Upgrade Vostro 1720 or replace.

It's not worth upgrading this system - yes, the SSD will help but won't perform at its best because of the old controller.  Some things can be upgraded (CPU), others can't (video) and still others aren't worth upgrading (memory) because the type is obsolete.

Many thanks for your comments.  For the the Vostro my plan is to reload the operating system, maybe upgrade to windows 8.1 and reload all my application software.  Then spend time planning for my diy build of a desk top for a replacement.

Many thanks and regards

Assuming your Vostro 1720 came with Windows 7 and you have the means of reinstalling it you should do that opposed to buying a new Windows 10 license.

Microsoft has made it known that if you take advantage of the upgrade offer in the first year after its release. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for all existing Windows 7 and 8.1 users. Theres absolutely no point in buying a full Windows 8.1 license for only a couple months use.

This system should perform well on a clean install of Windows 7 with a SSD. When Windows 10 is out you can perform another clean install.

I would not bother with Windows 8.1 at this point -- within the next few months it'll be history, replaced by Windows 10 (which, as was the case with WIndows 7 vs. VIsta, is what WIndows 8 should have been in the first place).

Many thanks for this guidance.

Some further queries... .

What is the best configuration for the SSD?

Should I fit it alongside the HDD?  and load all software on the SSD?

Is there an easy way to keep a clean updated copy of W10 as an emergency re-install?

Thank you and regards

This thread is over a year old now and was before Windows 10 was released...

Now you may Download a Windows 10 TH2 .iso by following my instructions here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-10-oem-and-retail-iso/

I also have some YouTube videos available here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

Regarding SSDs they have went down in price substantially over the past year. It is now more appropriate to get a single 250-500 GB SSD and install it alone as a primary drive.

The Vostro 1720 has a legacy BIOS (non-UEFI). Its SATA operation should already be AHCI. In the case of the tutorial videos the second one won't apply to your system but most the rest should be applicable.

Did any of you end up going to Win10?  If so, what's your experience?

The jury is out here. I had two on 8.1 previously, but now on 10 for some weeks they're acting a bit freeze-y. I'd suspect some bad hardware, but it's too coincidental that it wasn't happening before. Plus, as mentioned, there are two, making that even more unlikely.

No real clues yet, since they're not BSODs (no dump files). No hints in the logs. All updated to the extent possible.

This is the worst kind of issue since it's so vague and random. It could even be something about the BIOS (they've been on the latest for quite a while, but still very old) that Win10, as opposed to 8.1, doesn't like.

That's why I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing problems (or not). Maybe we can triangulate something.

I upgraded yesterday (for the free upgrade) as sometime W10 will be a developed operating system.

I'm not happy about reports MS is scanning my computer for details of me and I still have not looked up how to block these features.  I've seen some evidence of that activity (high disk activity on startup)

I'm going to roll back to W7 so I'm registered on MS servers.  Then I'm going to partition for a separate W10.  I hope that will allow me to t/f to W10 in my own time, allow more detailed performance comparison and research on tuning W10.

Good to hear from someone else with the 1720 on W10.

I have one on the 1607 build, so I'm hoping to see if it's any more stable with the 1720.

If you encounter what I described before, please post back.

W10 installed late 280716.

Still using it and note SD card cannot be ejected.  Googled and found workarounds no system solution/operation, presently when powered off, remove SD card.  Having been 'conditioned' to eject thumb drives, not happy... .

Otherwise seems fractionally slower than W7.  A separate partition W10 will enable me to compare more closely and I have not done any 'tuning' yet.

Still interested in anyone experiencing freeze problems with this model and any version of Win10. I'm going to begin extensive troubleshooting to try and figure this out, but someone else working the case on their end would make sense to hurry along the solution (as would the knowledge of someone not experiencing the problem).

I have a feeling that it's not going to be easy given the results from numerous attempts made so far, but this time I'll be starting over with clean installs.

I haven't rolled back to W7 or, created a separate partition for W10, yet.

Present impression is that W10 is faster launching apps, some internet searches and, feels more stable.

Before I upgraded to W10, there were occasions with W7 when 1720 froze and, I had to force close and reboot.  So far no freeze with W10.

I mainly internet search (news, finance, gardening & language learning), Above & Beyond (time management, 2001) & Microsoft Money99 (1999).

About 9 months ago I was experiencing problems with apparently no activity & fast fan speeds.  Nothing specific and after hoover out, running numerous virus chasing, W7 repairs, boot checks, for a couple of months, it seemed to be something to do with wuauserv, to the extent I 'stopped' it.  That seemed to solve the problem.  Google search for the specific problem turned up some repair routines for wuauserv, ran them and, eventually seemed to resolve the problem.  By then I was close to a re-install of W7.

Current problems using W10;

1. SD card will not eject, keeps reporting it is in use after 'eject' process.

2. A&B has a pop-up feature.  A&B randomly takes 50% cpu, immediately drops back to 1% when window opened, takes up 50% when switch to a different app.

3. M99 after upgrading to W7 had a consistent problem when editing money amounts, converting currencies.  Changed from base currency (£) to ? 4 '0' and comma separators, sometimes whole numbers and no decimals.  Current solution is to run W in XP mode and, ... it is slow and clunky.

4. Chrome (updated) often takes 50% cpu when opening and after opening a website, not on a consistent basis.

5. I changed from MSE to Avira about 3 months ago and it seems to be 'tighter'.  Nothing adverse to report on Avira except the 'nag' pop-up.

6. I'm still going to roll-back, I do not trust Microsoft to keep sending all my data, software use, internet searches back to it's home servers and keep the data secure.  Nor do I trust MS to be so secure there is no Black hat incursion.

7. It's summer and I spend all the time outside.  Later I shall carry on with the project to fit; 

Thanks very much for that.

If you have a second, could you run msinfo32.exe and tell me what you see for the "BIOS Version/Date" field?  It's going to be something like A08, A05, or the like. I've seen cases with Win10 where the latest BIOS isn't necessarily the greatest.

Two days ago, I rolled w10 back to w7.  I had already checked I did not seem to have the Anniversary Update.  The procedure launched and took about an hour.  Then I spent a lot of time running startup repair and trying to resolve error 0x490!  I tried from w7 and from the original installation disk, no success.

Then I used The pre-update w7 to w10 image and w7 reloaded.  Then I copied all updated files from pre-rollback from w10 to w7.

Now my laptop seems to be working as it did before the update to Windows10.

I think my laptop when running w10 did feel more stable and the few apps I use all the time launched noticeably faster.

SD cards, thumb drives and USB HD were erratic mounting/dismounting under w10.

Next, partion for separate operating systems, SSD installation and test w7 & w10 independently.