Upgrading to SSDs

[rjf99]

I am helping out a school for children with special needs with a project to upgrade their ageing ICT Suite. They will pay for the parts, and I will supply the labour, tools and software as a gratuity. The existing 3.5" HDDs drives will be replaced with SSDs, and the RAM will be increased from 4GB to 10GB. (There are x2 slots in the machines, and they currently have 2x2GB, so replacing one slot with 8GB.)

The PCs are Dell Optiplex 3060 Tower PCs.

https://dl.dell.com/content/manual43846229-dell-optiplex-3060-tower-setup-and-specifications-guide.pdf?language=en-us&ps=true

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/optiplex-3060-desktop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

There is no volume licence for Windows 10. They all appear to be running individually licensed copies of Windows 10 Home. There are two scenarios (depending on their needs/wishes)

a) Wipe the PCs and start again with a clean Windows install

b) Clone the existing drives.

1) I'd be interested in feedback on devices such as this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wavlink-External-Docking-Station-Functions/dp/B01H7D5W4G/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2AMIJKO4G1H8A&keywords=ssd+clone&qid=1678823899&sprefix=ssd+clone,aps,140&sr=8-5

2) In terms of the physical insertion. The product that I'm looking to buy doesn't appear to come with any cables or caddy to situate it in the PC. Does anyone have any suggestion as to what I will need. I have linked to the product below. I appreciate it might be a case of opening the PC case and seeing what I need.

https://eu.crucial.com/ssd/bx500/ct240bx500ssd1/ct12851433

[FN-GM]

Have you considered that these computers won’t run Windows 11 and that Windows 10 is end of life in a couple of years? It might not be best inventing money into these for such a short period of time.

[rjf99]

Have you considered that these computers won’t run Windows 11 and that Windows 10 is end of life in a couple of years? It might not be best inventing money into these for such a short period of time.

 

Several are currently running Windows 11, with no apparent issues (other than being as slow as the others running Win10)

[3s-gtech]

Don’t worry about caddies in desktops. SATA SSDs weigh so little they’ll happily sit shoved somewhere in the drive bay (or stick one screw in if you must).

 

See if 2x4GB is cheaper than 1x8GB - the extra to 10GB won’t make any difference in reality.

[MrEprise]

Have you considered that these computers won’t run Windows 11 and that Windows 10 is end of life in a couple of years? It might not be best inventing money into these for such a short period of time.

 

Optiplex 3060 is Intel 8th Gen which is the earliest CPU gen Microsoft supports in Windows 11, so I'd imagine these PCs will run W11 just fine. Mind you, I've been testing W11 on a 2nd Gen i3 which (yes I know it's not supported but I don't care at this point for my own use) runs just fine for what I use it for, which is mostly Internet use, Office-based apps, Photoshop and the occasional playback of 1080p60 YouTube videos.

[OldTimeIT]

Have you considered Chrome OS Flex?

These computers are on the certified model list.

They would not need a memory upgrade as 4Gb is plenty for ChromeOS.

You would only need a small HDD although TBH the existing spinning rust would be OK.

No software or anti-virus to buy.

 

To mount SSDs without a caddy, use nano tape.

[rjf99]

Some great responses. I am going to look into ChromeOS Flex in the longer term for sure. Great to know that they are on the certified list.

 

Nano tape is a great idea, and a big time / cost saver.

[3s-gtech]

ChromeOS may be a great solution for you - especially with a small investment in management licenses for each machine.

 

Massively cheaper than properly MS licensing them.

[OldTimeIT]

Money saved on not upgrading memory would go a long way to paying for the management licence.

On reflection I probably would install SSDs for reliability and quick startup considering how cheap they are now.