Want to Upgrade Pavilion dv7t-3100 to SSD EVO - What type/size?

[KisselK]

I want to upgrade our Pavilion to a SSD EVO, however, I can't find anything (website, etc., incl. HP) that'll guide me as to:

1. if there's a specific type of SSD I have to use for the Pavilion
2. what size (1T, 2T) I'll need; see screenshots below

Any help/advise that can be offered I'd greatly appreciate.

Thank you, in advance!!

[banhien]

@KisselK 

It is a CTO machine which has 2.5" HDD. You can upgrade it any standard 2.5" SATA SSD to your machine. There are many around such as Crucial MX500  series, Samsung 860/870 EVO series ... or from other vendors.

Regards.

[itsmyname]

@KisselK --  what size (1T, 2T) I'll need; see screenshots below

The screenshots for each of the two disk-drive give the size (320 GB) of each disk-drive, but it does not show how full each disk-drive is.

If you open the Windows "File Explorer", and right-mouse-button click on each disk-drive, and then select "Properties", you'll see a graph, somewhat like:

that shows the "percentage-full".

Note that the most-common sizes for SSD devices are: 64 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Given that it is getting more difficult to purchase 64 GB and 120 GB disk-drives, and the fact that these 2 sizes are almost as expensive as the 240/256/512 GB devices, I would not purchase the 64 or 120 devices.

Also, I see that one of your disk-drives is labelled as "DATA".  To me, this implies that you only rarely read/write your files into this partition, unlike the continuous input/output activity on your 'C:" disk-drive.

So, I think there is very little to be gained by replacing this disk-drive by a SSD device.

However, my guess is that any 320 GB disk-drive is getting "old" (5 years? 6 years?) and should be proactively replaced, before it unexpectedly (and at the worst-possible time) "fails". That 320 GB disk-drive probably came with a 1-year or 2-year warranty -- you probably are well beyond the warranty-period.

Bottom line:

1. purchase a 512 GB SSD. It will hold everything stored on your 320 GB 'C:" disk-drive, with almost 200 GB of additional "free" space.
2. purchase a 240/256 GB SSD to replace your "Data" device, unless this disk-drive currently is nearly full; in that case, you'll need to purchase another 512 GB SSD.

These sizes should meet your "needs". Achieving your "wants" might change your purchase to that of a more-expensive 1TB SSD.

I hope this helps.