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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom the Tech Jap and if you have an old or cheap or slightly sluggish
00:05laptop that's seen better days, then you may want one of these little guys, a solid state
00:10drive or SSD.
00:12Now I know it's 2020 and people have been upgrading their laptops with SSDs for donkeys
00:17years now, but I still genuinely think it's the best and most cost effective way of upgrading
00:22an old laptop and giving it a new lease of life.
00:25So when Samsung got in touch and asked if I wanted to make a video all about upgrading
00:29a slow old laptop with their Samsung 860 EVO SSD, I jumped at the chance.
00:35So why now?
00:36Well SSDs are cheaper and better than ever and installing one is pretty simple as well.
00:41This is meant as a bit of a beginner's guide and I'll cover the basics of buying the right
00:45SSD for you, how to move all your files to the new drive and go over the basics of installing
00:49it.
00:50And it may mean you don't have to buy that expensive new laptop for a few more years.
00:54So I've got this 3 year old Asus laptop which comes with a core i3 5th gen processor, 4
01:00gigs of RAM and a pretty horrible TN panel screen.
01:04You can see there's horrible viewing angles there and also a 1TB mechanical hard drive.
01:09Now of course changing the drive to an SSD isn't going to fix that screen or the fact
01:13that this could do with 8 gigs of RAM, but I still think if you're going to make one
01:16upgrade then going to an SSD is the best choice here.
01:19And so that's exactly what I did and it transformed it.
01:22We went from 40 second boot times down to 9 seconds, the read data speeds were 3 times
01:27higher and the write speeds were 5 times faster.
01:30It really did transform how it feels to use it.
01:34And it's not all about the speed, well it's most of the speed, but also SSDs are more
01:37power efficient than traditional hard drives and they're also silent as well.
01:41And if you are still using an old hard drive and you've been using it a lot then this will
01:45eventually wear out.
01:46So changing to an SSD is a good way to extend the life of your machine and most importantly
01:50protect your data.
01:52Now for me I've always tended to buy Samsung SSDs and the 860 EVO here is a great choice.
01:58It's exactly the same size as a regular laptop hard drive at 2.5 inches and it uses the same
02:02SATA 3 interface.
02:04You'll also want to go for at least the same amount of storage as your old hard drive,
02:08so in my case 1TB, which you can find for around £130 or dollars and I've put a link
02:13in the description below.
02:14Although my recommendation for most people who don't need a ton of storage would be
02:18the 500GB model which costs about £75 or $80.
02:22You may have also come across the smaller and faster NVMe M.2 SSDs, that's a lot of
02:27acronyms there, but basically you need a dedicated slot on your laptop's motherboard to use
02:31one of these.
02:32And if you're coming from a hard drive then you can pretty much guarantee your machine
02:35won't have this option.
02:37It's more common on newer and higher spec laptops.
02:40Just quickly, before we go any further, do make sure that your particular laptop is upgradable.
02:45The vast majority are, but it's worth doing a little bit of research online, maybe watching
02:48a few how-to videos on how to actually open up and change the hard drive in your particular
02:54laptop.
02:55But the actual process of swapping it out is fairly simple, I mean if I can do it then
02:58you can definitely do it, and it shouldn't void your warranty, assuming it still has
03:02one, although obviously the warranty won't cover the drive, the new drive that you're
03:05putting in.
03:06So enough of me rambling, let's actually get to the process of swapping out the SSD and
03:11the first thing to consider is Windows or your operating system.
03:14What are you going to do with your current files that you have on your laptop?
03:18And you've got two options really.
03:19The first one is a fresh install of Windows which, to be honest, I wouldn't really recommend.
03:23It's a little trickier with laptops because you have to make sure, firstly, that all your
03:27data is backed up, that you have the drivers for the touchpad and the screen and the keyboard
03:31because it's not quite as straightforward as a desktop PC.
03:34So while you can do that and it actually will give you a little bit of a boost in performance
03:37because you've got rid of all your old crap from your laptop, I think it's much easier
03:41just to clone the data from the current hard drive to the new SSD and then it's just a
03:46straight swap.
03:47Now apart from the SSD itself, you'll also need a USB to SATA drive cable.
03:51The one I have here uses two USBs but usually they only have one and you can find them online
03:56for about £10.
03:58An interchangeable screwdriver kit is a good bet as it's important to get the right head
04:02otherwise you risk threading the top of the screw and then getting it out becomes seriously
04:06difficult.
04:07Also, make sure to earth yourself on something grounded to protect the components inside
04:11from static or better yet, get yourself an anti-static wrist strap.
04:15I would definitely recommend backing up all your important documents and media just in
04:19case though.
04:20It is a good idea to delete any unnecessary files or programs and then run Windows'
04:24disk cleanup and defragmentation tools so you get the best results from the transfer.
04:29So then, as we're working with a Samsung SSD, it makes perfect sense to use Samsung's
04:34free data migration tool which is really simple to use.
04:37But there's loads of free or paid for drive cloning and backup software out there.
04:41I've used Macrium Reflect a few times before and the free version has everything you need
04:45for migrating to your new disk.
04:47Next, make sure your new drive is plugged in via USB and it should appear as the target
04:52disk.
04:53Again, make sure you're cloning to a drive with enough storage to fit the data and partitions
04:57from your old drive on it.
04:59And make sure to close all the open programs you can as these may develop issues if you
05:03clone them while still running.
05:05Hit start and a reminder pops up to let you know that any data on the target drive will
05:09be lost.
05:10Once it's transferred everything, it'll let you know and then prompt you to turn your
05:13machine off and swap the drives.
05:15Alright so now we need to remove the screws from the bottom of the laptop and then either
05:19remove the bottom plate or in my case the keyboard deck which is a little more tricky
05:22actually.
05:23Once we're in, it should be obvious where the hard drive is.
05:26Unscrew any retaining screws and then just slide the drive out.
05:29Remove the drive's caddy being careful to note the orientation of the drive and then
05:33pop in the SSD and replace all the screws.
05:36Check the smaller power and the larger interface connectors line up and then slide it back
05:40in carefully.
05:41Don't force it if it's not going in.
05:43Then gently replace the base or the keyboard in my case and don't forget to reattach any
05:47of the cables.
05:49And now it's time for the moment of truth.
05:51All being well, fingers crossed, your machine should then boot up as it always has but much
05:55faster.
05:56And that's it!
05:57You've upgraded your own laptop and added years to the life of it.
06:00Plus you can always use the old hard drive you've just taken out and use it as an external
06:04USB drive.
06:05You can buy a 3.5 inch enclosure from Amazon, slot it in and you're good to go.
06:10So the big question then, how much have I improved my old laptop?
06:13Well restart time went from 2 minutes and 49 seconds on the hard drive down to 20 seconds
06:18on the SSD.
06:19That's almost 7.5 times faster.
06:23Opening Chrome took 18 seconds with the hard drive but took just 2.5 seconds with the SSD.
06:28That's over 6 times faster.
06:30Adobe Lightroom took twice as long to open on the older hard drive, 31 seconds vs 15
06:35seconds.
06:36And the multiplayer shooter Overwatch took an absolute age to boot up, 1 minute 20 while
06:41the SSD managed it in just 25 seconds.
06:44If you want to get really nerdy then the sequential data read speeds went up 3 times and the sequential
06:49write speeds were up over 5 times.
06:51Which is good for faster file transfers and software installation.
06:55So all that is great but what makes the biggest difference to overall responsiveness is the
06:594K random read speeds and here we see by far the biggest increase.
07:03It's over 50 times quicker to access random data on a disk.
07:06And this is why a laptop with an SSD feels so nippy to use.
07:11What a difference this little guy has made to my laptop.
07:13It's gone from painfully slow to something I could actually use.
07:17Now of course remember that your laptop or computer is only as fast as its slowest component
07:21so it still may be held back by the amount of RAM or the processor or the graphics.
07:26So for this particular laptop my next upgrade would probably be to double the RAM to 8GB.
07:31But for now the 860 EVO has made a huge difference and really anyone can do this.
07:35It took me about an hour and a half in total so I would definitely recommend it.
07:39And really the whole point of this is to save money so you don't have to go out and buy
07:42a whole shiny new laptop and spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds or thousands of
07:46pounds when you can buy something like this for about £100 or this smaller one for about
07:50£75, £80 and actually as I say transform your old laptop.
07:54I'm all about reusing, re-improving, re-improving?
07:57I don't think that's a real word, upgrading.
07:59So hopefully you found this video helpful and if you have actually gone through this
08:02process yourself before and you think you've got any tips or maybe I've missed something
08:05do let me know in the comments below.
08:07Thank you so much for watching guys and if you want to see more from me then make sure
08:10you hit that little subscribe button below and I'll catch you next time right here on
08:13the Tech Chap.