Check the owner’s/service manual or Specifications document on support.dell.com to see what that system has for hard drive options. It would only have one 2.5” bay, but it may also have a slot that can accept an mSATA SSD, in which case you could add an SSD rather than replacing your existing drive. You could also go with larger capacity SSDs if desired.
When to get a new laptop is highly subjective, since it depends a lot on what you do with your laptop and what constitutes “too slow” in your world. If you do a lot of CPU/GPU-intensive work like rendering, then newer laptops would probably deliver a meaningful boost for you. Even if you don’t, NVMe SSDs that newer systems can use are much faster than SATA SSDs that your current system would use, but maybe not enough justify the cost of a new system. And sometimes people just want newer tech such as newer ports (USB-C/TB3), or things like longer battery life, thinner/lighter systems, nicer displays, etc. But if you don’t currently have an SSD at all, even a SATA SSD would be a huge upgrade all on its own and would easily be the best performance upgrade in terms of bang for your buck. Memory might be a good idea too if that system supports more (not sure it does, but the documents referenced above might tell you) and you currently see high memory utilization on your system.
It was completely obvious to me but obviously could not be more vague to anyone else regarding criteria for a new laptop. I meant should I be concerned that a component will fail and one day the laptop will not start, eg. In other words is there a shelf life for a dell latitude.
SSDs were not common when this system was built -- that's why you don't see mention in the manual. Even if an mSATA drive will work, you will find most are 256 G and smaller -- and it's obsolete technology. This is an eight-year old system, and while notebooks are designed for a 3-5 year lifecycle, it may well be the system runs on for years longer - or it could fail tomorrow. If it's running Windows 7, note that this OS ends life in about 17 months - in Janauary 2020, all updates for it cease.
While you could replace the hard drive with a 2.5" SSD, the cost of a 500-1000G drive will exceed the value of the system, though a 1T hard drive is well under $100.
Sometimes equipment (or capacities) that Dell doesn’t ship from the factory aren’t mentioned because Dell didn’t test them and therefore wouldn’t guarantee compatibility. That doesn’t mean they won’t work though. mSATA has indeed been replaced, but the only real drawback compared to 2.5” SATA is that you may need an mSATA to SATA adapter if you ever need to perform data recovery from another system, since mSATA isn’t a commonly found connector — but that’s not a huge deal, and in your case that potential future drawback might be worth the benefit of being able to have dual hard drives in that system.
@ejn63, the OP already said he’s using Linux, but even if it were Windows 7, that can be upgraded. The Samsung 860 Evo in mSATA form factor is available with capacities up to 1TB, and so what if the SSD exceeds the cost of the system? If it results in a system that gets the OP what he wants, then fair enough. It’s not like he could spend the cost of only a new SSD on an entirely new system instead and still get that new system equipped with the desired SSD. If all the OP wants is a lot of fast storage, then adding an SSD to an old system is a completely reasonable way to extend the life of a system.
"Sometimes equipment (or capacities) that Dell doesn’t ship from the factory aren’t mentioned because Dell didn’t test them and therefore wouldn’t guarantee compatibility."
So I am still not clear on how I can determine if I can add another HD to my system, in addition to the current. Can I open it up to see if there is the needed port and for what would I be looking?
I replaced the HDD (320 GB) drive in my unit with a 2.5" crucial 500 GB SSD. Despite the latitude only supporting a SATA II (3 MB/s) and the SSD being a SATA III (6 MB/s), it worked without any hitch. The Crucial site indicates that their 1TB SSD is compatible with the Dell (they have a cool compatibility app and tonnes of info). The drives include a software for cloning your existing HDD and/or SSD and works well. It even flawlessly cloned the virtual XP that I had on my original HDD.
The problem I am facing is that now my 500GB SSD is nearly full. I should have gone with the 1TB instead of the 500 GB, but the 1 TB was nearly 1.5 x costlier when I replaced mine and so maybe I shall do so now! Hopefully it shall give me a couple of years or more use for my Latitude E6410. I can either save my 500 GB as Backup copy or use it with the SATA to USB cable as an external SSD drive. Lots of possibilities exist.
SSDs are getting way more affordable and do improve the boot-up time, capacity and access speed and at least in my case did help in a big way. The HW installation was very easy too, although this was the first time I installed an SSD and I am by no means am techno-saavy!
The Dell E6410 is perfectly capable laptop even in 2021. Gaming isn't its strength but otherwise a solid device. It is capable of being upgraded to an SSD, booting in 30 or so secs or so and it supports an additional drive using the CD SATA interface that can also be used for storage.
My own machine has a 256gb SSD as boot drive in the usual hard drive bay and an additional 2TB traditional drive in the place where the CD drive used to be, using a caddy to connect the drive to the CD SATA port. The system still uses the RAID software that was previously installed onto the laptop as I could not change the mode to AHCI without having to reinstall the o/s. I retained the RAID software from Dell which slows the boot process somewhat but when it is up and running it is quick to operate.
At this point in time, a 256gb SSD is cheap and any SSD is a quantum leap in performance over a spinning drive. For the o/s that is essential. For program and data storage an spinning HD is sufficient and I perceive no data transfer slowdown when using the SATA interface designed for the CD.
Due to these upgrades in speed and capacity, this Dell E6410 is now my daily driver and has been so since the beginning of 2020. It was a new, old stock machine and for me it was an upgrade.
Samsung 870 EVO 1 TB SSD is a very good choice, price is around 80€ in Germany (I dont know the price at your location). Install LINUX to the new internal 1TB SSD or use a tool like clonezilla to clone the existing installation from the old HDD to the new SSD.
Nice info, my WD black scorpio has poor health and according to HDD sentinel a lifetime of 0 days remaining. It still works but good to find some info about what to buy for my E6410.
The Dell E6410 is perfectly capable laptop even in 2021. Gaming isn't its strength but otherwise a solid device. It is capable of being upgraded to an SSD, booting in 30 or so secs or so and it supports an additional drive using the CD SATA interface that can also be used for storage.
My own machine has a 256gb SSD as boot drive in the usual hard drive bay and an additional 2TB traditional drive in the place where the CD drive used to be, using a caddy to connect the drive to the CD SATA port. The system still uses the RAID software that was previously installed onto the laptop as I could not change the mode to AHCI without having to reinstall the o/s. I retained the RAID software from Dell which slows the boot process somewhat but when it is up and running it is quick to operate.
At this point in time, a 256gb SSD is cheap and any SSD is a quantum leap in performance over a spinning drive. For the o/s that is essential. For program and data storage an spinning HD is sufficient and I perceive no data transfer slowdown when using the SATA interface designed for the CD.
Due to these upgrades in speed and capacity, this Dell E6410 is now my daily driver and has been so since the beginning of 2020. It was a new, old stock machine and for me it was an upgrade.
This is an eight-year old system, and while notebooks are designed for a 3-5 year lifecycle, it may well be the system runs on for years longer - or it could fail tomorrow. If it's running Windows 7, note that this OS ends life in about 17 months - in Janauary 2020, all updates for it cease.
HA! is year 2025 And I realy love my E6410 LA-5472P with nVidia NVS 3100M 512MB my curent procesor and RAM is i5 560M with 8GB when I'm actually working on some better cooling to mount i7 820QM or and maybe try 920XM if I'll be able to cool it down.. I use linux and have a bit problems with drivers for GPU but I would like to mount some SSD to WWAN when would be nice if DELL open it in new bios to use maximum potencial for play for guys like me... I would use it like swap
maybe... if Dell is reading this... could respond :)
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
1
August 10th, 2018 19:00
Check the owner’s/service manual or Specifications document on support.dell.com to see what that system has for hard drive options. It would only have one 2.5” bay, but it may also have a slot that can accept an mSATA SSD, in which case you could add an SSD rather than replacing your existing drive. You could also go with larger capacity SSDs if desired.
When to get a new laptop is highly subjective, since it depends a lot on what you do with your laptop and what constitutes “too slow” in your world. If you do a lot of CPU/GPU-intensive work like rendering, then newer laptops would probably deliver a meaningful boost for you. Even if you don’t, NVMe SSDs that newer systems can use are much faster than SATA SSDs that your current system would use, but maybe not enough justify the cost of a new system. And sometimes people just want newer tech such as newer ports (USB-C/TB3), or things like longer battery life, thinner/lighter systems, nicer displays, etc. But if you don’t currently have an SSD at all, even a SATA SSD would be a huge upgrade all on its own and would easily be the best performance upgrade in terms of bang for your buck. Memory might be a good idea too if that system supports more (not sure it does, but the documents referenced above might tell you) and you currently see high memory utilization on your system.
fkejasl
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
August 10th, 2018 20:00
I thought the issue was that because SSDs are newer, such information might not be contained in the manual? Here is the manual and specifications:
https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_latitude_laptop/latitude-e6410_service%20manual_en-us.pdf
There is no mention of SSD.
It was completely obvious to me but obviously could not be more vague to anyone else regarding criteria for a new laptop. I meant should I be concerned that a component will fail and one day the laptop will not start, eg. In other words is there a shelf life for a dell latitude.
ejn63
10 Elder
•
30.7K Posts
0
August 11th, 2018 04:00
SSDs were not common when this system was built -- that's why you don't see mention in the manual. Even if an mSATA drive will work, you will find most are 256 G and smaller -- and it's obsolete technology. This is an eight-year old system, and while notebooks are designed for a 3-5 year lifecycle, it may well be the system runs on for years longer - or it could fail tomorrow. If it's running Windows 7, note that this OS ends life in about 17 months - in Janauary 2020, all updates for it cease.
While you could replace the hard drive with a 2.5" SSD, the cost of a 500-1000G drive will exceed the value of the system, though a 1T hard drive is well under $100.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
1
August 11th, 2018 09:00
Sometimes equipment (or capacities) that Dell doesn’t ship from the factory aren’t mentioned because Dell didn’t test them and therefore wouldn’t guarantee compatibility. That doesn’t mean they won’t work though. mSATA has indeed been replaced, but the only real drawback compared to 2.5” SATA is that you may need an mSATA to SATA adapter if you ever need to perform data recovery from another system, since mSATA isn’t a commonly found connector — but that’s not a huge deal, and in your case that potential future drawback might be worth the benefit of being able to have dual hard drives in that system.
@ejn63, the OP already said he’s using Linux, but even if it were Windows 7, that can be upgraded. The Samsung 860 Evo in mSATA form factor is available with capacities up to 1TB, and so what if the SSD exceeds the cost of the system? If it results in a system that gets the OP what he wants, then fair enough. It’s not like he could spend the cost of only a new SSD on an entirely new system instead and still get that new system equipped with the desired SSD. If all the OP wants is a lot of fast storage, then adding an SSD to an old system is a completely reasonable way to extend the life of a system.
fkejasl
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
August 11th, 2018 10:00
"Even if an mSATA drive will work ..."
"Sometimes equipment (or capacities) that Dell doesn’t ship from the factory aren’t mentioned because Dell didn’t test them and therefore wouldn’t guarantee compatibility."
So I am still not clear on how I can determine if I can add another HD to my system, in addition to the current. Can I open it up to see if there is the needed port and for what would I be looking?
DE6410User
1 Message
0
October 16th, 2019 06:00
I replaced the HDD (320 GB) drive in my unit with a 2.5" crucial 500 GB SSD. Despite the latitude only supporting a SATA II (3 MB/s) and the SSD being a SATA III (6 MB/s), it worked without any hitch. The Crucial site indicates that their 1TB SSD is compatible with the Dell (they have a cool compatibility app and tonnes of info). The drives include a software for cloning your existing HDD and/or SSD and works well. It even flawlessly cloned the virtual XP that I had on my original HDD.
The problem I am facing is that now my 500GB SSD is nearly full. I should have gone with the 1TB instead of the 500 GB, but the 1 TB was nearly 1.5 x costlier when I replaced mine and so maybe I shall do so now! Hopefully it shall give me a couple of years or more use for my Latitude E6410. I can either save my 500 GB as Backup copy or use it with the SATA to USB cable as an external SSD drive. Lots of possibilities exist.
SSDs are getting way more affordable and do improve the boot-up time, capacity and access speed and at least in my case did help in a big way. The HW installation was very easy too, although this was the first time I installed an SSD and I am by no means am techno-saavy!
yereverluvinunclebert
1 Message
1
May 25th, 2021 02:00
The Dell E6410 is perfectly capable laptop even in 2021. Gaming isn't its strength but otherwise a solid device. It is capable of being upgraded to an SSD, booting in 30 or so secs or so and it supports an additional drive using the CD SATA interface that can also be used for storage.
My own machine has a 256gb SSD as boot drive in the usual hard drive bay and an additional 2TB traditional drive in the place where the CD drive used to be, using a caddy to connect the drive to the CD SATA port. The system still uses the RAID software that was previously installed onto the laptop as I could not change the mode to AHCI without having to reinstall the o/s. I retained the RAID software from Dell which slows the boot process somewhat but when it is up and running it is quick to operate.
At this point in time, a 256gb SSD is cheap and any SSD is a quantum leap in performance over a spinning drive. For the o/s that is essential. For program and data storage an spinning HD is sufficient and I perceive no data transfer slowdown when using the SATA interface designed for the CD.
Due to these upgrades in speed and capacity, this Dell E6410 is now my daily driver and has been so since the beginning of 2020. It was a new, old stock machine and for me it was an upgrade.
petermuss
2 Intern
•
162 Posts
0
May 25th, 2021 04:00
Hello,
best way and result is to grab this part:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/254468965357?hash=item3b3f8843ed:g:HfcAAOSwv6Fbtnqy
and install your "old HDD" to it.
Samsung 870 EVO 1 TB SSD is a very good choice, price is around 80€ in Germany
(I dont know the price at your location).
Install LINUX to the new internal 1TB SSD or use a tool like clonezilla to clone the existing installation from the old HDD to the new SSD.
HTH
Peter
federicopl
10 Posts
0
June 26th, 2021 03:00
Nice info, my WD black scorpio has poor health and according to HDD sentinel a lifetime of 0 days remaining. It still works but good to find some info about what to buy for my E6410.
CheatSage
1 Message
0
June 29th, 2021 03:00
This is an eight-year old system, and while notebooks are designed for a 3-5 year lifecycle, it may well be the system runs on for years longer - or it could fail tomorrow. If it's running Windows 7, note that this OS ends life in about 17 months - in Janauary 2020, all updates for it cease.
Kuzeliban
1 Rookie
•
1 Message
0
February 23rd, 2025 23:31
HA!
is year 2025
And I realy love my E6410 LA-5472P with nVidia NVS 3100M 512MB
my curent procesor and RAM is i5 560M with 8GB
when I'm actually working on some better cooling to mount
i7 820QM or and maybe try 920XM if I'll be able to cool it down..
I use linux and have a bit problems with drivers for GPU
but I would like to mount some SSD to WWAN when would be nice if DELL open it in new bios to use maximum potencial for play for guys like me...
I would use it like swap
maybe... if Dell is reading this... could respond :)
T=
iPeter1
1 Rookie
•
2 Posts
0
September 8th, 2025 17:44
@Kuzeliban have ou had any luck with better cooling ?