Dell Inspiron 9300 Hard Drive Upgrade.

In reality you are restricted to fitting another PATA drive, as there can be connection problems with adapters. They can cause endless hassle if the forums are anything to go by, and I'm sure you can do without that.

But if you want to go down the adapter route you need one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/IDE-SATA-Bi-Directional-Adapter...
It converts a motherboards's IDE connector to a SATA connector.
You will also need to buy SATA cables to connect the SATA SSD to the adapter.

The problem is to find something that fitts into a laptop, so you need something smaller than a 2.5" drive to leave space for the adapter. This one http://www.microsatacables.com/ide-to-sata-adapter-with... let you use small mSATA drives.

I think I will stick with a PATA SSD then. What's the best performing laptop 64GB PATA SSD available?

I guess no one wants to stick their neck out on a bit of a niche product that probably hasn't seen much testing or reviews. I have done some basic research and it looks like it is a toss up between a KingSpec and a Transcend. I know the speeds manufacturers claim are usually garbage, susceptible to other factors too, but can anyone pick one of the two as being better or just better for my needs? My basic specs are:

2.26ghz pentium m 780, 2GB ram, GeForce GO 6800 256MB and a Linux OS will be installed after I purchase the drive. The laptop will only be needed for basic internet browsing and basic computer usage. I won't be creating large files and will just be using the basic programs I put on there straight after the OS install. Thanks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-inch-Solid-SM2236-...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TS64GPSD320-internal-SSD-64-GB/...

was curious to see what verison of linux you were running, i never got anywhere with the pata to sata conversion either, with newer 200$ laptops being faster than this old 17 incher, i'm inclined to not put much more money into it.

I am not running Linux yet, but will be soon. I will see where I get with a cheap CPU upgrade and then make a final decision on the hard drive.

Hi  

Even with an adapter you are not going to see much in the way of speed, I wouldn't bother considering the cost...

All the best Brett  

I have never upgraded a laptop cpu before. Is there anything I need to be especially conscious of before proceeding? Do I need to bother with thermal paste? I managed to got hold of a cheap 2.26 GHZ pentium m 780, which is the best cpu the 9300 will take, and am pretty happy. I only had a 1.73 GHZ in it.