Reddit mentions of Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB Solid State Drive SH103S3/120G, 2.5", SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s)

> Presario CQ61

Looks like This?

• AMD Sempron Processor 2.1GHz
  
• 2GB DDR2 RAM
  
• 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
  
• 15.6-Inch Screen, ATI Radeon HD 4200
  
  I suspect this is pretty much going to "just work" under Linux. Because it's an AMD chipset, there might be some issues with the mainboard chipset, but grabbing a Live CD and testing out the wifi/wired/sound/video/etc would be the best bet.
  
  The only issue might be the RAM. Although generally Linux desktop environments take up less RAM than Windows, some apps (Firefox, etc) can still eat up a ton. If you can, I'd see if I could get it up to 4GB of RAM. If not, don't worry, it'll still be very usable. I'd just switch away from a heavyweight desktop (GNOME, KDE) over to something like XFCE or LXDE.
  
  Here's some basic hardware stuff:
  
  
• If you want to go to 4GB of RAM, here's some Compatible PC2-6400 laptop RAM
  
• Grab a can of air from the store and blow out all the vents. Chances are good on most old laptops that intermittent crashing is heat related.
  
• Follow the instructions in section 4-17 of The service manual for your laptop and remove the keyboard to blow out the fan and all the dust in the system.
  
• Get a Memtest86+ boot CD and run that with the laptop plugged in for at least 4 hours, to make sure it gets nice and warm. If it fails, take a look at the RAM replacement above
  
• Snag yourself a new battery if it's older than 2-3 years.
  
• When you get the Live CD, switch to root and run:
  
  smartctl -d ata -t long /dev/sdX
  Where sdX is either sda or sdb. You can tell which by running fdisk -l /dev/sda, then fdisk -l /dev/sdb, and so on until you find one that's the same size as your hard drive. This will start a SMART long self-test of the disk. It takes several hours. You can check on the progress with:
  
  smartctl -a /dev/sdX
  
  If it fails the test, replace it. Any 2.5" SATA hard drive will do, but I highly recommend getting an inexpensive SSD drive because it will be faster (which will help a slower machine) and will be less prone to damage from dropping/vibration. The above manual has instructions for replacing it. You'll take off the drive tray from the old drive and install it on the new one, so don't just throw away the old drive. I have a Kingston HyperX 120GB drive I got for $100 or so. The good thing is later on you can swap this good drive out from the old machine to a newer one, and buy a machine with a less expensive spinning disk. Most companies charge a high premium for an SSD, so you can swap the drives out and stick the "new" spinning disk in a small enclosure for a portable drive, and get the advantage of the SSD in the new box too.
  
  At this point you've potentially swapped out most of the "likely to fail" parts. Another part is the fan, but that usually requires replacing the heat pipes. if you feel up to it, the manual linked above has the part numbers you'd need. You'll know if the fan needs help if you can hear it making any noise other than "woosh" when you run something that taxes the system (like a game). Blowing the fan out with air will most likely make it work longer, in any case.
  
  I spend a lot of time at work resurrecting laptops that are "broken", you'd be amazed what you can do with a little software and some time. You should be able to get the machine in a working state pretty well with all this. I'd go with XFCE as your starter desktop, and I hear good things about Linux Mint, although I'm a Fedora guy (and use fluxbox for my window manager)

Just to let everyone know this same SSD is available on Amazon for the same price of $79.99

Windows 7:
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Windows 8.1:
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

So right off the bat you will only have 64gb remaining. That should be ok if you only install a few things on it (web browser, commonly used programs).

The only things I worry about in using an old hdd in your setup is speed and reliability. How patient are you? It will be sloooowww.

The sata 3gb/s designation on your hdd makes no difference, because your hard drive will never be able to put out that much data. The real key here is how many RPM's your drive is capable of. A 7,200 RPM drive will be 25-40% (source) faster than a 5,400 RPM drive.

My personal opinion, but if I had to use a 5,400 RPM drive for my primary OS drive, I'd probably end up hanging myself haha. Slow.

The other thing is reliability. If you are using a really old hdd, I'd worry about how safe your data is. Not really a huge issue, but definitely BACK UP YOUR DATA.

To be honest, If I was in your shoes, I would go ahead and get an ssd, especially if your 80gb drive is 5,400 RPM. It's worth it dude. You don't have to get the fastest ssd on the market either. A $90 ssd from amazon (what I'm using) is still amazingly fast. I know money can be an issue, but scraping together the 90 dollars is worth it. Cheers!

A 120GB SSD is very adequate for the OS and a number of games. However, the SSD that you chose uses SATA 3, which is outdated (it's even discontinued on Newegg). You want SATA 6. The Samsung 840 Pro is going to be the best you can get ($135). If you want to save some money you can get this one ($120), or the Samsung 840 (non-pro version) for around $100 if I remember correctly. I think you should get the Kingston drive or the 840 Pro, but anyone else here please feel free to critique me.

I've never heard of that power supply manufacturer before, and thus I don't know how reliable it is. I see this Corsair PSU recommended a lot, and looks like with the rebate you'll end up spending less than $30 on it. Great price for a solid PSU I think. There is also a more modular version of that for $10 more, with a $10 rebate. Looks like it has great reviews. I have a semi-modular PSU, and it's great not having unused cables everywhere.

Other than that, I think everything looks great! I have the exact same case and haven't had any problems with it thus far.

no he's right its available for $79.99 via Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B007R67FNA/ref=sr_1_2_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1381845210&sr=8-2&keywords=kingston+hyperx+3k&condition=new

is [THIS] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R67FNA) a good ssd?

experiences?

Speaking of SSDs, what's the difference between the Corsair one and say...something like this or the samsung one that you linked?

Yeah I got suggested a build from a guy but as I live in sweden I can't use the partpicker site. So I tried to find them on swedish sites and got this:


CPU 254,6 $


Motherboard 131,4 $


Memory 108,2 $


Storage 134,3 $


Storage 75 $


Video Card 270 $


Case 124,6 $


Power Supply 114,5 $


Optical Drive 20,7 $


Operating System 130 $

Total: 1363,3 $


I'm maybe gonna get another graphics card. As I said I'd like to be able to play LoL and WoW and also more high performance games. I also forgot to mention that I'd like to be able to stream.


Edit: It costed about 700 euro / 1000 dollars when he found it on PCpartpicker site but in sweden we have to pay taxes and other extra costs which increase the costs of PC components

I haven't researched many SSDs, but here's a deal from slickdeals' front page yesterday:

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-2-5-Inch-SH103S3-120G/dp/B007R67FNA/

> PCPartPicker part list

If you are going to jump for a hackintosh, grab 2 SSDs. You'll want the space, and it's much easier to partition and set up. One for Mac, one for Windows. I'd personally go with the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB. I have two of them and the R/W speed is better than the Samsung 840 that I had. (plus the Kingstons are a little bit cheaper).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R67FNA/?tag=pcpapi-20

BTW: If you want help with the Hackintoshing, lemme know. I've built at least 4 of them.

This is the one I have always used. I have one in my laptop that has been going strong now for almost two years, reasonable price too.

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-2-5-Inch-SH103S3-120G/dp/B007R67FNA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398123880&sr=8-2&keywords=ssd+hard+drive+hyperx

Hey I have a Kingston HyperX 120gb SSD could do $60 including shipping on it. Shoot me a PM if your interested and want some photos. Oh and i'll send it with a SATA 3 cable too!

Yeah it's certainly on my list! Been looking at This one for a while, just waiting for my wallet to fill up again.

I just installed arch linux over osx and am now happily single booting linux. :)
Software related you can install a customizable window manager, the ones that Sylinn recommended are fantastic options.
Hardware related, I think that the best purchase I have ever made, hands down, is an ssd. It has made things SOOOOOOO much faster, here is what I got (the 240gb version):

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-2-5-Inch-SH103S3-120G/dp/B007R67FNA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1396322635&sr=8-4&keywords=kingston+ssd

It is super easy to install, though they are a little pricey its totally worth it. I have a macbook pro 2010 model, so I also replaced the CD drive with my old hdd with the help of a hard drive caddy like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Unibody-MacBook-SuperDrive-Replacement/dp/B0058AH2US/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396322738&sr=8-1&keywords=macbook+pro+caddy

Which was a little harder to install, but not impossible by any means. And its cheap!

If you are so inclined, Samsung just released a line of very affordable ssds up to a terabyte in size for only like 500 bucks (I say only, but for a terabyte ssd thats unheard of). Macs are known for being non-customizable, and apple takes pride in that, but with the help of a very small screwdriver you at least have access to the harddrive, memory, and CD superdrive, which is as good as most other laptops.

The Kingston is far better and cheaper.