this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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Upgrading an old system to an SSD (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml to c/buildapc@lemmy.world
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I have this laptop from like 2012 that I use a lot and I can even say it's my main Linux machine. It's got 8 Gb of RAM and a dedicated GPU so it's not bad but it has an HDD so slow it takes what seems to be 30-60 seconds to launch a web browser. I guess it's 5400 RPM. I want to finally buy an SSD for the machine.

However I noticed that all of the brand new ones that are available in my area are either SATA3 (for SATA) or PCIe 3/4 (for M.2). The laptop obviously supports none of these standards.

Will such an SSD work or do I have to search for a used one with an older standard (like SATA2)? Adapters might be a problem to get because I'm not a customer of marketplaces I can get them from so I'm afraid of getting scammed or just not figuring out the purchase procedure.

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[–] radix@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I can't give any first-hand experience, but this article:

https://www.technewstoday.com/sata-2-vs-sata-3/

says that all SATA generations are backward and forward compatible with one another. If the physical connector fits, it should work. Just at the lower speed of the controller.

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Thank you, mister/miss. This is very helpful.

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Should be fine, SATA3 is backwards compatible AFAIK. If the laptop can take a 2.5 inch SATA drive then you should be okay.

I happen to have an even older laptop than yours (from 2008 era) that's been rocking a 2.5 inch SATA SSD for at least 5-10+ years now. Works fine and was definitely an improvement over the old performance. The laptop is still quite old/slow in other ways but that's expected from something that old.. luckily it's not my main computing device.