Forum Topic

Windows 10 and SSD vs HDD

Does anyone run windows 10 without sluggish performance from a classic hard disk drive ? I've been out of the windows arena for a while (mac os and ubuntu) and left when familiar with windows 7 for years. Trying to source a 2nd hand win10 laptop soon (less than 250)  but most being offered without ssd  and read some opinions on line saying classic hd kills win10 for real world use never mind any other system specs.

Andrew Craig ● 2203d6 Comments

It is a slug -  like a bus on Chiswick High Road caught behind another one. I’ve found you need SSD on an old machine to even stand a chance. New machines with decent processors, seem ok.

Russell Pearson ● 2203d

Thanks. Shame , had an hp i3-8th gen on facebook mkplace in my sights but 1TB hdd . Have put ssd in other machines before now but this laptop a devil to get into , according to youtube  repair technicians.thanks again

Andrew Craig ● 2203d

I’ve got new life out of old machines with SSD. Have an old MacMini I’d like to do the same with, they’re a mare to open up though!

Russell Pearson ● 2203d

I suspect the reason Windows 10 is slower on old machines is that they tend to have less main memory (RAM) than current machines, 4GB rather than 8GB. Crucial's system scanner will let you know what you have without opening the box.   Without sufficient RAM you will be 'paging' (swapping out) less used parts of the operating system (Windows 10).  My desktop is nine years old  and has 8GB of RAM. Standard at the time was 4GB .  Originally 60GB SSD and now 256 GB. SSD will help but the real bottleneck may be your RAM. This article may help. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-much-ram-memory,6092.htmlSummary:  Windows uses 2.7GB when its idle,8 GB is good if your're not a gamer, 16GB if you are a gamer.  If you're a serious gamer then an updated graphics card might also be necessary.P.S. I'm not a PC expert, just a retired mainframe systems buyer, but the same rule applies there is a 'memory hierarchy'  with memory on the processor and graphics cards, RAM, SSD and HDD, decreasing in speed but increasing in capacity/GB per £.

David McLoughlin ● 2202d

Hi, I have built several pc's myself over the last few years and can confirm that a ssd will certainly speed things up compared to your old hard drive. But you can easily still use both your old hard drive and ssd at the same time. I use a SAMSUNG EVO 860 2.5" Internal SSD - 250 GB. Generally these days its easier and cheaper to build a fairly powerful pc at a fairly low price. Its very easy actually and quite a lot of fun as you can tailor build it for your purposes.

chris poole ● 2202d

I used to build my own until I found that system builders could do it cheaper!  I have an SSD for windows and programme files and a SATA drive for storage. This works well and is speedy. i am on 8.1 which  I  really like and am not sure bout moving to 10. the bios is 6 years old and no longer updated so am not sure about whether 10 will be OK with it 8.1 has another couple or years and I may just stay with it

Iris Hill ● 2202d