Upgrading to a SSD HD on an Older inspiron

[hesson81]

Hello. I haven't done any upgrades or builds in a while. I have a dell Inspiron N4010. I'm currently waiting for a Windows disk to arrive so that I can reformat this bad boy. Running so slow. But I also Wondered. Hmm, Maybe I can install a SSD drive and put the OS on that. I don't really need the 320 GB HD it has now. I want boot up performance. Not storage.

Question (bare with me, I have been out of the game for a while). I'm positive this is a SATA (not II Or III, just SATA) HD.

question: can I put a SATA II or SATA III HD in here?? Also, if I can, will I receive the full capabilities of that Drive. I'm noticing I may run into an issue finding SATA SSD's any way. I don't want to get a SATA III if I can't utilize the perf specs. I would just get a SATA II (if compatible)..

I'm trying to keep this project as cost effective as possible. I'm not much of a Gamer anymore, and most of What I do is on Tablets these days anyway.

Thanks for all your Help.

 

[strollin]

You should be able to install any SATA drive in there but if the controller is older and only supports SATA and you install a SATA III drive, then the it will perform at a SATA level and not a SATA III level.

An SATA SSD will still boot faster than a spinner hdd so you'll still see a gain there but it won't perform as fast as it could with a newer SATA controller.

 

[hesson81]

Thanks strollin, that answers my question perfectly.

I think I'm going to just go with a SATA II and call it a day. As SATA SSDs are hard to find it appears.

 

[Abstract Hero]

You should have no problem with any sata drive so don't even stress it. And if you plan to upgrade in the next few years I'd even get a III some nice it's future proofing.