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[keith sketchley]

Having read many experiences in http://forums.thinkpads.com of using SS HDDs in IBM/Lenovo small laptops, I expect that they can work fine but must be carefully selected for compatibility with computer hardware.

As with anything new, there are traps. IIRC one is that read and write speeds are quite different.
If a device is sold as an SSHD by a reputable manufacturer I’d hope it does not have a short wearout life. Other devices, such as Compact Flash cards that some people try to use with adapters as an SS HDD, maybe.

So much study and perhaps “experimentation” is needed, which is costly. Even conventional HDDs have been troublesome at the leading edge of capacity for their size (some IBM/Lenovo as well as Sony laptops used 1.8” drives, as did classic iPods, rather than the 2.5” normal in laptops).

As someone noted herein, SS drives are very pricey, though of course that varies greatly with capacity. Might be better to spend the money on a newer computer.

[dave1013]

I've had luck with MSE - and - I find it's worth the time to, periodically, run Trend Micro House Call or MalwareBytes Anti-malware programs. Both are free and it's OK to use the "quick scan" features. In one case, Malwarebytes found two suspicious items that MSE had not.

[Dynamo Dave]

Just found this forum, looks rather interesting! Well I have found that the best way to speed up an old pc is to just get rid of Windows altogether. A few years ago I started messing around with Ubuntu Linux and it has really rejuvenated all of my old pc's. I have it running on two 8 year old laptops, a 7 year old laptop, a netbook, and a 7 year old desktop. None of these machine's were powerhouses in their day let alone now. Web surfing works great. The overall speed of the operating system is much better than XP. No defragmenting ever or any of that garbage. You don't need to do that in any Linux. Also you don't really need any anti-virus software either. Ubuntu is very easy as there is a huge support community out there for it. Some machines are easier to set up than others. You can make a boot cd very easily by following instructions on the ubuntu website. If you boot your pc up with the boot cd and your wireless works along with everything else, then an install will be very easy. If your wireless doesn't work with the cd, it might be a bit of a challenge to setup, but I have never had that much trouble.

The only real caveat of running Linux for your main computer is that you WILL NOT be able to run any Microsoft programs on it (save Skype) and any other proprietary software reliably. That used to be a big problem, but with today's focus on the internet, programs like Word, Excel etc are becoming less necessary for the casual pc user. With the opening up of formats, Word and Excel files actually work pretty well in free software like Libre Office. Ubuntu can run some windows programs with the layer called Wine, but I have found it to be quite kludgy and not for the faint of heart.

Anyhow, I would recommend Ubuntu to anybody who has an old pc around to try and rejuvenate it. Chances are I think you will be quite surprised at how well your old can run. If you wrote off linux years ago as a no-go, it is definitely worth checking out now because it has come a very long way.

[davidgw]

This isn't exactly speed related, but speed and security tend to go together, so I'll mention it here. I use OpenDNS, rather than the ISP DNS servers, and since I switched, I have not had any trouble with Trojan Horse attacks since then, and I used to have them happen fairly often. You can also set up filtering to block access to malicious websites.

Edit to add, I use CCleaner to clean out temporary files and similar junk, and more importantly, its registry cleaner to maintain the registry and keep our computers running reasonably fast.

[rodolphroderic]

the basic is to only have the required things on your PC