Squeezing life from awful laptop: SSD?

[CiccioBraun]

Hello everyone, long time lurker first time poster here! 

I didn't know where to post my question, hope this is the right place.

 

Anyway:

I own a 2009ish Sony Vaio VPCEB1J8E and it's slow as hell. Since I'm a student, I absolutely have to keep it as alive and functional until I graduate. TWO long years.
So I thought about getting an SSD for the OS, MS Office and very important programs and buying a caddy to replace my optical drive for the HDD.

I don't know if I can post links to a store, I'm putting it under spoiler

 http://www.buy-deals.co.uk/sony-vaio-vpceb1j8e-2nd-hdd-hard-drive-caddy.htm

Some questions for you:
- What do you think about it? This way I could always re-use the SSD when I'll finally build a decent system.
- Have you got any suggestion for the SSD? It should be a decent, budget-friendly one  :mellow: Which size do you suggest? I thought about 60Gb.

My budget is around 60-70€ (20 are for the caddy).

Keep in mind that I'm from Italy and Pcpartpicker Italia only checks amazon.it so it's not very useful for me. Just use the equation 1$=1€ because prices here are higher.

Thanks in advance, I'm sorry if I made any language mistakes.

Grazie mille!  :wub:

[Arty]

-Snip-

that 60 should be fine if you plan on putting some big programs on hdd.

do that math, how much space are your windows+programs+programs x86 taking up and add about 30-50gbs breathe room ex sytsm restoee future files.

[connorpiper]

Yes, a SSD will speed it up. A RAM upgrade will also help.

I would suggest a 128GB. 64GB is just not enough at all.

 

ADATA SP900 or SP600 are great budget SSDs. 

[CiccioBraun]

Yes, a SSD will speed it up. A RAM upgrade will also help.

I would suggest a 128GB. 64GB is just not enough at all.

I thought about RAM too, but prices are too high!

Any suggestions for the brand?

[connorpiper]

I thought about RAM too, but prices are too high!

Any suggestions for the brand?

 

ADATA SP600 128GB. Can be found from $50-$60. 

[iDeJayDzn]

Yes, a SSD will speed it up. A RAM upgrade will also help.

I would suggest a 128GB. 64GB is just not enough at all.

 

ADATA SP900 or SP600 are great budget SSDs. 

 

I think you may need to explain you're on about an SSD there not RAM as Sony laptops tend to be only able to support 8GB RAM.

 

I know because i upgraded my RAM and HDD to an SSD.

Sony Vaio VPCEH2N1E.

[connorpiper]

I think you may need to explain you're on about an SSD there not RAM as Sony laptops tend to be only able to support 8GB RAM.

 

I know because i upgraded my RAM and HDD to an SSD.

Sony Vaio VPCEH2N1E.

 

The RAM is dependent on the Chipset mostly. 

 

But his model comes with 2GB RAM. 

[DerBernd]

60 Gb is fine for Operating System, heck my main rig runs fine of an 32Gig SSD, my tablet has also no more than 32 Gig and runs Win8.1 just fine. If it's in budget go for the bigger SSD (well d'uh). 60€ buys you a 128 Gigabyte SSD.

 

Just get some 128 Gig SSD. If it fails within the first two years: The seller has to repair or replace it. European guideline (guideline 1999/44/EG to be exact). You will probably not feel a difference between write speeds of 300-ish megabytes per second and 500-ish megabytes per second.

 

If you really only have 2 Gigabytes of RAM I'd recommend upgrading that as well. If you have one slot free than you could just throw in another 4 Gig for 6 total. Memory Speed is not that important in Desktop work.

[CiccioBraun]

Thank you for all the replies.
 

I took a look around and found some SSD (all 120/128 Gb), which one do you suggest?

-Kingston V300 (57€)

-Intel 320 Series (61€)

-Kingston HyperX Fury (64€)

-Crucial MX100 (65€)

I also looked for the ADatas you suggested, but they're a bit pricey...

-AData sp600 (77€)

-AData sp900 (71€)

I don't need terrific performances, can I just buy the less expensive one or what?

Thanks

EDIT: per CPU-Z, I have 4Gb RAM (2x2) at 1033Hz speed, so upgrading to 6 or 8 would be too expensive (and not really useful, in my opinion)

[DerBernd]

EDIT: per CPU-Z, I have 4Gb RAM (2x2) at 1033Hz speed, so upgrading to 6 or 8 would be too expensive (and not really useful, in my opinion)

 

4Gig is ample if you do not overdo it on the tab side. I just saw the 2Gig statement above and thought you might have not enough RAM.

 

All of the SSD are okay. I would personally go for the HyperX Fury (500/500 read/write) but I cannot imagine that your windows will be slower on a SSD that only does 200-300 Megabytes per second read (mine certainly isn't since I have mine on a SATA2 port).

 

Yeah, I would get the fury and continue to use it in my next laptop or computer as well.

[CiccioBraun]

4Gig is ample if you do not overdo it on the tab side. I just saw the 2Gig statement above and thought you might have not enough RAM.

 

All of the SSD are okay. I would personally go for the HyperX Fury (500/500 read/write) but I cannot imagine that your windows will be slower on a SSD that only does 200-300 Megabytes per second read (mine certainly isn't since I have mine on a SATA2 port).

 

Yeah, I would get the fury and continue to use it in my next laptop or computer as well.

It was also my choice, mainly because it's black and white like my dream build   

Thanks

[connorpiper]

4Gig is ample if you do not overdo it on the tab side. I just saw the 2Gig statement above and thought you might have not enough RAM.

All of the SSD are okay. I would personally go for the HyperX Fury (500/500 read/write) but I cannot imagine that your windows will be slower on a SSD that only does 200-300 Megabytes per second read (mine certainly isn't since I have mine on a SATA2 port).

Yeah, I would get the fury and continue to use it in my next laptop or computer as well.

The 2GB was because the model number related to a 2GB model.

[connorpiper]

Thank you for all the replies.

I took a look around and found some SSD (all 120/128 Gb), which one do you suggest?

-Kingston V300 (57€)

-Intel 320 Series (61€)

-Kingston HyperX Fury (64€)

-Crucial MX100 (65€)

I also looked for the ADatas you suggested, but they're a bit pricey...

-AData sp600 (77€)

-AData sp900 (71€)

I don't need terrific performances, can I just buy the less expensive one or what?

Thanks

EDIT: per CPU-Z, I have 4Gb RAM (2x2) at 1033Hz speed, so upgrading to 6 or 8 would be too expensive (and not really useful, in my opinion)

Just get the cheapest. I don't know why the SP600 is more expensive over there.

[DerBernd]

Just get the cheapest. I don't know why the SP600 is more expensive over there.

 

Mainly due to automated pricing robots meeting shops with a portfolio that is too big for a single person to know.

 

I would weed out the slowest drive since you will surely carry it over to your next laptop or PC. The 7 Euro difference buys you about 3-4 coffees at your university campus.