How to speed up my laptop with an SSD?

Hey everyone. So, I've got this older Dell Inspiron
i3 6100U
8GB DDR4 RAM
GTX 950M
1TB HDD
I know this laptop is pretty much on its last legs, but I was wondering if swapping in an NVMe M.2 128GB SSD and installing Windows on that would actually make a noticeable difference? My plan is to just leave the old HDD in there to handle all my programs and general storage.

When I talk about improvements, I specifically mean fixing the issue where my HDD constantly hits 100% usage while I'm playing Insurgency: Sandstorm, which causes these massive frame drops. The game actually runs quite well at 60fps, but then the frames just tank out of nowhere because of the drive.

If I remember correctly, that Dell Inspiron has an empty 2280 M.2 slot meant for an M.2 SATA SSD, but they don't mention anything about supporting an M.2 NVMe SSD...

wearymason4 said:From what I recall about that Dell Inspiron, there's an empty 2280 M.2 slot meant for an M.2 SATA SSD, but they don't mention anything about supporting an M.2 NVMe SSD...

If I'm reading these slot markings correctly, my M slot should actually be NVMe, but let me post a photo so you can see for yourselves.
And from what I've gathered, it looks like it can fit 40, 60, or even 80mm drives.
https://postimg.cc/DJnzQzV1

Dennis Patel7 said:If I’m reading these slot labels right, my M slot should be NVMe, but let me post a picture just to be sure.
And from what I can see, they come in 40, 60, and 80mm sizes.
https://postimg.cc/DJnzQzV1

WATCH OUT!

The M.2 slot can handle both SATA and NVMe drives, but remember, the slot is just a "socket"—the actual controller is a totally different beast.
For the Dell Inspiron 15 (Dell Inspiron), the specs say it supports an M.2 SATA SSD, so don't count on NVMe here...
In my book, even a SATA SSD is a massive upgrade (honestly, it’s like getting a kick in the pants that actually moves you forward) because it’s several times faster than an old HDD. Especially on laptops—I've swapped out all the SATA HDDs for SSDs on a few rigs, and man, the experience is night and day.

Just purely for the theory of it:
On paper, NVMe offers way more speed than SATA, but those are just synthetic benchmarks and "lab conditions." Realistically, you only really see that insane NVMe speed when you hit it with a mountain of simultaneous requests—something a standard desktop user won't ever do. That kind of stuff is mostly for server environments.

You're going to feel a much bigger boost switching from an HDD to a SATA SSD than you would ever notice moving from SATA to NVMe on a laptop. Not to mention that incredible sense of freedom when you can move your laptop around without worrying about it, knowing there's no fragile moving parts inside. With a classic HDD, it’s just a matter of time before it dies... if you're debating whether to get an SSD at all, and it's not NVMe? Drop the dilemma and just grab a SATA SSD...

So, since I'm planning on keeping my old HDD just for extra storage, I think I'll go ahead and pick up an M.2 SSD instead.
Do you guys have any specific recommendations for a 128GB drive? Personally, I don't think I'll need anything larger than that just to run Windows.

Honestly, I feel you. I’ve only got 120GB myself, but I don't really touch gaming. Instead, I’ve set almost everything—my Downloads, Pictures, Documents, all that stuff—to live on my HDD rather than the SSD.
Still, if I were you, I'd definitely look into grabbing something like this. It gives the SSD some breathing room so it doesn't have to work as hard, which helps it last way longer. https://www.amazon.com/kingston-ssd-sata-155290031

I honestly think it’s much easier to go with the 256GB version, especially since the price difference isn't even that significant.

Hey everyone;
It’s finally time to give my laptop a much-needed boost with an SSD upgrade.
Here are the current specs https://tinyurl.com/2mnc5aec
I'll be running Linux on it. For daily use, I'm mostly browsing the web and streaming movies—about 90% of the time. The other 10% is just some light office work and tinkering in Gimp.

Does anyone have any solid SSD recommendations? Thanks!