: New Thinkbook 15 came in (thanks again for everyone's help) and now I have a 10 year old HP Envy 14" laptop, maxed out at 6GB RAM running Windows 10 (with its original 5400 RPM drive). It runs well, s-l-o-w as molasses, but it runs well. Will replacing the hard drive with an SSD result in a significant speed bump? Or is the 6GB of RAM a major hurdle that can't be overcome?

Yes, VERY significant speed increase. It'll seem like a new computer.

[baih777]

You need to check the specs of the ssd
The cheap ssd are not much faster than a standard hard drive

[Kokopelli]

SSD drives are a significant performance improvement over even the best HDD. Go for it. A computer’s performance is limited by its buss speed. You don’t need to add a bunch of RAM. An SSD will take care of that for you.

An SSD doesn’t use as much battery power as an HDD either. You will have more time between charges on a laptop because no electricity is wasted by an electric motor spinning mechanical plates and read head servos.

[Dragunov]

This^^^. Ram increase is important too, but a SSD is the biggest speed improvement.

[kidrice]

Take a small profile flash drive and look into Ready Boost. it will help your old laptop.

[Bushwack44]

Thanks everyone. I went and ordered an SSD drive and an external case to place the original 5400 RPM drive. Plan is to clone the existing drive to the SSD and then install the new drive. I'll time how long it takes to boot before/after and let ya'll know.

[therealnickb]

FWIW and probably pretty basic info but... I remember have some odd bugs with the swap until I updated all the drivers. Seems to work perfectly now.

[SkyHawk]

Thanks everyone. I went and ordered an SSD drive and an external case to place the original 5400 RPM drive. Plan is to clone the existing drive to the SSD and then install the new drive. I'll time how long it takes to boot before/after and let ya'll know.

SSD will change your life, you will never go back to spinning disk. I expect you are going to enjoy this old laptop again.

[billofrights]

I can't believe no one asked, how is 6gb the max RAM? Nobody makes 3gb sticks and there's no way they put an odd number of slots in the machine. I'm guessing you can get that up to 8gb fairly easily which will also help it's performance. What exact model of Envy is it?

[Bushwack44]

I can't believe no one asked, how is 6gb the max RAM? Nobody makes 3gb sticks and there's no way they put an odd number of slots in the machine. I'm guessing you can get that up to 8gb fairly easily which will also help it's performance. What exact model of Envy is it?

My error. Max is 8GB. Currently there is a 4GB and 2GB stick installed. To replace the 2 gig with another 4 costs $28.00.

[stevebla]

Try some Linux with that SSD. No more MS BS.

[therealnickb]

My error. Max is 8GB. Currently there is a 4GB and 2GB stick installed. To replace the 2 gig with another 4 costs $28.00.