SSD upgrade for laptop?

[Mattmatt]

Hey guys, I have been thinking of buying an SSD to replace my HDD in my laptop. I have an ASUS G55VW-DS71, and the specs are:
GTX 660m
i7 2.3ghz
8GB of RAM
500GB HDD 7200rpm

I am almost positive there isn't an extra slot to have both an HHD and an SSD, and if there is then I would most likely do it, but I am going to research on that right now. Saying there is no extra slot, would the speed be better and overall worth it?

 

[Fat.Clown]

I think it'll be worth it.
but if you only have 1 SSD as storage, you'll have to manage your space carefully.

 

[PP Mguire]

Long as you don't install many programs at once or can afford a larger SSD I say go for it. An SSD is the one part in a computer anybody will notice a difference with.

 

[Mattmatt]

How hard would it be to replace on my own? What re-installation will I have to do? Just in case you can't tell, I have never replaced/opened a laptop in my life. And also, the only problem I have is getting an SSD with too little space, and then having no memory. I do install a lot of games and such so it may be a problem. Just looking at the negatives! I do really want to upgrade to an SSD

 

[PP Mguire]

Then save and get a bigger one?

If you go with an SSD you'll have to format so that means reinstalling everything.

 

[strollin]

How hard would it be to replace on my own? What re-installation will I have to do? Just in case you can't tell, I have never replaced/opened a laptop in my life. And also, the only problem I have is getting an SSD with too little space, and then having no memory. I do install a lot of games and such so it may be a problem. Just looking at the negatives! I do really want to upgrade to an SSD

As long as you get an ssd that is as large or larger than your existing hdd then you can clone the hdd to the ssd using software like Clonezilla. If you are going to a smaller ssd, it is more challenging, especially if your current hdd has more stuff on it than will fit on the ssd. Clonezilla allows you to boot from a CD\DVD you create so that you can clone the hdd to the ssd before actually removing the old and installing the new.

As far as actually swapping out the drive, that should be very straightforward. Your laptop should have a small cover on the bottom with 1 or 2 screws to remove to gain access to the drive.

After the swap, you'll see a dramatic improvement in boot time plus your programs will load faster.

The only real drawback to an ssd is the cost compared to an hdd so often you end up with less available disk space. You may need to manage what is installed on your computer a little closer to account for the smaller drive. It may mean doing things like uninstalling an old game prior to installing a new one.

 

[Mattmatt]

Okay, great thanks! I was thinking about upgrading to a 240gb, mainly because a 300 is a lot more expensive than a 240. This is not official as well! I had windows 7 pre-installed to my computer when I bought it, would I have to buy another copy of W7?

 

[strollin]

Okay, great thanks! I was thinking about upgrading to a 240gb, mainly because a 300 is a lot more expensive than a 240. This is not official as well! I had windows 7 pre-installed to my computer when I bought it, would I have to buy another copy of W7?

You shouldn't need to buy another copy of Win 7. If you clone the drive as I suggested then it will boot and run just as before without the need for you to re-install anything. If you have the install disk for Win 7, you could do a fresh install of the OS using that disk but then you would need to re-install all of your programs plus you would need to backup and restore all of your data.

 

[Mattmatt]

I don't believe it came with a backup disk.

 

[Mattmatt]

I am still a noob at everything, and I was looking at my memory as of right now. I have 2 Hard Drive disks, one says OS (C: and one says DATA (D: the OS has 76.9GB free of 161gb, and the DATA has 279gb free of 279gb. Does that mean I have two Drive ports?