SSD for an older computer?

[jhansman]

Interesting discussion. I am considering dropping a SATA II SSD into an HP Pavilion laptop with an AMD E-450 CPU as a replacement for the 5400 RPM drive it currently has. I'm hoping the current crop of SATA III models will drive down the prices of the SATA II drives and I can pick up a deal that will give this little unit a nice performance boost. Ya think?

 

[Towermax]

Interesting discussion. I am considering dropping a SATA II SSD into an HP Pavilion laptop with an AMD E-450 CPU as a replacement for the 5400 RPM drive it currently has. I'm hoping the current crop of SATA III models will drive down the prices of the SATA II drives and I can pick up a deal that will give this little unit a nice performance boost. Ya think?

I put a 128GB Crucial M4 in my Asus 1215B with AMD E-350 and it delivered a significant performance boost. Plus, it boots faster, it's quieter, less heat, fan runs less, probably longer battery life (haven't checked yet).

I'd go with SATA III, if possible. The prices aren't that much different, and you are future-proofing.

 

[jhansman]

I'd go with SATA III, if possible. The prices aren't that much different, and you are future-proofing.

Well, the better deals right now all seem to be on the SATA III drives anyway, so I might just grab one of them. I want to see how this unit performs with its spinner. It might be fine for what my wife will as of the machine. Ironically, she likes the ancient Dell she is using because it keeps her lap warm

 

[cytg111]

I am with the "go for the ssd" crowd.

I got an intel 320 for the machine in my rig ... "Awsome"
Got an M4 128G for my eeepc nettop (e450).. also "Awsome" .. makes an otherwise lagging system snap snap snap.

 

[Avalon]

I've used an SSD on my ancient P3 rig and it felt very good. E6750 is still a good processor, capable of many things, imo.

There's no point to upgrade your processor unless you really need more power. These things obsolete way too fast anyways.

What did you do, add a PCI sata card just to run an SSD?

As for the OP, I'd say getting a small SSD wouldn't be a bad idea. I have two older machines in the house, a Dell Latitude D630 Core2 laptop, and a Dell Optiplex 755 Core2 E6750 HTPC machine, both of which I put 64GB OCZ Petrol drives in. They feel fantastic now and are actually enjoyable to use. With sales nowadays you can get 60-64GB drives for $55, which isn't much of an investment. Just work overtime an hour or two next week and there you go, all paid for.

 

[bryanW1995]

because he told us what model CPU he has.

Based on it I can tell that it is more useful to upgrade his CPU then to an SSD.
Regardless of what usage scenario he has.

If it was a borderline case I would have instead asked him what his exact usage scenarios are before making a suggestion.
And he asked "Should I upgrade" aka "use your knowledge and expertise to tell me what to do" not "please educate me so I can make an informed decision" (because if he wanted that he doesn't need us, he can just read up on it himself on anandtechs main site)

An e6750 is fine, I would get an ssd before going through the hassle of a complete system upgrade with new mobo/ram/cpu. Only caveat is that the OP might be able to get decent $$ for his older parts, if that's the case then it might be worthwhile to explore that upgrade.

 

[OddRamos]

I will use this thread to ask the same question about upgrading my really old PC with SSD.

I don’t want to buy a new PC yet, because I’m able to perform all the tasks I need with my old one. Anyway, I feel that for many tasks the bottleneck is my HDD. I’ve read other users experiences with SSDs on their old systems and I was impressed by the results, therefore I’m considering upgrading with SSD too. I’m thinking of buying SATA3 SSD that I would be able to use with my new machine, which I will buy in the future. However, I would like to use SATA3 SSD on my old machine like for a year or so before buying a new computer.

Here is the specifications of my current old PC:

CPU: P4 3.8 GHz (x64 capable)
RAM: 4 GB DDR1
GPU: 256 MB
MB: Intel D915PGN. SATA1. 2 x PCI Express x1 connectors. 1 x PCI Express x16 connector.

As far as I know, in order for a SSD to work properly (not to slow down and accumulate garbage) TRIM command (windows 7 and newer supports TRIM) and AHCI are needed. My motherboard doesn’t have AHCI. Would it be possible to add a controller that supports AHCI and SATA3 to my motherboard PCI-e slot? By reading Wikipedia about TRIM I’ve found this information:

Windows 7 only supports TRIM for ordinary (AHCI) drives and does not support this command for PCI-Express SSDs that are different type of device, even if the device itself would accept the command.

Does that mean that I will not be able to use a controller in order to upgrade my motherboard for using SSD? Also,in this thread slowing down probability was mentioned on old PCs.

To sum up, I would like to buy a SSD and use it on my current old PC for a year or more (it depends how well it will perform) before buying a completely new PC. Could you please tell me if it’s possible to upgrade my old PC with SATA3 SSD? What controller would be needed? What to do in order not to get my SSD slowed down?

I appreciate your input and help. Thank you.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Get an Apricorn Velocity Solo (I think that's what it's called). It's a PCI-E SATA6G controller card, that also mounts a 2.5" drive directly on it.

 

[Denithor]

If you're not doing CPU-intensive things, an SSD is one of the few upgrades you can do that will actually yield a noticeable improvement in your daily usage.

I say go for it.

 

[OddRamos]

Thank you for the reply!

Apricorn Velocity Solo is quite expensive.

What about using a cheaper PCI-e to SATA controller like this one or this one?

Both of these controllers Supports Native Command Queue (NCQ) which is a part of AHCI, therefore I assume that these controllers support AHCI too.

Will adding one of these controllers to my motherboard’s revision 1 PCI-Express x1 slot upgrade my system with AHCI mode despite the fact that motherboards chipset doesn’t support AHCI by itself?

Will it be possible to boot from an SSD connected to controller?

 

[Old Hippie]

Will adding one of these controllers to my motherboard’s revision 1 PCI-Express x1 slot upgrade my system with AHCI mode despite the fact that motherboards chipset doesn’t support AHCI by itself?

No.

 

[taltamir]

No.

The board explicitly states it supports AHCI and NCQ, what makes you think those features will be disabled on this add-on controller just because his northbridge/CPU integrated controller doesn't?

The only thing to worry about in my opinion is the speed cap on 1x PCIe v1 which would limit an SSD.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Do it, OP.

It's the best thing you can do for an old system. Reuse the SSD once you decide to build a whole new rig.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The only thing to worry about in my opinion is the speed cap on 1x PCIe v1 which would limit an SSD.

That's just sequential transfers. I have used an Intel X-25V. Not the worlds fastest SSD, but it kicks a 5400RPM HDDs butt...

http://ark.intel.com/products/56607/Intel-SSD-X25-V-Series-40GB-2_5in-SATA-3Gbs-34nm-MLC

Do it, OP.

It's the best thing you can do for an old system. Reuse the SSD once you decide to build a whole new rig.

Well said, well said... :thumbsup:

 

[taltamir]

That's just sequential transfers.

Yes, I am aware

 

[tweakboy]

The cheapest fastest way to turn that computer into a champion is SSD.

I don't think he wants to upgrade, his question was his CPU , and YES ssd will make a huge difference for example. If your boot time is 1 minute right now,, it will be 15 or 20 seconds with SSD. Application will open instantly instead of waiting for the slow laptop hd.... you can launch photoshop in 2 seconds if you get a SSD . You will be in heaven. Then in the future you can use that same SSD on a completely new computer. What is your budget for SSD ? I think 256GB is the lowest you should get. Since you want to install OS and apps and data and couple games.

You will feel like a jet went inside that pos laptop... trust me its shocking. I used to boot up win7 in 4 minutes cuz I busted the readyboot. Once I popped this in that 4 minutes turned into 16 seconds. I fell in love instantly with my SSD. No more waiting and pauses and hickups and hard drive thrashing slowing laptop to turtle.

 

[Old Hippie]

The board explicitly states it supports AHCI and NCQ,

He said the board didn't support AHCI.

despite the fact that motherboards chipset doesn’t support AHCI by itself?

AAR, even without AHCI an SSD is the best upgrade you can make.

At todays prices, the purchase of an SSD OS system drive is a no brainer.

 

[taltamir]

He said the board didn't support AHCI.

His motherboard doesn't support AHCI
The linked PCIe to SATA daughterboard does and if it didn't you could just tell him to buy one that does. As that was the explicit question, CAN he buy a SATA controller that has support for AHCI and NCQ to add those features if his mobo's built in controller doesn't have them. The answer to that question is "yes you can" and it just so happens that the linked example SATA controller does list those as features.

 

[Old Hippie]

The answer to that question is "yes you can" and it just so happens that the linked example SATA controller does list those as features.

The board supports those features if avaliable.

I've never head one of one that adds those features because the OS wouldn't have loaded them.

He can add the board but I doubt AHCI will work.

I vote he buy it and try it.....it's only 25.00.

That way we'll all know.

 

[taltamir]

The board supports those features if avaliable.

I've never head one of one that adds those features because the OS wouldn't have loaded them.

What in the world are you talking about?

The OS loads and uses features based on the drivers and hardware used.
The OS doesn't give a damn if its on the mobo or not.
Unless you are discussing an OS drive it will have no issues enabling such features at any time.

A SATA controller can be integrated into the CPU, northbridge, a seperate chip placed on the mobo, or is on a daughterboard.
The OS will initialize and control all of those types of controllers simultaneously if you have more then one (which is fairly common) and support whichever features each of them has as long as it has drivers for it, which it does.

The thing you should watch out for is that for a boot drive for windows OS you must select the settings on your controller (IDE, AHCI, or RAID) before installing the OS and that with a UEFI mobo instead of a BIOS one you cannot change them after the fact (due to the faulty way windows boots on UEFI), attempting to make any change between IDE mode, AHCI mode, and RAID mode on an UEFI boot windows will cause it to bluescreen on boot.
On a mobo running in BIOS mode you can change between those options within limits: windows will blue screen during bootup if you installed windows while it was in IDE mode and you try to enable AHCI or RAID on the controller to which the windows boot drive is connected to. Or if you installed it while configured as AHCI and you try to enable RAID on the controller to which the windows boot drive is connected to. Having it in AHCI mode during installation will allow freely changing between those IDE and AHCI and having RAID mode during installation allows freely changing between all 3 (unless you have an utterly ancient mobo that does RAID in IDE mode rather then AHCI mode in which case it will exclude AHCI).

These are all issues with the windows bootloader being stupid, and cause no limitations at all beyond that. If you add a daughterboard with these features then you can freely disable and enable those features all day long with no problems as long as you are not touching on them on the controller that has the windows boot drive plugged into. Likewise if you have multiple controllers (the majority of modern intel mobos have multiple controllers from different makes, the integrated intel one and a secondary one providing extra ports along with legacy ports)
Its only an issue if you install windows and then try to migrate it to a different controller with different capabilities because the bootloader can't handle this flexibility and windows blue screens on bootup repeatedly.

 

[Old Hippie]

Whatever you say.

ichy, taltamir is never wrong and never admits it when he is.

He's guaranteeing the card will enable AHCI.

Go ahead and purchase it because he'll pay for it if he's wrong.

You have nothing to lose. :biggrin:

 

[xeledon20005]

Get the SSD just don't buy a shitty one, make sure to do some research if you don't have alot of files maybe a 128gb is good for you. Be sure to check that your motherboard supports the 3gb/s or whatever no point in buying something too new like 6gb/s and not being able to use it to its maximum usage.

 

[taltamir]

ichy, taltamir is never wrong and never admits it when he is.

I ALWAYS admit when I am wrong
http://bit.ly/VhGdNH
54 results. Of the first 10: 9 are me admitting I am wrong and 1 is someone else admitted he was wrong.

Fun fact, if you admit when you are wrong and learn from it, you will end up being wrong a lot less often since 99% of arguments are things that have been discussed before.

 

[kmmatney]

"As far as I know, in order for a SSD to work properly (not to slow down and accumulate garbage) TRIM command (windows 7 and newer supports TRIM) and AHCI are needed. My motherboard doesn’t have AHCI. Would it be possible to add a controller that supports AHCI and SATA3 to my motherboard PCI-e slot? By reading Wikipedia about TRIM I’ve found this information:"

Just get a Samsung or Intel SSD - they come with toolbox software which can perform a manual TRIM. You can schedule a Manual TRIM to happen once a week with the Intel SSD toolbox, and I do this for several Windows XP machines, which also don't support native TRIM. I wouldn't bother messing around with a PCI-e controller card.

 

[pandemonium]

I'm curious about all of these comparisons between an SSD and HDD that were "amazing results". Were all of these examples imaged from what was on the HDD at the point in time that it was slow? I highly doubt it.

Even if you install a regular spindle drive, fresh, it'll be "snappy". The difference, will need to be exacted by verifiable benchmarking, not anectdotal stories...

Personally, I don't think an SSD would be the end-all upgrade for an old machine. I'm certainly not saying it wouldn't help, but in all honesty, a more modern platform that the storage device connects to will be the deciding factor eventually. Then of course, there's file, software, and registry maintenance, et. al., which heavily degrade even the most modern of platforms; regardless of the storage medium.

Ultimately, the question will be how much money are you willing to spend, and what can you live with (meaning, what do you really need the computer to function for)?

No.

Really? So they're selling an adapter that doesn't actually do what it's intended to do? Are you serious right now, lol?

"As far as I know, in order for a SSD to work properly (not to slow down and accumulate garbage) TRIM command (windows 7 and newer supports TRIM) and AHCI are needed. My motherboard doesn’t have AHCI. Would it be possible to add a controller that supports AHCI and SATA3 to my motherboard PCI-e slot? By reading Wikipedia about TRIM I’ve found this information:"

Just get a Samsung or Intel SSD - they come with toolbox software which can perform a manual TRIM. You can schedule a Manual TRIM to happen once a week with the Intel SSD toolbox, and I do this for several Windows XP machines, which also don't support native TRIM. I wouldn't bother messing around with a PCI-e controller card.

Bolded part is the crucial reasoning behind the PCI adapter.