XPS 8940, add new SSD, remove existing HDD, my step-by-step experience

Hi all. This past weekend, I replaced the factory-fitted Western Digital hard disk drive in my XPS 8940 I bought in early 2022, with a new Samsung solid-state drive. The result? A significant reduction in ambient noise, enhancing the quality of my podcast recordings.

I'm a podcaster, and this was the primary reason for doing this - eliminate a slight humming sound, a resonance, in the background of the recorded audio. I bought a new microphone recently, and it picks up this faint sound. Through some trial and error, I identified the source as the HDD inside the PC.

Long story short: with the new SSD in place and the HDD removed, the background noise is completely eliminated, thus enhancing the quality of my podcast recordings.

As Dell desktops are so easy to add, replace or remove many of the internal components such as memory, graphics card, and disk drives, doing this was straightforward and wholly successful. I had no issues at all with the new SSD, either with installation or with subsequent use.

Not only do I now have a near-silent audio recording environment, I also have better performance from the new drive. A win all around!