Inland 256GB SSD Hard Drive

I received a free Inland 256GB SSD Hard Drive from a friend and decided to try it out. I always wanted to upgrade my Linux Rig (HP15 i3-4010u from 2014) even though it runs perfectly fine on a traditional 500GB HDD.

Overall, it’s a decent upgrade and even on a cheap SSD (these go for under $30) the performance boost is noticeable.

I'm rating level of difficulty from Easy 1 to Difficult 5.

Physical Installation - Easy 1 (well if you know your hardware)

Installation was straightforward and I'm familiar with taking apart the HP15 and swapping in the SSD. Took me about 15 minutes.

Linux Install - Medium 2 (took me 3 attempts)

Installation of Linux however took several trial and errors. I used several different USB drives and found the best method was to boot up to non-persistent mode in Linux Mint then perform the installation.

I tried both Lubuntu and Elementary as I had them loaded on different USB keys. I love Elementary for its GUI, but its sluggish and Lubuntu used to be my favorite, but has also become sluggish so now I prefer Linux Mint.

Performance Boost? Yes, things are snappier and quiet!

Overall, I see a slight performance boost as it boots up to the Linux desktop about twice as fast and apps like Firefox open at least 10 times faster, but that could also be contributed to a clean install of Linux Mint.

But, the biggest benefit of the SSD? My laptop is now nice and quiet! No more of that clacking sound of the HDD spinning.

While I sacrifice storage capacity going from a 500GB HDD --> 256 GB SSD, I don't really store that much on this Linux Rig so it's not a big deal.

Other thoughts 💭

I also purchased a Crucial BX series 1 TB SSD 2 years ago for my Window Rig (i7 6th Gen) and sing the praises for that simple upgrade. The Crucial SSD cost me $100 so I’m considering that a premium grade SSD compared to the Inland and after looking up the prices…I’d rather spend $10 more to get the $38 240 GB Crucial BX if I had to buy a SSD for my Linux rig.

Any Issues?

There is some latency and feels like things are opening faster than the processor can handle as I encounter weird lag after opening things in the file explorer. But it's otherwise fine.

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