Putting SSD in HP TouchSmart 610-1280qd

[kevindp78]

I am interested in the components that I will require and the steps I need to take to replace my hard drive with an SDD. I believe my HDD is a 2TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive. From reading other posts, it sounds like I will need some sort of bracket to make the SDD fit and will need some other equipment to prepare the SDD for the exchange. Also, can I expect a boost in performance with an SDD? I've already maxed out the memory to 16gb, but I still see some lag when opening tabs or moving between programs, so I'm trying to do what I can.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Kevindp78,

I am not a HP employee.

You will probably need a 3.5 inch to 2.5 inch adapter to install a 2.5 inch SATA SSD in your system. I have used this adapter (Link) with good results.

The you will need a SATA to USB SSD adapter (Link) to clone the operating system from the existing HDD to the new SSD.

I use Macrium Reflect free to clone operating systems to new storage devices.

Macrium Reflect cloning procedures and a Macrium Reflect download link can reviewed at this (Link).

Regards

[wb2001]

@kevindp78,

The bottleneck that your circa 2011 computer has is the slower 3Gb/sec SATA port.

Attaching the 6Gb/sec SSD will throttle back to 3Gb/sec speeds.

[Grzwacz]

Hi, 

You will probably double data throughput by doing a SATA SSD .

This should be a recommended upgrade given the price of SATA SSDs/GB at this time.

Regards

[kevindp78]

Sorry, @WB2001, I'm not sure I understand. (I'm new to this stuff.) It sounds like you are saying that changing to an SSD will not provide a performance boost or decrease lag when opening tabs and moving between programs because of this bottleneck. Is that correct? The comments section in the link you sent seemed to suggest a significant boost in performance regardless, but that may not be specific to my computer.

[kevindp78]

Thank you, @Grzwacz. Does the type of SSD I get matter? I'd be happy with a 1.5 to 2X improvement in performance. I was told by a chat agent at Crucial that the read-write speed of my current HDD is 300MB/s. Since it's also a 2TB SATA hard drive, I guess I'd need an SDD that's 2TB (to keep the same space) but read-write speeds around 500MB/s or more. Does that sound right? I'm looking for cheap but effective, so I wanted to get the specs right.

[wb2001 · Accepted solution]

@kevindp78,

Somehow we are getting confused. The motherboard is only capable of 3Gb/sec speed according to the HP specs page. Crucial is stating different.  Please go here to test it.  Look at bottom left corner.

If HP specs are wrong, I need to edit this page, apologize to you, and inform HP of their data sheet error.

Although the SSD is rated at 6Gb/sec, there is the simple fact that these values are actually less. The chart compared the same SSD on the 6Gb/sec port at only 522Mb/s. The same SSD on the 3Gb/s port only rated 268Mb/s.  That is the bottleneck.   If the above test reflects the 3Gb/sec speed.

Sadly, it is a problem you can not overcome.  The entire article can cause some confusion, that is why I only linked page 4. If your motherboard was SATA3 6Gb/sec rated there would be an improvement. That is not the case. Also the 2TB hard drive is specified as only 5400 RPM.  Very old school in these times.

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

Run Crystal Disk Mark (CDM 6.02), the Zip version (Link) on the current platter HDD.

You should see about twice the disk read/write performance on your PC (all things equal) using a SATA SSD versus a platter HDD when running CDM on each storage device.

You will not see the theoretical read/write speeds the SATA SSD can provide on a SATA III system. But the performance improvement will still be discernible. Your PC, as Wb2001 stated, has design limitations which cannot be overcome unless you buy a new PC.

Whatever. Your call. You want fast disk access then buy a new PC with a M.2 drive. The difference between a SATA III SSD versus a M.2 SSD is imperceptible in normal everyday use.

The process of improving disk read and write performance is limited by the PC's chipset.

Regards

[kevindp78]

I ran HWInfo and it looks like I've got a Quanta 2ABB Motherboard. Research suggests it's got 2 x SATAII 3Gb/s connectors, so I guess there's that bottleneck you mentioned. Oh well. Thanks for the info.