XPS 8500, HDD upgrade to SSD

What OS are you running? Are you positive the 32 GB disk (probably a mSATA SSD) is the boot disk or perhaps a cache for the HDD? You should run Disk Management and Intel Rapid Storage Technology to find out.

I think you are correct, the 32Gb SSD is cache only.  That is why I was wondering if an SSD boot partition will help since it probably uses the cache partition anyways most of the time anyways.

To clarify, I am only replacing the disk drive, not the cache drive. I think you confirmed my suspicion that I should just buy the Seagate drive.  Thank you!

Hi Vic384 (and everyone):

Thanks so much for your help. This is super helpful. You mentioned that before I replace the HDD, I should disable the cache. Can you please give us some instructions as to "how to" disable the cache with that 32GB SSD that came with this old PC (Dell XPS 8500 LE)? It is showing up as "DATAPARTI (K:)" under my Windows 10 now. Thanks!

I have a similar situation. I'm hoping to upgrade my XPS 8500 to some level (HDD to SSD, graphics card, 32GB RAM) so that it can sort of run the recently released Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. If I replace the Seagate 2TB HDD (factory) with an SSD, would that give me big performance gain in terms of boot up time and running this flight sim game? Thoughts? Thanks!

To disable the 32 GB cache, go to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application, click on the Performance tab, click on Disable Acceleration.  I believe there is also an option to make available the space that was used for caching to be used for data storage if you plan to keep the 32 GB SSD installed.

Also, if an m.2 nvme SSD is much faster than a mSATA or SATA SSD, is it possible to install an m.2 nvme SSD in Dell XPS 8500? Thanks!

Thanks so much! If I'm not mistaken I think there is only ONE mSATA slot on this motherboard. So if I want to use that "only" mSATA slot for an mSATA SSD drive I'm assuming that I would have to remove that 32GB msata SSD drive that came with this PC, right? If I'm getting a regular SATA SSD to replace that factory built-in 2TB 7200rpm HDD, do I still need to keep that "cache" 32GB mSATA SSD drive then?? Should I be getting an msata SSD or a regular SATA SSD if I would like to keep that current 2TB HDD as a storage drive? Thanks!

If you are getting a SATA SSD to replace the 2TB HDD you do not need to remove the 32GB mSATA SSD but you still should disable it as a cache. You could use the 32GB as additional storage but that is not much storage. You should get a regular 2.5" SATA SSD if you decide to keep the 2TB HDD as additional storage; mSATA SSD is old technology. 

According to the specifications, the XPS 8500 does not have a M.2 slot on the motherboard. You could use a M.2 PCIe adapter card, but the XPS 8500 only has x1 PCIe slots except, of course, the x16 slot for the graphics card. At x1 it would be slower than SATA 3.

Got it. This is very helpful. So how do I disable the 32GB mSATA SSD drive as cache? Can you please give me some step-by-step instructions? Also if I don't do anything for that mSATA SSD drive and install an new SATA SSD 1TB drive as my boot drive (and move my existing 2TB HDD as a storage)... What would happen? Would that 32GB "cache" drive slow down performance etc.? Thoughts?

Also, I suppose that I can use the new 1TB SATA SSD drive as the boot drive (connect it to the SATA 0 port), and move the 2TB HDD to SATA 1 - to use it as "storage" drive)... is this correct? Just wondering, is that factory build-in Seagate 2TB ST2000DM001-1CH164 HDD is an SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s) drive, right? Since only SATA 0 port support SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s), if I move it to SATA 1 (SATA 2.0, 3 Gb/s), I will be getting slower performance for that 2TB HDD drive, right??

Thanks!

You disable the cache by using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application. Perhaps this video will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaEDUbOpDAo

You could leave the mSATA drive installed. It will show up as another disk drive. The mSATA drive will not affect performance.

If you move the Seagate drive to SATA1 you will get slower performance but you will probably not notice any difference unless you are accessing very large files. If you install the Seagate drive, you should re-initialize the drive to wipe all the data off of it, mainly because it was a boot drive and you should not have two boot drives in the system.

Thanks! This is supper helpful!

By the way I also upgraded my 8500 from 12GB or RAM to 32GB of RAM. I think I can't upgrade the CPU as the fastory-installed CPU (i7-3770) should be the fastest that I can get for this socket (LGA 1155) - if I'm wrong, please let me know.

Now that I have 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM installed, wow it feels like a completely different PC! Yay!

My next question is. Do I need to tweak anything on the Windows 10 end (pagefile size, etc.), so that this PC could run even faster (with the newly installed 32GB RAM)?? Thoughts? Thanks!

For your Dell, you already have the fastest processor the motherboard can support. There is an i7-3770K but your Dell motherboard does not support overclocking. In my opinion, processor upgrades are usually not worth the cost, especially for an older system.

There are some tweaks in this article that may improve Windows 10 performance but many do not apply if you have an SSD: https://www.windowscentral.com/tips-tricks-increase-pc-performance-windows-10