Category Archives: Upgrades

An excellent SSD upgrade

I was tasked with upgrading 36 aging corporate desktop computers (HP model DC5700) to defer the next hardware refresh by 2-3 years.  Bumping the RAM to the maximum 4 GB didn’t result in a satisfactory speed improvement so I decided to explore Solid State Disk (SSD) options.

Users store their files on networked home directories, so there wasn’t any need to expand the PC storage much beyond the stock 80 GB.  Based on user reviews, size and price, the 120 GB Samsung 840 EVO-Series looked like a great fit. (These are also available in 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB capacities).  It’s 3-year warranty also aligned perfectly with the planned remaining life of the computers.

I fully expected to have a few issues to sort out on a test system before I could turn over the project to a junior tech for deployment.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover the bundled software is remarkably efficient and user-friendly:

  1. Boot Windows and log in as a local administrator
  2. Connect the SSD to the PC using a SATA to USB adaptor cable or drive enclosure
  3. Run Samsung’s Data Migration utility to copy the PC hard disk to the SSD
  4. Shutdown the PC and replace the hard disk with the SSD.  (Don’t waste money on a 2.5″ to 3.5″ mounting adapter.  A piece of double sided foam tape is all you need to secure the SSD).
  5. Run the Samsung Magician utility to tweak performance settings

Hands-on time was under five minutes per PC and it took around 20 minutes for the migration utility to copy everything off the hard disk.

The performance improvement is amazing.  Boot time reduced from 3+ minutes to under 30 seconds.  McAfee full antivirus scan, which previously rendered the PCs almost unusable when it was running, is now barely noticeable.

Tremendous bang for the buck and unconditionally recommended!!!

A month of many Macs

iMac glass panel

The 500 GB hard disk in my friend’s circa 2008 24″ iMac started making ominous clicking noises last week.  Anticipating its near future death, we took a full backup and ordered a bigger 1 TB drive from Amazon.

Apple never ceases to amaze me with the variety of ways they find to hide fasteners (and make upgrades and repairs to their equipment nightmarishly difficult).  In the case of this iMac, one needs to remove a glass panel held on with magnets to gain access to the internals.  The panel can be removed with a couple of these fancy suction cup tools but I prefer to do it ghetto style with a couple of sink plungers.

After pulling off the glass panel, removing around three dozen screws of at least eight varieties, and unplugging several needlessly fragile connectors, the display panel can be removed and the iMac’s guts are exposed.

iMac Guts

The actual hard disk swap is a walk in the park.  Reassembly brings one extra reward.  The combined effect of the glossy LCD display behind the glossy glass cover is a fingerprint magnifier that exceeds the capabilities of the world’s finest CSI labs.  It took six [expletive deleted] install/test/remove/clean cycles to get a smudge free display.  Thanks Apple.