Hey all. I got a dell xps 15 9550 bought about 3.5 years ago. I actually got it off ebay as oppose to dell. I still use it now and it works fine.


Specs of it when purchased was


i5-6300hq
8gb ram
1tb 7200 rpm hdd
32gb m.2 ssd
3 cell 56 whr battery
Video card is nvidia



Yes i know first thing i said is why did you get a 7200 rpm ssd. Thing is i had a 256gb samsung ssd at the time so i went to computer repair shop and had the guy take out the hdd and put my ssd into it. He then set up my laptop and even installed windows 10 pro on it. I do not know if he used a legit license or not but i paid good amount to have him set everything up on my laptop.


I use my laptop to play online poker and use holdem manager 2 and do tons of web browsing with tons of chrome tabs and play youtube etc. I had to replace the battery about 2 years ago and got it off ebay... because they didn't seem to sell battery from dell anymore... dell told me they didn't sell batteries for xps 15 9550... which i thought was ridiculous.


The first thing i noticed was i had no idea the xps 15 9550 came with either a 3 cell 56wh battery or 6 cell 84wh battery. My laptop came with 2 hard drives at the time, the 1tb slow hdd and the 32gb m.2 ssd. I had no idea what the m.2 ssd was at the time but i found out later because i have 2 hard drive slots, that mean i cannot use the bigger battery. But then i found out its possible and that would require me to get a bigger capacity m.2 ssd and remove the 2.5 inch ssd which is what my samsung ssd is.

I do not understand what your question is.

a) If you're happy with your current PC, keep using it.

b) I think you have a SSD hard disk in your laptop. It seems unlikely to me that you'll get much of a performance improvement by upgrading parts of your laptop - there aren't going to be many things that you can actually do, I suspect, that make much of a meaningful impact on your experience.

The thing now is my ssd is running low on space, about 40gb remaining. I would not have imagined years ago if you told me 256gb might not be enough... but now its filling up. Also i need a new laptop battery because my battery is worn out, about 2 years already.



The thing i can easily do is just get a 56whr battery but if i do this, well my ssd is still sort of low with 40gb left. But about 5 months ago, i notice i had like 47gb available so i only used 7gb during this 5 months so not bad. But i always wanted the bigger capacity battery. I do have some music in my 32gb m.2 ssd to preserve space in my 2.5 inch samsung ssd.



Now what i would prefer to do is get either 512gb or 1tb m.2 ssd... then i would get the 84whr or 97whr battery... that way i would have lot of space on laptop for a long time and also have a longer battery. I also want to upgrade my ram from 8gb to 16gb as well. Now if i do this, i would get most likley 512gb m.2 ssd... two 8gb sticks for 16gb ram... and 84wh or 97wh battery. Im not 100% sure if this laptop takes the 97whr battery as i read conflicting information about this online on this laptop. Anyone here has the xps 15 9550? Now my other issue is im not tech savy... anytime i buy computer pairs, i bring them to repair shop and have them put in my new battery or ssd etc because i dont want to risk damaging laptop. Im guessing buying all these 3 parts and repair shop fixing it... probably 450-500 dollars at the max.


My other option is to get a new laptop and if i do it would be the dell xps 15 7590. Reason being its a dell xps and i like my 9550 and i figure this would be the same but much better since i would upgrade ram to 16gb and ssd to 512gb and it come with the 97wh battery.



I see the processor is i7-9750H.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deal...ref=p13n_rv_hp



They also have this one thats much cheaper but processor is i5-9300H. I would upgrade battery to 97whr. But it seem you can't upgrade the memory or hard drive. So don't even bother with this right since it would be me getting this and then having to go to repair shop and me buying the ram and 512gb ssd and having them install it and pay more? It also comes with the default intel uhd graphics 630 and upgrading it to nvidia ge force gtx 1650 4gb gddr5 woudl be another 250 dollars. But this should be necessary right? The thing is i don't play video games or anything like that though no my computer.


https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deal...ref=p13n_rv_hp

Another question i have is this. It shows you pay 60 dollars for windows 10 pro. I already have it on my laptop with my xps 15 9550. But i still need to buy it right? The thing is i use bitlocker and it needs windows 10 pro.


But the main thing that sort of put me off from all this with new laptop or getting an m.2 ssd is i will start fresh on a brand new computer. But i heard you can do cloning from old ssd to the new one. Has anyone done this and recommend for or against it? Lot of ppl seem to say if you get new laptop, start brand new, don't clone etc. Would like your advice on this. The thing is my xps 15 9550 is still functional and i like it. So its like pay 500 total to upgrade these 3 parts or buy a new laptop for like $1600.





Hi Josem, yes i like my laptop as it is. The only thing though is i wished this laptop came with the bigger battery instead of the smaller battery. When i bought this laptop years ago, i had no idea this configuration of having 2 hard drives... one 2.5 inch hard drive and one m.2 ssd means i sacrifice the bigger battery. So if i had the bigger battery now, well i just buy a new battery without an issue.



And of course my ssd is a bit running low on space. I mean its not that bad. Its 256gb ssd samsung 2.5 inch and has about 40gb remaining. About 5 months ago, it had like 47gb remaining. So i basically dont download much on my laptop now... just play poker and use hem2 and web browser



But the having to start fresh thing bothers me because i want to keep all my configuration on poker sites and holdem manager 2 and everything else if you know what i mean.

All hard drives are the same size: they all only have a little space remaining.

40gb of free space is much more than I have on any of my devices.

This does not make sense.

Put the stuff that you need to run fast (eg, your operating system, key programs) on your m.2 SSD, and put the stuff that doesn't matter (eg, movies + video) on your bigger hard drive.




If you want to extend your battery life, increase your hard drive, increase your RAM, and improve your processor speed, then you are going to need to get a new laptop.

If you get a new Dell XPS laptop, I am confident that you will be happy; they are very good devices, I have one and expect to upgrade to a replacement in coming years (although my current one I've had for 2-and-a-bit years and I still find it to be excellent, a Dell XPS 13 9360 model). The only downside is that you can't upgrade much (any?) of it.

Okay so now my laptop battery is swelling as my touchpad on the xps 15 9550 is raised up... had read about this issue years ago with xps 15 users but I didn't have this issue years ago. Also got about 18gb left out of 232gb space on my laptop. So I gotta get a new battery now and figure getting the bigger battery 84wh or 97wh is better since I am going to replace the 2.5 inch samsung 250gb ssd with a m.2 ssd. Now you agree go with a 1tb as oppose to 500gb one if I want to continue using this laptop for a long time?



1- 97whr battery. - $130

So I see on a site laptopexpress that I could buy a 56wh battery for $110. But I could get the 84wh for $120 or 97wh for $130. Now since my ssd is running low on space and i want to replace that, makes sense to just buy a bigger battery right? I do know with the dell xps... if you have the bigger battery, you cannot have 2 hard drives which is what i have. I never had any use of of the 32gb m.2 ssd. So it makes sense to get the biggest battery right?


2. M.2 SSD - $185 for 1tb or $98 for 500gb

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1


This is the best m.2 ssd out there right? I see it is most expensive and seem to have the best reviews. My current ssd which is 2.5 inch samsung 250gb... I have used it since 2013 and I find it very good. So stick with samsung right? I do see other brands out there with 1gb ssd like


WD Black- $163
Western Digital Blue - $114
Crucial P1 - $114
Sabrent Rocket - $131


But seems like best to stick with samsung? Or are those lower cost still good? But samsung is fastest right? Again I know my ssd now is SATA and its already fast for me. So those other ones are all faster than the one i have now right?



3. 16gb ram - $71

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...PHQ3UDKH&psc=1

Almost all of you have 16gb ram at least? For me 8gb ram is fine but sometimes it lags... so 16gb would solve this issue? I read in another thread someone mention get 32gb ram. Is that even necessary nowadays?



Total = $386


So it would cost around $386 to upgrade. But I don't know how to install these things so I might have to go to repair shop to have someone install it. But if I do this, I'm guessing it will cost probably $150 - $200 to have all these 3 things installed? I do see on the video on youtube, it doesn't seem that hard to replace ram, battery and ssd on the xps 15 9550 series.

Or Buy Dell Xps 15 From Dell


https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell...a-1fd8e45aac1c


i7-9750h processor
16gb ram
97whr battery
1920x1080 resolution


If you upgrade ssd from 256gb m.2 to 512gb .. it cost $100 more. But if you go from 256gb to 1tb.. its $250 more. So let me get this straight. If you just get the 256gb included in price... but you buy the 1tb m.2 nvme samsung ssd from amazon for $185... and you know how to take out the ssd yourself... you basically save $65 but also get another 256gb m.2 ssd for free as oppose to just paying $250 to pugrade from 256gb m.2 ssd to 1tb m.2 ssd? I guess its because people want it configured and thats why? But would any computer tech savy person never upgrade the ssd here as they save money by buying a separate m.2 ssd from amazon and also the one Dell supplies isn't going to be samsung and a worst quality? What brand name is the ssd dell supplies customers with on the m.2 ssd?



Now if you upgrade it to 1tb... it takes the cost from 1450 to 1700 dollars. Seems to be 10 percent code so it would be 1530 dollars. Then when you factor in taxes and shipping... let say another $150. So basically having it fully configured by dell with those specs and the 1tb m.2 ssd... you would pay around $1680 right?


If you compare this to upgrading an old xps 15 9550 for around $386... is it a no brainer to upgrade the old xps 15 9550 if you don't need a new computer? Even if you pay another $150 for someone to install ram, battery and ssd... that would be $536 compared to $1680. But the only difference would be a better graphics card maybe and of course the i7-9750h processor? Now that is much better than the i5-6300hq right? I know my laptop is a quad core and I know years ago, quad core laptops mean more power but also uses more battery. But these i7-9750h processors are not only quad core... but they are energy efficient right? I remember years ago it was get quad core laptop with power and sacrifice battery life... or get a i3/i5/i7 U Series and get better battery life but less power. But now... the processors give you the best of both worlds?



So I read the 9750h is actually 6 core? Again I'm not updated on this but what is the most cores laptops have these days? So the 9750h would be much faster than my already i5-6300hq?


Would that also mean a 97whr battery on the dell xps 15 7590 last longer than the same 97whr battery on my old dell xps 15 9550 because of the processor?



Josem, I don't feel like a need a new xps right now. My xps 15 9550 still works fine... just need a new battery and want more storage space and increase ram. I mean from looking this, isn't getting a new xps dell laptop means much faster processor and better graphics card... which that card would be no use to be me since i don't play games at besides poker and use the tracking holdem manager programs etc?

uhm remove battery from the laptop ASAP if it's swelling... don't leave it in to deform your aluminium case even more or burst and catch fire... only use it plugged in for now.

had this happen on a cheap chinese alu laptop, thing was badly swolen, but after taking the battery out, the case reverted to normal within a day, couldn't even tell it had been badly bent.

watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=139QCslFa7I

all the upgrades you're talking about are a 5-10 min job. if you want to add another stick of ram or replace both, go to crucial.com and specify your laptop model. when you're swapping ram sticks, disconnect the battery (it's got a little connector, you will see in the video above). also, ram only goes in 1 way so pay attention to the little groove on the row of pins, one side is slightly longer than the other, if it doesn't fit the first time, don't jam it to infinity.

ssd appears to be nvme, can't go wrong with a Samsung 970 evo, WD Black SN750, Adata SX8200pro, Sabrent Rocket, Kingston KC2000, Corsair MP510, whichever one is on sale or cheaper. get at least 500gb as smaller nvme drivers are slower and don't last as long. 1Tb should be the sweet spot.

if the laptop came with pre-installed windows, your windows key is saved on a little chip on your motherboard, so do not buy a new license. all you need to do is go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 , download the media creation tool and plug in an empty 8gb+ usb stick. the utility will download a fresh copy of W10 for you and put it on a bootable usb driver so you can re-install at a later time. then when you re-install on the new ssd, it will grab the key off your motherboard, you just hit next next... and you're done.

cpu is still very relevant on that thing, expandable ram, nice machine, I wouldn't buy a new one if I were you.

Hi. Okay I didn't know about the swelling battery thing. But one could leave it there for a while though but there is the risk of what you said right? Again, I never even noticed the swelling because i rarely looked at my keyboard since i used a wired keyboard.



Okay so all of this doesn't take a long time. Well i know that... but i just wanted to know the ease of it for someone who never opened their laptop before. Because anytime i needed to install a ssd or battery, i went to repair shop and had them do it.



Okay I will make sure to get 1tb... so I don't have to be concerned about space later on. But with all those ssd's you named, which do you recommend? I did see more negative reviews on the sabrent rocket and corsair. The samsung 970 evo seem to be the best rated and least problems? I see they have this one



WD SN550 for like 105+ tax - This seems to be the cheapest 1tb but i see lot of negative reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-SN550-50...16&sr=8-4&th=1



Would you say best to get the samsung 970 evo and just pay the 185 or so since their products seem to be the best? Again, my current ssd is an old 2.5 inch samsung ssd that I bought like 7 years ago at least and it still is functional. What would be your top 3 list for ssds to get for m.2 ssd? First would obviously be the samsung 970 evo? 2nd would be the WD 750? The thing is I don't want to pay like 30-50 dollars less only to have issues with the ssd weeks or months later.

My laptop came originally just with windows 10. I think it was home edition? It was not windows 10 pro. The only reason i got windows 10 pro was b/c i brought my laptop to a repair shop... and had them replace a 1tb 7200rpm hard drive that was in the dell xps 15 9550 with an old 2.5 inch samsung ssd that I had and he put that in. He then installed windows for me and then told me he actually installed windows 10 pro for me... at the time i didn't think much of it since well I didn't think it mattered. But years later, I wanted to lock/encrypt my laptop when turning it on and i read you can use bitlocker for it and you can only use it if you have windows 10 pro...which I did.



Because of that, any computer i use, i want windows 10 pro because i want bitlocker. Someone told me to check my serial code in settings etc and see if it says windows 10 pro because if it does... then its official windows 10 pro. The thing is that guy installed windows 10 pro for me without me asking... so I have no idea if it was a legit window 10 pro copy or not. But if it does show windows 10 pro in the serial number in the settings somewhere... then its 100% windows 10 pro official?



Also, whether i clone my 2.5 inch samsung ssd to the new 1tb m.2 ssd or not... I will have windows 10 pro regardless? Someone said that to me but im not sure if i misheard it or not. Also would you suggest cloning the ssd? I would prefer everything on my laptop now transferred to the new m.2 ssd as when I turn it on... it will look exactly like how it is now.


Yea I thought my cpu is still relevant. The only thing is the processor... which you cannot upgrade on the laptop right? I read there is i8 and i9 processors now and obviously if i get a new dell laptop it will be one of those.


Yea I don't really want to buy a new machine as it still works fine now. I mean there is very little lagging when playing even with hem2 and software on. So I don't want to spend an additional over 1k if I didn't need to.

I've never cloned drives before so idk how well it works

if you re-install windows10, you can choose the pro version, if your pc isn't equipped with that, you can get a pro license for 10-15$ off the internet or you can simply not activate it and everything works perfectly, you get security updates and all

you cannot upgrade the cpu in 99% of laptops, so ye you're stuck with that one, but it's quite decent. newer intels are not that much of an upgrade, at least for your needs

honestly, if you get a good ssd, 16 gb ram and a fresh windows install, it's going to feel like a new machine

Okay so if I clone my drive, then I don't have to do any reinstallation.


But if I reinstall windows 10 with the new m.2 ssd, choose pro version. Where do you get a pro license online for that cheap of an amount? I thought it was $100? But are those legit though the ones you say are on the internet? Having windows 10 pro is a must for me because I want bitlocker.


Yea that is what i heard with laptops and cpu's. You can really upgrade cpu with desktops. Yea my cpu is decent in that its a quad core. Years ago when i got this laptop, i made sure it was a quad core and not a u series one because hem2 seem to say get quad core. Well i read the processors now are at least 3x faster than the ones i have? But not only that... they use less battery power? Someone said this when i asked about my current i5-6300hq vs the dell xps they selling now.

g2a, kinguin, kdkoffers for W10 pro OEM keys, never had problems with these. can find these listed on amazon too. they're original license codes that were sold in volume/bulk to manufacturers to use on their pre-built systems.

biggest jump in cpu performance for intel was 8th gen and even those or anything newer is not a significant jump in performance when we're talking about laptop cpus. def not 3x the power, not even 2x in most applications, more like 20%.

the one you have is an HQ series chip, these are designed to be more powerful and consume more juice than the U series that are found in budget machines or ultrabooks. HQ is used in workstations and gaming laptops, naturally battery life is not that good but the performance is there. just to give you an idea, your i5-6300hq is maybe 10% slower than an i7 8th+ U series cpu. the newer H series are not good for battery life either.

Thanks for response. yes i know the HQ series was known for that years ago compared to the U series. So you are telling me the dell xps 7590 with the i7-9750h processor and a bit better video card isn't really that that much better than my i5-6300hq?


The i7-9750h is an i7 8 u series? Again, im not updated on this... only thing i know was years ago when i got the i5-6300hq, there was an i7 but now is this i7-9750h that much better than my 6300hq? Someone had mentioned that laptop would be much faster than mine.. so they are wrong?

HQ chips end in HQ, like your i5-6300hq , later they renamed them H, i7-9750h
U series end in U, i7-8550u. these are the lower powered, better battery life options they use in "all day" long battery machines. few deliver on 8 hours+ tho.
yes, the i7 you mentioned should be up to 50% faster in single core and prob twice as fast in multi core applications.
would you notice when playing 4-8 tables of poker with a tracker working in the background and maybe a youtube video running? a little bit sure, but it won't feel twice as fast.

You can clone a drive with Windows without issue if you only use one at a time. I wouldn't boot from the old one, just keep it as an external storage device.
Cloning a drive is non-trivial, I'd pay a local shop to do it if I were OP. They should be able to do it in person. If you buy the second drive from them, even better.

I mean I've never cloned a main drive with an OS and apps on it
surely it works fine for files

I cloned a drive a few months ago, it was bizarrely easy, I don't think my pc even knew there was a change. When I bought the drive, it came with software to do it.

This is the drive I bought: https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/intern.../firecuda-ssd/

This is the software I used: https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/suppor...ds/discwizard/

I was deeply underwhelmed at how easy it was. I literally plugged my new drive in (Might have plugged it in using USB connection?) ran the clone software, unplugged my old drive, and plugged my new drive into the old drive's socket. I had to use the USB connection 'cause it was an M2 drive and my pc has only one M2 socket.

interesting, I would have thought there would be issues with registry machine keys and such. well there you go, op, nothing stopping you now

That's exactly what I had expected ahead of time, but that wasn't my experience. I was deeply underwhelmed at how easy it was.

OP - just to be clear, I'm not a professional, you're not paying for this advice, I have no fiduciary duty, I'm not willing to provide any guarantees or offer you any financial skin in the game. Maybe my experience is not normal, etc.

So, you should treat this as just some random guy on the internet sharing his experience. I was surprised by it as much as y'all are.

Josem thanks for response. Do you recall how big your hard drive was... the one that you wanted to clone? For me, its about 232gb free and i have so 15gb available now only... use to be a lot more.



Well i have a 1tb external hard drive right now... so i would clone my 2.5 inch samsung ssd into it right now right now. Then once you clone it to the external hard drive... once i get a new ssd... it will be a 1tb samsung m.2 nvme ssd almost most likely... then clone it from the external hard drive? The thing is could i clone my current 2.5 inch samsung ssd into the new 1tb m.2 nvme ssd though without using an external hard drive as the middle bridge so to speak? I do have that 2.5 inch hard drive enclosure if that matters. I mean that is needed to do this right?



Btw, would you recommend cloning though? For me, the benefit of cloning would be... everything would look exactly like it would on the new ssd right? So instead of having 15gb available out 232gb... it would then show like 700gb free of 932gb etc? And if i clone it... then all my hem2 and partycaption/starscaption and other software for poker would be cloned... so i would have everything like it is. So its like even if my database gets bigger... no big deal since i have plenty of space in the 1tb m.2 nvme ssd right? I know lot of ppl seem to say they have to vacuum and do those things in their hem2.



But if your ssd has some issues/problems... you would not recommend this right? Because not long ago when i turned on my laptop, i had this error message that said Laptop canning and fixing the c drive... eventually it went to 100%... but my laptop never started. So after hours of waiting, I decided to power it off and power it back on again and it had no issues starting up. So its possible there are some errors in my samsung ssd right now right? So if it is... i wouldn't want to transfer it to the new ssd? Do i risk damage to the new ssd if there are errors or corruption with my current 2.5 inch samsung ssd?



I always heard its better to start fresh. That's why im considering doing that... but the thought of having everything from laptpo saved into the new one such as my entire hem2 database and settings... seem like a very good reason to clone it. Because if i didn't had a hem2 database, well i could always just copy/paste my documents and files to it and download all the programs on my laptop again. Years ago when i got this laptop, i started brand new fresh... but i been using it for many years already so my hem2 database just fill up my ssd... which back then didn't manner since i had plenty of space available.

No no no, a thousand times no.

Don't clone your current drive to an external hdd and then to a new ssd. I mean you could, but its a waste of time.

Use the samsung magician software to clone your old ssd to your new ssd. Takes minutes/hours.

If your current drive is having that many problems, clone it to the new ssd and see if it solves the problems. If not then reset windows or clean install (preferred) after cloning to the new ssd and then see if that fixes the problems.

I cloned from a 120GB KINGSTON SSDNow M.2 2280 G2, SATA 6Gb/s (550MB/R, 200MB/W) to a ~500gb drive as linked above.
Why the hell would you do this?

Cloning from A to B to C sounds nuts. Just clone from A to C if you want to do this at all.

Hi. I thought it was required to clone from A to B... then clone it to C because I thought you couldn't clone from your ssd in your laptop to the new ssd.


I had thought I read that you needed to clone it to an external hard drive first... before you clone it to the new ssd.


Okay I would clone it directly from my 2.5 inch samsung 250gb sata to the 1tb nvme samsung ssd. So during this process, I don't even need a 2.5 inch enclosure? So I actually don't need any more equipment when cloning from the ssd in my laptop right now... to the new ssd? But don't I need an enclosure though for the m.2/nvme ssd during this cloning process?


I am confused here because during the cloning process, which ssd is in my laptop? My current 2.5 inch samsung ssd or the new 1tb nvme samsung ssd that I will purchase? Because I have to assume its the new nvme in the system... then i put the 2.5 inch samsung ssd in an enclosure and connect it to the usb port in my laptop to clone?


I mean, I could actually have both the 2.5 inch ssd and the nvme ssd in it at same time but I wouldn't be able to put my new bigger battery in since it takes the 2.5 inch ssd spot. I also can't picture my current ssd in my laptop still during this cloning process because if so, then wouldn't i need some type of enclosure to connect the new nvme ssd into my usb port?

Hi. Then why do people say to use macrieum reflect then? All I hear is people say that is best to use to backup a hard drive to an external hard drive and also cloning.


So with the samsung nvme ssd... you say use that software over macrieum free?


Also there is no point of upgrading to 32gb ram right? I see my system 9550 can actually do 32gb ram but that is beyond useless if i only use it for poker, hem2, tons of chrome tabs etc right?


Googled it and see majority of the time, you won't need 32gb ever.


Thank you.