Laptop SSD

CTX-SLPR · October 26, 2017

Howdy,

I have a new to me laptop (Toshiba Portege R705-P35) that I picked up for $40 and it's not unsurprisingly slow and runs hot. Watching the thermals and utilization it looks to be cramped on RAM and I'm guessing that the overhead of writing to the paging file is what is driving the CPU utilization up simply watching YouTube. I'm upgrading the RAM with some eBay or Craigslist DDR3 but I'm really not sure about whether I want to dump a serious amount of money (compared to a $40 laptop) for a new SSD and I found a few things on Craigslist that look to fit the price range for what I'm after and if I decide that this thing is a lost cause can roll into something else for sure. I use this thing for travel mainly playing older games, watching movies on the optical drive, etc.

This guy has me interested: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/sop/d/sandisk-xgb-half-slim-ssd/6355951489.html Its pretty cheap for a 128Gb unit (all I really need) but I can't find any real documentation on how good or bad it actually is

This guy: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/mob/d/genuine-samsunggb-6-gbps-sata/6325330406.html Farther away but seems like a more surefire bet

Finally this is in the same town: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/sys/d/patriot-pyrogb-ssd-sata-iii/6333692018.html Overall more expensive, especially for the space. Smaller than the rest but probably enough for my needs as well as new.

Thoughts and recommendations?

Thanks

CTX-SLPR · October 28, 2017

Well the used question is now OBE... (Overcome By Events)

I swore I had an SSD hanging out somewhere in my house that a friend handed me for a system backup that I ended up repurposing an old 320Gb WD Blue and the 500Gb laptop drive from my wife's laptop when I upgraded it for. Now I've got a Samsung 128Gb SSD, only down side is it's SATA II (3.0Gbps).

Still an upgrade over an 5400RPM SATA III HDD? I have an identical drive running in my wife's laptop and it seems plently quick though not quite as fast as my desktop which has a SATA III in it. Gut feeling and general LTT research says yes as well.

Thanks,