Would an SSD speed up a slow Laptop

[Radio Fixer]

We have an HP Pavilion g6 laptop that is little used as its so sloooow !

I have wondered would replacing the HDD with an SSD make a worthwhile speed improvement?

Obviously it would boot quicker but for using would there be a worthwhile boost ?

My own feeling is that it wouldnt be much as as its probably limited by CPU performance and the memory is adequate for the non intensive tasks its likely to get used for. 

thanks Gary

[ppppenguin]

Yes! I fitted an SSD to an old laptop (I think it was Windows 7 era machine) and it was a lot faster. Not just boot, everything worked so much better. That was with Linux Mint Cinnamon - highly recommended as a way to quit the Windows habit. It just works without all the annoyances of WIndows.

[Richard_FM]

I've been thinking of doing something similar with my laptop, which takes a while to start up.

A few years ago my Dad part exchanged his old laptop for a reconditioned one with an SSD which he said ran a lot better.

[PerdioPal]

I agree too, much faster. If using Windows there are minimalist builds that also eek out a bit more performance. For example this one https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitio...stall.html

[ppppenguin]

If you're trying to get the best out of older hardware then W10, even a stripped version, strikes me as an odd way to do it.

There are Linux distros that will run on truly antique hardware but that isn't what most people need. Assuming you have a reasonable, if rather old, PC and you want an experience that feels familiar for Windows users then Linux Mint Xfce or possibly Mate edition will do a good job. I used Mate on that W7 era laptop and it was fine with a SSD. Lubuntu is another obvious contender.

There's a review here: https://kanger.dev/article/best-lightwei...x-distros/ You really need one that has Firefox browser and Libreoffice. Some very lightweight Linux distros use other office software which is likely to have less good compatibility with Word and Excel.

The problem here is a surfeit of choice. As a Mint user, without much experience of other Linux distros, I'd say just use Mint Xfce or Mate. It will work well enough and be familiar enough. Of course I've had problems with Mint, but most of it has been to do with networking to W98 and XP machines. Not something that most users will need to do. Otherwise, for the most part, it just works, without the irritations of W10. It keeps out of the way and is polite.

[Nick]

The two things that radically improve a system are lots of memory and an SSD.

When you say that you have enough memory, how do you know that?

Memory is generally pretty cheap - the default for that laptop is 6GB, so up it to the maximum 8GB.

The object is to always keep absolutely everything in memory and to never ever page.

The SSD bit is a no brainer - just do it.

[ppppenguin]

If you've got a "spinning rust" HDD then as soon as the system starts to page stuff out of RAM and on to disk it will run horribly slowly. As Nick says, enough RAM is a big win there. Not quite so bad with an SSD but still something you don't want happening.

[Radio Fixer]

Well, had a read up of Linux variations and think I understood some of it  

Thought I would try to make a USB Memory stick for one Linux version (Mate) and try that in the Laptop.  Created the disk, or so I hoped on this PC, and tried to boot from it on the Laptop.  But it wont do that.  In the Laptop W7 that it runs it, it can see the USB stick and that can be selected in the BIOS as the boot device.  But it only flashes and then defaults to the Internal HDD and runs W7 as usual.

A picture shows whats on the USB stick.

Any ideas welcome ... seems no point in getting an SSD until I have a something to boot from?

thanks Gary

[ppppenguin]

First question: have you made a bootable memory stick? Just copying the files to it doesn't work. In Windows Rufus is free and works well though I see it only works for Windows 8 and above: https://rufus.ie/en/ If you're making the USB stick on a PC with W8 or later then you'll be fine. Otherwise there's a legacy version of Balena Etcher that ought to work in W7: https://etcher.balena.io/

If you've made a bootable memory stick and it still isn't working then you will need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order. You need to press the correct key to do this. Varies from computer to computer. I've seen Esc, Del, F8 and F12. It usually flashes up on the screen for a second during boot. I often find that you need to press the key many times during boot to make sure you've actually pressed it at the right time.

Then you should be able to look around the BIOS settings and make USB first on the list of boot drives.

Some (most?) PCs also have a key to allow you to choose boot device, if it's pressed during boot. Again it may flash on screen during boot. This can be easier than altering BIOS settings.

[Radio Fixer]

Thanks Jeffery.

Yes! understand all about boot order and as I said changed that for the Laptop to boot from the USB stick. It tries and then as there's not an executable file defaults to the internal HDD and boots W7 again.

The PC that I got the files to the USB stick is W10 so I will try Rufus on that. I did download Etcher but that did not seem to help me.

Wouldnt it be nice if you could just buy a USB Mem stick, from a reputable source, and were already to go. Must be folks put off from trying Linux with all the faff trying to get it loaded.

On to Rufus this morning

Gary