Is it worth putting an SSD in an old laptop?

[Bambooz]

And for PATA laptops there are mSATA to 2.5" PATA adapters.

Something like this:
http://skinflint.co.uk/a989819.html
http://skinflint.co.uk/a1000615.html

Ebay is obviously a lot cheaper
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_od...a+IDE&_sacat=0

Just drop a mSATA SSD in there and you're good. Even though it's going to be limited by the PATA interface (usually ATA100), the much lower access times still make those "hackjob-SSDs" a lot quicker than the spinning rust..


edit: lol ... I just found this auction while scrolling through the above ebay link. Does that shop sound familiar? -> http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom...-ide-ssd-drive

[ik9000]

And for PATA laptops there are mSATA to 2.5" PATA adapters.

Something like this:
http://skinflint.co.uk/a989819.html
http://skinflint.co.uk/a1000615.html

Ebay is obviously a lot cheaper
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_od...a+IDE&_sacat=0

Just drop a mSATA SSD in there and you're good. Even though it's going to be limited by the PATA interface (usually ATA100), the much lower access times still make those "hackjob-SSDs" a lot quicker than the spinning rust..


edit: lol ... I just found this auction while scrolling through the above ebay link. Does that shop sound familiar? -> http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom...-ide-ssd-drive

fine if they fit, but that assumes there is sufficient space. Some of those links would simply not fit into a laptop chassis. And again, if you're paying for mSata SSD and this converter you are starting to throw money old obsolete tech. Just put it toward a new laptop instead.

[Bambooz]

fine if they fit, but that assumes there is sufficient space. Some of those links would simply not fit into a laptop chassis.

Since when do 1.8" (first skinflint link and most of the ebay ones) and 2.5" (second skinflint link and scan link ; with mounting frame) drives not fit into laptops..!?
Small-ish mSATA SSDs (like 32 or 64GB) are plenty for an old XP machine and getting one on ebay isn't that expensive (as most people consider them to be too small for Vista/7)

I've used one of those 1.8" adapters to revive a Thinkpad X41 Tablet with similar specs to the Sony (Pentium M class) and it made a huge difference in performance. Then again, a 12.1" Tablet PC is worth more than a boring regular 15.4" laptop like the Sony.. so unless you can grab the actual SSD cheap (or already have one left over), it's probably not worth it.

edit: Just to explain what I mean.. this adapter here and most of the ones on ebay are 1.8" in size (2.5" HDD cut in half basically)
A photo says more than 1000 words: http://thinkwiki.de/images/c/c9/Festplatten.jpg (left: starndard 2.5" HDD, right 1.8" HDD (used in Thinkpad X40/X41 series))

The other adapters (like the one on Scan) does the same thing, but comes with a mounting frame the size of a regular 2.5" HDD

[Feck]

Just bought and installed a Lycom ST-173-7 IDE to mSATA converter and the cheapest mSATA drive (Kingston) for my old Sony Vaio A117S. It only has 512MB ram but now runs Windows 7 very smoothly. It had XP on it before and was very slow even with a clean install. In my view if your using an old laptop with an IDE drive, that converter and SSD drive will transform its performance. I was going to upgrade the RAM, but no longer need to. Well worth it.

[Honosuseri]

Remember updates and support for XP end in April of this year. There is a free trial of windows 8 which you can use for 3 months to try before you pay to upgrade.

As an old laptop I'd imagine the battery isn't holding alot of charge, which defeats the point of it being portabubble. Not sure I would really bother if you have to buy RAM, OS and the SSD plus adapter, be sods law the lappy packs up after the upgrades and the RAM and adapter will be wasted

If you have RAM lying around spare already then add it by all means and try the windows 8 trial to breathe some life into it but that's as far as I'd go personally. All the best with it fella