Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Ari G.: The hard drive in my 5 year old Dell Inspiron laptop died a few days ago. This has been a great machine and I don’t want to just trash it.
I’d like to replace the bad hard drive with an SSD, but I’d rather not spend a lot of money if I can help it.
After reading your post about Linux Mint I’d like to install it on this laptop and use it as my primary Internet computer. I won’t need a lot of storage space so a fairly small SSD should be ok.
What I’m looking for is the cheapest SSD I can get that’s large enough to hold the new Linux installation and maybe a few Chrome extensions. But I’d like the SSD to be as reliable as possible.
I know it’s probably going to be tough finding a dirt cheap drive that’s also reliable but I’d appreciate a recommendation if you have one.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Rick’s answer: I have good news for you, Ari. You can actually get a great SSD that perfectly meets your requirements for about the price of a good pizza!
I found a highly rated, but virtually dirt-cheap PNY CS900 120GB SSD that’s plenty large enough to hold most any version of Linux and a slew of browser extensions with room to spare.
I agree with your decision not to simply “junk” your otherwise dependable laptop because the combination of this SSD and Linux Mint will make it perform quite well.
I hope this helps, Ari. Good luck!
Click here to read more about the PNY CS900 120GB SSD at Amazon.
Update from Ari: This is perfect Rick. I just ordered one. Thanks for helping me find it!
Bonus tip: Want to make sure you never miss one of my tips? It’s easy! Just…
Click here to sign up for my free Rick’s Daily Tips Email Newsletter!
Would you like to ask Rick a tech question? If so, click here and send it in!
If you found this post useful, would you mind helping me out by sharing it? Just click one of the handy social media sharing buttons below. Thanks a bunch!