There are few ways to make a laptop faster that are as easy and cost-effective as replacing your existing hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD).

The natural middle ground is to get an SSD for your Windows installation and an HDD for all your stuff. This video shows you how to setup both to make them work well together.

But as several readers have noted, there is another way to add an SSD to your Mac: you can keep your old hard drive, and instead replace the Mac’s CD/DVD optical drive, also known as a SuperDrive.

Using an SSD and a hard drive together offers both speed and storage space. But most laptops won't let you install two drives.

This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on how much you have stored on your hard drive. When the process is complete, eject the SSD and shut down your computer.