RAM or SSD upgrade for my Dell..? Pls suggest the right choice !

[karthik316_1999]

Hi All,

I own a Dell Inspiron 3521 with 4gb ram & OEM windows 8.1.. 100GB+ free space on the OEM SATA drive .

Regular usage of the laptop include

• Browsing on multiple tabs & browsers
• Office suites for documents/ ppt's
• YouTube videos

Off late, the laptop seems sluggish In operation especially when I browse on multiple tabs & browsers (either reading article's, or YouTube videos..) & also when I revive the laptop from sleep.. it takes ages before the hard drive activity light indicator comes back to normal..

Also at times.., the HDD usage hits 90-100% and the RAM usage hits 90%..

I would like to overcome these issues & understand that either/both of RAM/HDD upgrade could minimise these issues.. My vendor suggests an additional 4GB RAM + installing a SATA SSD (no motherboard ports for M.2 or NVMe...)

Would like to have some advice on which of these 2 upgrades should I give preference to, so as to overcome the issues stated above..

Have been quoted 2k for the 4GB DDR3 and w.r.t the HDD, vendor said he would install a SATA SSD in the existing HDD slot & push the old sata HDD into a casing to have it installed into the dvd optical drive slot. (No more dvd drive).. Expense for this HDD upgrade alone (SATA SSD + casing) is approximated at around 4k.. The vendor claims issue with multiple browsing tabs will be resolved by the RAM upgrade & 100% disk usage issue will be resolved by opting for a SATA SSD..

Please could you all give me your inputs on which of these 2 is priority for now / whether both are needed to see benefits / whether even after both these upgrades, there will no big noticeable difference..?

Thanks ..

 

[vidhubhushan]

i have installed a 240gb crucial 240gb ssd in a caddy in the place of dvd drive in my lenovo having Intel Pentium N4200, 4gb ram. bought parts from amazon and did the whole thing on my own. cloned oem windows 10 home installation from hdd. it works fine with multiple tabs now.
when i asked about the same before this, a vendor wanted me to buy some unknown brand ssd which i refused.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Get Crucial BX500 240GB (2.6k) and do the upgrade yourself. Get an Orico 2.5" SATA USB 3.0 enclosure (500-600) and use the stock HDD as an external HDD after formatting it. Save ~1k and don't let vendor sell you unknown crap.
Adding RAM is easy, just install CPU-Z, go to memory tab and get another RAM stick of same frequency (probably DDR3 1333 or 1600) and capacity. Then restart the OS.

 

[K_akash_i]

if windows 8.1 is also slowing u down , u could try any light linux oses(linux mint xfce version , zorin os lite , mx linux etc) , it would prove to be beneficial in my opinion
libre office may suffice for ur office tasks
u can get any browser of ur preference , zorin and linux mint etc are similar to windows

 

[Zangetsu]

Your vendor is right. Issues can be resolved by upgrading RAM & adding SSD. But do this step by step (don't buy unknown brands)
1. Upgrade your SSD first and see if you find any improvement over your previous issue.
2. If Step 1 fails then install 4GB RAM


Upgrade to Windows 10 at least.

 

[Nerevarine]

Whenever you change components of any laptop, make sure to disconnect battery, and press and hold power button to discharge from the circults.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Thank you all..!

• just want to confirm if my decade old CPU (i3 3217U) on the Dell Inspiron 3521 will not in anyway be a bottleneck to my SSD & RAM upgrade?
• looks like the vendor might charge me for the O/S installation on the new SATA SSD since they say the 'product key' from the OEM installation needs to be retrieved properly.. Hence, I'm slightly titled towards getting the upgrade done myself.. Any good resources on how to re-install an OEM OS on a different HDD ?

Further, I have no clue about cloning a HDD & whether this will work for OEM O/S installations?
- Coming to the Windows 10 part, is my laptop capable of handling Widows 10 ?

BTW, I was recommended the Adata SSD...

 

[omega44-xt]

SATA SSD like BX500 is a "slow" SSD but still much faster than a HDD. Total 8GB RAM + OS on SSD will be good for even that CPU if you want to use that laptop.

If that laptop had Win8 pre-installed, just reset the OS & try to upgrade the OS to Win10 yourself:
Yes, you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade. Here's how | ZDNet

Yes, it should handle Win10 with 8GB RAM & SSD.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

• just want to confirm if my decade old CPU (i3 3217U) on the Dell Inspiron 3521 will not in anyway be a bottleneck to my SSD & RAM upgrade?

No, it won't be.

looks like the vendor might charge me for the O/S installation on the new SATA SSD since they say the 'product key' from the OEM installation needs to be retrieved properly.

Use this for recovering the product key.

*www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Any good resources on how to re-install an OEM OS on a different HDD ?

Just install windows normally using a bootable USB. Youtube/google for tutorials.

- Coming to the Windows 10 part, is my laptop capable of handling Widows 10 ?

It should work fine for most parts but you might run into some driver related issues.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Well . Thank you then!

 

[vidhubhushan]

well cloning a HDD - the OS part worked for the lenovo OEM O/S installation on my laptop.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Anything that didn't work?

 

[vidhubhushan]

Anything that didn't work?

well cloned it first. it worked. then thought of a clean install but that generated some error 2 times during the installation and there was not much time so i cloned it again. works fine now. sometimes on restart it shows an error message on boot - something like to select other windows. shows F9 key to press for that, pressing which it boots properly. its getting updates regularly and there is no issue in the regular heavy working. i will try clean install again after we shift in few months and buy a new laptop. i will then remove existing HDD to avoid any conflict.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Okay, so I will not be able to take such a risk !

I shall begin with the installation of windows 10 first after formatting the drive. Will then check for any issues/slowness/driver compatibility issues..

If in case, windows 10 does not work out, I shall format the drive again & install 8.1 to activate it with the OEM key..

Shall get back here if needing any help during these processes.. Wish me luck !

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Okay, so I will not be able to take such a risk !

I shall begin with the installation of windows 10 first after formatting the drive. Will then check for any issues/slowness/driver compatibility issues..

If in case, windows 10 does not work out, I shall format the drive again & install 8.1 to activate it with the OEM key..

Shall get back here if needing any help during these processes.. Wish me luck !

Don't mess up. Just login with your microsoft account on your laptop which will link your activation key with your account. Then, download all latest drivers and prepare a bootable windows 10 USB drive. Keep the drivers on a separate USB drive. Replace the HDD with a SSD and only after that continue with a fresh intall.

 

[vidhubhushan]

Okay, so I will not be able to take such a risk !

I shall begin with the installation of windows 10 first after formatting the drive. Will then check for any issues/slowness/driver compatibility issues..

If in case, windows 10 does not work out, I shall format the drive again & install 8.1 to activate it with the OEM key..

Shall get back here if needing any help during these processes.. Wish me luck !

best of luck. you can always ask for help here in case of any issue.

Don't mess up. Just login with your microsoft account on your laptop which will link your activation key with your account. Then, download all latest drivers and prepare a bootable windows 10 USB drive. Keep the drivers on a separate USB drive. Replace the HDD with a SSD and only after that continue with a fresh intall.

will doing that register windows 10 as op has oem 8.1 or op needs to upgrade it to 10 first and then perform a clean install?

 

[SaiyanGoku]

op needs to upgrade it to 10 first and then perform a clean install?

Yes, this is how it should be done.

 

[karthik316_1999]

So is it like my 'oem product key' is associated with win 8.1 single language for now.. & will be associated with win 10 post me upgrading the current OS to win 10?
Will I then not be able to install win 8.1 at all on the laptop with this oem key?

(I remember Dell / Microsoft offering me a free win 10 upgrade at the time of its launch..) When I tried doing it few months later, I remember seeing something like the 'free upgrade timeline' has closed & that I would have to pay for it..

 

[vidhubhushan]

many people have upgraded it after that also and iirc its still possible.

 

[karthik316_1999]

alright.. I shall try & update here... So my product key will be associated with win 10 if & when I upgrade?