Does replacing the hard drive boost the speed?

[Ronald Familia]

My laptop is 5 years old and it is now so laggy that I can't work properly, but I don't want to buy a new one, so I want to replace the hard drive in my computer with a solid-state drive, will this speed up my computer?
Here is my laptop model: HP Pavilion 14-al072tx

[Norm]

HP Pavilion 14-al072tx Product Specifications

Product number
X5P25PA
Product name
HP Pavilion 14-al072tx
Microprocessor
Intel® Core™ i5-6200U (2.3 GHz, up to 2.8 GHz, 3 MB cache, 2 cores)
Memory, standard
4 GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM (1 x 4 GB)
Video graphics
NVIDIA® GeForce® 940MX (4 GB DDR3 dedicated)

###########################################################################
Hard drive
500 GB 5400 rpm SATA
###########################################################################


Display
14" diagonal HD SVA BrightView WLED-backlit (1366 x 768)
Keyboard
Full-size island-style keyboard with integrated numeric keypad
Pointing device
HP Imagepad with multi-touch gesture support
Wireless connectivity
Intel® 802.11ac (1x1) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 4.2 Combo (Miracast compatible)
Network interface
Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
Expansion slots
1 multi-format SD media card reader
External ports
1 HDMI; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 USB 2.0; 2 USB 3.0; 1 RJ-45
Minimum dimensions (W x D x H)
33.86 x 22.43 x 1.95 cm
Weight
Starting at 1.58 kg
Power supply type
65 W EM AC power adapter
Battery type
3-cell, 41 Wh Li-ion
Webcam
HP Wide Vision HD Camera with dual array digital microphone
Audio features
B&O PLAY; HP Audio Boost; Dual speakers
Software
Operating system
Windows 10 Home 64
HP apps
HP 3D DriveGuard; HP ePrint; HP Recovery Manager; HP Support Assistant
Software included
McAfee LiveSafe™
Pre-installed software
Adobe® Shockwave® Player; CyberLink PowerDirector; User Guide documentation; Dropbox; TripAdvisor; CyberLink Power Media Player

If the above specs are what you have in your Laptop then yes, to answer your question. If you're hell bent on keeping it, I'd recommend 4 more GB of ram, at least. And clean out all the software you don't use.

Computers don't slow down over time, they remain as fast as the day you bought it. It's what they end up with having to do that makes them seem slower. Just like a car, if you load it up with too much weight, you'll be walking faster. Find all the processes that start when you boot up, and deselect all that you don't need running all the time. You would be amazed both by how much is running fulltime after 5 years, and even more amazed how fast it will become when cleaned up.

SSD will surely make a big difference, especially if you give it some more ram. When it runs out of ram, and it surely does, it swaps files to the hard drive to free up ram. Your computer is probably swapping files constantly. Just loading up todays browsers take a GB or more of precious ram. More pages open = more ram used, and Windows alone is a ram hog, never mind 3rd party anti virus, etc etc etc.

Throw a decent SSD in there, wait a couple more years, then look for a good deal on an i7 with 16 GB of ram, and the latest in Hard drives if money is an issue.(refurbished computers can be great deals.
. I'm not so up to date on the latest hardware, but that old 5400 rpm drive must be getting into the "Antique" class around now.

Is the battery easily replaced? Because batteries don't last. You may want to cheap out until the battery dies.

Wait for some of the other guys to post on what would be the best hardware for the money at this time.
To sum up. 3 big issues. Ram, old drive, and full of running software that doesn't need to be running all the time.

P.S. That laptop would burn rubber as is if you formatted, and installed Linux. Mint is very stable and Windows(like) in appearance

[Easto]

Whew! I jumped in here and wanted to help but trying to find any technical info on your model is driving me crazy.

Basically what Norm has said. It appears that you may be stuck with a max of 4gb ram. I tried using Crucial's website to determine if you can install more but your model does not come up. Check the owner's manual that came with your laptop. If will tell you what the Max memory installable will be (I can't find your manual online anywhere). If you can't exceed the 4gb of ram you're going to have a bottleneck that just can't be side-stepped. Maybe someone else here can research this issue better than I can but for now it looks like you may only have 1 mem slot with a 4gb max. I hope I'm wrong about that.

Your next solution would be to install a SSD drive. I'd go with a 500gb capacity in order to match what you have in there now. You will see a huge jump in performance from this upgrade but you will still have the limiting factor of 4gb ram. You can get a nice Crucial MX500 SSD from Newegg for about $60. With a fresh install of Windows you should see a noticeable boost.

[Ronald Familia]

Whew! I jumped in here and wanted to help but trying to find any technical info on your model is driving me crazy.

Basically what Norm has said. It appears that you may be stuck with a max of 4gb ram. I tried using Crucial's website to determine if you can install more but your model does not come up. Check the owner's manual that came with your laptop. If will tell you what the Max memory installable will be (I can't find your manual online anywhere). If you can't exceed the 4gb of ram you're going to have a bottleneck that just can't be side-stepped. Maybe someone else here can research this issue better than I can but for now it looks like you may only have 1 mem slot with a 4gb max. I hope I'm wrong about that.

Your next solution would be to install a SSD drive. I'd go with a 500gb capacity in order to match what you have in there now. You will see a huge jump in performance from this upgrade but you will still have the limiting factor of 4gb ram. You can get a nice Crucial MX500 SSD from Newegg for about $60. With a fresh install of Windows you should see a noticeable boost.

Thanks for your reply, I took my laptop apart and I found it has two places to put memory sticks, I now have one that came with the computer and one that is empty, I think I can add another new memory stick and replace the HDD with an SSD, do you have a recommendation for SSD and memory sticks?

[Ronald Familia]

If the above specs are what you have in your Laptop then yes, to answer your question. If you're hell bent on keeping it, I'd recommend 4 more GB of ram, at least. And clean out all the software you don't use.

Computers don't slow down over time, they remain as fast as the day you bought it. It's what they end up with having to do that makes them seem slower. Just like a car, if you load it up with too much weight, you'll be walking faster. Find all the processes that start when you boot up, and deselect all that you don't need running all the time. You would be amazed both by how much is running fulltime after 5 years, and even more amazed how fast it will become when cleaned up.

SSD will surely make a big difference, especially if you give it some more ram. When it runs out of ram, and it surely does, it swaps files to the hard drive to free up ram. Your computer is probably swapping files constantly. Just loading up todays browsers take a GB or more of precious ram. More pages open = more ram used, and Windows alone is a ram hog, never mind 3rd party anti virus, etc etc etc.

Throw a decent SSD in there, wait a couple more years, then look for a good deal on an i7 with 16 GB of ram, and the latest in Hard drives if money is an issue.(refurbished computers can be great deals.
. I'm not so up to date on the latest hardware, but that old 5400 rpm drive must be getting into the "Antique" class around now.

Is the battery easily replaced? Because batteries don't last. You may want to cheap out until the battery dies.

Wait for some of the other guys to post on what would be the best hardware for the money at this time.
To sum up. 3 big issues. Ram, old drive, and full of running software that doesn't need to be running all the time.

P.S. That laptop would burn rubber as is if you formatted, and installed Linux. Mint is very stable and Windows(like) in appearance

Thanks for your patient reply, I think I can add another memory stick and replace the SSD and reinstall the system for my computer, which might make my computer better. I did put too much stuff in my computer before, like Android Studio and Arduino IDE. maybe you have a recommendation for a suitable memory stick or SSD?

[Easto]

Thanks for your reply, I took my laptop apart and I found it has two places to put memory sticks, I now have one that came with the computer and one that is empty, I think I can add another new memory stick and replace the HDD with an SSD, do you have a recommendation for SSD and memory sticks?

In your case and due to the model of laptop you have I'd say just stick with Crucial. Don't just add another stick of memory, buy a set so that you can be assured they match. and install a Crucial SSD MX500 into it.

As far as the memory goes you can probably just add 1 stick but make sure you match the spec exactly. Also, check to see what the maxium ram amount is. If you can go 8 x 8 = 16 I'd try that. If not just buy 4 x 4 = 8gb.

The memory (4x4) and the SSD should both total around $100 - $110. So for not too much you'll see a considerable boost in performance.

[Norm]

Thanks for your patient reply, I think I can add another memory stick and replace the SSD and reinstall the system for my computer, which might make my computer better. I did put too much stuff in my computer before, like Android Studio and Arduino IDE. maybe you have a recommendation for a suitable memory stick or SSD?

If you use those programs, don't uninstall them. just check in taskmanager >startup tab to see if they, or anything else, is starting up when you boot the computer. Disable all you don't want running, until such time as you open them yourself.

As for hardware recommendations, take Easto's advice, he is more of a hardware guy. I am more of a software guy

[YeOldeStonecat]

First...spindle/rotating/platter hard drives do slow down in performance over time. As spindle hard drives age, they loose efficiency, they loose performance, start getting bad sectors, etc.

Second...you're starting with a SLOW spindle hard drive in the first place. "Low budget" laptops, back then, came with slower rpm spindles....5,400 rpm. The more "standard" spindle drives spun at 7,200 rpm...quite a bit faster. Believe it or not there used to be 4,200 rpm spindle drives...on some early ultra books. Those were back in the days of WinXP, but they were still painful to work on.

However, in the past 10 years, Solid State Drives started taking over. The days of spindle drives are (should be) long gone. Nobody should suffer through running Windows 10 on a spindle hard drive. We will not support clients who have that. For Windows 10....SSD, and 8 gigs of RAM...are the bare minimum. 16 gigs of RAM for heavier users (like accounting apps or very heavy Office users). SSD's do not slow down over time, they generally will outlast the computer. They are also more reliable than spindle drives, less chance of failing, they use less "juice"...so battery life on laptops is longer, and they don't put out much heat. No moving parts..they're also better for laptops due to "lumps and bumps" that laptops get, which often cause spindle drives to have higher problem rates in laptops.

Our "go-to" brand for memory and SSDs is Crucial, been using them for over 25 years..thousands of upgrades across our clients. Recommend going to 8 gigs minimum on your laptop, they also have a good cloning bridge and a FREE program available to clone your drive (based on Acronis software). So you can just "clone" your current drive, then swap, boot up, reboot one or two times, and now the laptop should be running like greased lightening.

https://www.crucial.com/accessories/upg ... dinstallac

[Easto]

First...spindle/rotating/platter hard drives do slow down in performance over time. As spindle hard drives age, they loose efficiency, they loose performance, start getting bad sectors, etc.

Second...you're starting with a SLOW spindle hard drive in the first place. "Low budget" laptops, back then, came with slower rpm spindles....5,400 rpm. The more "standard" spindle drives spun at 7,200 rpm...quite a bit faster.

Years ago I remember upgrading a low-end laptop from a 5400rpm to 7200rpm and the performance boost was substantial. But as you pointed out, the best and about only way to go nowadays is with an SSD. My days of installing spindled drives is long behind me.