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Considering Some Upgrades


Dr. J

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Hi All...

 

I've been thinking a lot lately that it would be nice to give my Lenovo B590 laptop a bit of an upgrade. Mostly I'd like to get drive caddy and replace the optical drive with a 500GB (ish) SSD to run the OS from, while holding on to the old 1TB HDD for bulk storage of various stuff as long as it still works.

 

I've also got the urge to upgrade the RAM. I've got 4 gigs in there at the moment, but It's only using one of two slots. I'm tempted to get two 8GB sticks... that'll sure be enough for a while anyway!

 

Here's some stuff I was looking at already...

 

Drive Caddy

 

SSD

 

RAM

 

I was wondering If anyone had any suggestions or advice on the mater.

Regards,

Jay

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i'd go SSD to replace the HD and keep the optical drive. use a usb external connector to access the HD if needed. for the RAM i'd stick with the specs of the Motherboard.

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Hello,

 

I'm not familiar with the Lenovo Laptop Essential B590, but from looking at the user guide it looks like a pretty solid home office system.

 

Here's are some suggestions for upgrading it:

  • upgrade RAM to 8GB (see @Zlim's post for a good RAM recommendation)
  • remove 1TB internal HDD
  • install the 480GB SanDisk Ultra II SSD in it's place (I've used a few, they're quite good)
  • remove the DVD±RW disc drive (I believe it is a 12.7mm high model)
  • purchase a 12.7mm high internal HDD caddy and put 1TB HDD in it (plenty on Amazon)
  • purchase a 12.7mm high USB 3.0 optical drive enclosure, and mount the DVD±RW disc drive in it (as CRP suggested)

 

When you're done, you'll have 8GB of RAM, and all your fastest storage mounted inside the B590. You can then plug the DVD drive in via a USB 3.0 port when you need to access a disc. The reason I suggest USB 3.0 is not because of speed, but because it the drive can draw 900mAh of power fromthe port, versus ~500mAh from USB 2.0, which may not be enough to power the drive, or cause it to perform at a lower speed.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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Thanks for the tips. I have an external DVD drive already, so I haven't been contemplating USB mounting the old one. I'll be left with a spare optical drive at the end, but who knows when that'll come in handy.

 

Also, thanks for the heads up about the maximum supported RAM @Zlim... I'd failed to consider that entirely.

 

@goretsky, I'm wondering whether it would make much difference putting the SSD in place of the HDD or the optical drive. From my (sort of limited) knowledge of SATA drives, there's no messing about with primary and secondary configuration aside from the BIOS settings.

 

Thanks again,

Jay

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Hello,

 

I would plug the fastest drive (in this case, the SSD) directly into the laptop, while using the bay adapter for the HDD. Although it is not like connecting the HDD with a cable, the adapter does introduce an additional pathway for signals to flow over, so it probably is a good idea to minimize the possibility of any problems (bad connector? marginal signal?) that could be caused by accessing the SSD through it.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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So the stuff arrived by courier this morning, and by Jove does that SSD make a difference!

 

I've put a fresh install of Debian Stretch on it, and it boots up like a speeding bullet... and the quiet... the HDD was a noisy old yoke, so I'll be a while getting used to this. :teehee:

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