Dell Inspiron 15 (3537) Upgrade

My Dad was telling me today that he doesn't like how slow his laptop can be at times and that he practically has no storage space left. The only things to upgrade really is the RAM and Storage Drive. I looked into it and found some options and just want to verify that they'd work or fit. I assume they will from the stuff I looked up but just want to double check with you all plus get opinions on what I should upgrade with.

I'm looking to replace his 1 stick of 4GB Hyundai (according to CPUZ) RAM with a 2x4GB kit so it'll operate in Dual Channel, I'm not sure how or even if that would be a noticeable impact or not but I figure it's better off to have RAM in dual channel than single if possible. I was looking into two different kits. This Crucial Kit or this Corsair Kit. I'd rather go with the cheaper Corsair kit but the 11 vs 8000 reviews on the other hand make me want to lean toward Crucial even though I'm pretty positive everything including timings are the same on both.

Secondly his storage drive. He needs more storage so I figured 1TB should be enough especially since he thinks he has some duplicate pictures somewhere on his computer that could be deleted (he currently has a 500GB drive). As much as I think he'd love an SSD and boost from it and how much it would solve the slow feeling, the storage need is primary and thus I suspect he won't want to spend $280 (as currently priced on Amazon) for a Samsung 850 EVO as compared to a 7200rpm Drive. Since his current drive is 5400rpm technically he'd get a performance increase as it is (not maybe that noticeable overall though?). I was looking at specifically this Western Digital Black HDD. After looking at upgrade solutions on Dell's website 7200rpm drives are an option, so I assume a 9.5mm drive will fit in the slot. I don't know if the 5400rpm drive currently in there is 7mm or 9.5mm but I assume from what I said just before it doesn't matter. I was looking into SSHDs as well but I'm not sure if those have an issues with Trim vs Defragmenting or if it matters. I don't want him to do something that could hurt the drive and since he uses Windows 7 I'm not 100% sure it auto-detects what it should or shouldn't do based on the drive in the system. That being said, I know that SSHDs cache the most often read files to the NAND so since they are 5400rpm drives, I expect as much as some things will speed up over time, other items will continue to just slug making me wonder if 7200rpm is still the better option. I was looking at this Seagate Hybrid drive if SSHD is the better route to take though.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

PS: I have his Windows key so should we not be able to find the installation disc I'm sure I can just burn an ISO. However I'd rather just somehow clone the drive instead if that is an option to make my life and his life easier as far as migrating data, settings, installed programs, etc go. I looked up some guides... and it was kind of overwhelming on the options you can take so not sure where to start.

 

Does he move the laptop around much? If not, get a 500 GB SSD, and a 1TB HDD in an external drive enclosure.

Best of both worlds.

 

For your dad, I think a firecuda drive from Seagate would be ideal. I have the 2tb drive and it is faster than the HDD my dell came with, but I still have LOTS of storage built in. The SSHD does speed things up quite a bit compared to the HDD, but not quite as fast as the SSD drives. It's a bit of give and take. i took the slightly slower speed and WAY MORE CAPACITY because I travel alot and edit lots of photos and videos while travelling. The couple of seconds of times I would save using a SSD, it's not worth having to lug around extra drives etc. The other bonus of the Firecuda SSHD is the price....my 2tb cost me 119.00 CDN from amazon.