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SSD worth it on a P4 IDE rig? / Are some rigs too slow for an SSD?

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Just wondering. I have a client that I sold a P4 rig to, around a year and a half ago.
P4 2.8, don't recall if it has HT, S478
1GB DDR (one DIMM)
WD 40GB BB IDE HD
onboard 865G video (Intel Extreme Graphics 2!)
IDE DVD burner
IDE CD-RW

Nothing too powerful, but the person had been on a P3 laptop with only 128 or 256MB of RAM, trying to run XP. It was swap-happy city.

So this rig was a definate step up.

There's a RAM upgrade planned, two more 1GB DDR DIMMs, for a total of 3GB RAM. (Should be enough for XP, or even Windows 7.)

Future upgrades could include Windows 7, and an AGP Radeon 2600 Pro 256MB card, which is likely necessary for running Aero in Win7.

I was also considering an SSD. I have a Kingston 64MB SSD that I got on sale for $100 (now they're $135 at Newegg). I also have some bi-dir IDE-to-SATA/SATA-to-IDE converters.

But would an SSD be worth it, on a machine of this caliber? Would the speed increase be wasted, because of the CPU speed, or would it actually be a great upgrade, making this rig finally "snappy"?

I'm actually running a similar system myself, at a friend's house. Mobile P4 2.4Ghz (2.0Ghz overclocked), 2GB DDR, an ATI Radeon 2600 Pro 256MB, a WD 40GB BB IDE HD, and Win7 Home Premium. It's surprisingly decent for web browsing.
 
VirtualLarry said:
But would an SSD be worth it, on a machine of this caliber?
Click to expand...

It is a tossup. You'll get the faster access times (less disk thrashing) but you will be limited to IDE100 speeds with the Intel chipset. If this is something you really want to do, you can just go really cheap on the SSD. OCZ makes the Onyx drive that uses an Indilinx Amigo controller. It is really slow compared to typical modern SSDs, but should still max out an IDE interface (with adapter). It supports Trim and is intended to be cheap.

Why not just replace the system? It certainly is functional as-is, but I think you'll be investing too much into it. If you're buying the RAM new, DDR is pretty expensive compared to DDR2, and DDR3 is even cheaper. Heck, Tiger Direct has a deal right now on 2GB DDR3 for $10 after rebate.

You can modernize with a low end AMD dual core and motherboard for likely under $100 by looking for deals (Micro Center has Athlon II X2 250 for $60 with motherboard!). The integrated graphics will run Windows Aero just fine, and the motherboards use cheap DDR3. Of course SATA is supported, so no need for buying an adapter.
 
i put a x25-m into an atom single core netbook once, running XP, with 2GB of ram.

was not worth it IMO. if i were to put a ssd in that system, i would go with a low end one.
 
Even after all those planned upgrades (memory, video, OS, SSD), you have an old machine.

I'd grab a $300 tower on sale somewhere before all that!
 
I had the experience of seeing how a P4 2.4ghz system (2 GB RAM) worked with XP Pro and an Intel G2 80GB...I was surprised when I looked to find it was just a P4...thought it would have been at least a dual core.

An Intel Atom isn't a fair comparison...I think the P4 is still faster 😉


I would agree to buy a cheaper tower and throw the SSD in...much happier deal...
 
larry, also i think that a modern 7200rpm HD would feel much better than that 40gb, considering that platter densities have swollen compared to the past.
 
Considering how old P4s can handle 50+ MB/sec from a hard drive with sequential data, an SSD would still be perfect for those frequent times you're randomly reading at 500KB/sec.

I don't think a new hard drive would be worth it. All of my Core 2 machines with hard drives didn't feel much faster to boot than a P4.

Maybe get a cheap SATA card from monoprice? I've had horrible luck with converters.
 
I tried an old Intel G1 80GB drive in a Prescott P4, 3.0 GHz, with 1 MB cache and HT. The system felt extremely fast! I ended up just using a cheap 500GB spindle (I was just testing the SSD in the system), and even that was a huge upgrade over the old hard drive.

So I would say that the SSD would really help - especially if you have a new P4 with HT. You can always try it out, and then re-use the SSD in a newer setup.

The system I have is an Asus Terminator T2, and it originally had a 2.4 Ghz P4. I bought the 3.0 Ghz P4 on Ebay last month for $12. The Asus T2 has 2 SATA connectors, so I was lucky there. No idea about the IDE-to-SATA bi-converter - I bought one of those from dealextreme for real cheap, and it never worked.
 
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I am going to say nah, Its not worth it, just get a good 7200 rpm drive.

The Chipset, then IDE and no NCQ will be a waste of the SSD. Sure it will be quick but it will be slow under SSD standards when compared to a new computer.
 
Not a good idea to spend so much on an old computer. (ram, video card, SSD, Windows 7 license... it'll still be an old P4 box)

It's a good computer for XP, so I'd leave it that way and keep my money for a new desktop in the future.
 
yes yes yes. even an atom. the x25 will make it smoke for business apps. you can take ancient laptops with decent pata-sata (sata-1) and they will smoke. you can make a macbook (they don't support trim in 10.6 nor sata-2 in most models) and make them smoke. yes yes yes yes.

Always pick a good unit like x25-v (value) - don't go sandforce. you'll understand why if you start hitting those sata converter and sata-1 only units. they become flakey.

remember businesses spend more on software licensing that sometimes is not transferrable (AKA OEM) than on the hardware itself. so an SSD can save ALOT of money and time.

clone drive=30 minutes; setup whole new laptop/pc with all new techology far longer + fees for the o/s again and maybe even office (MAPS/etc) where installs are per install use for business not per machine.

IDE is where i draw the line. those are way too difficult to remain stable.

besides in a year we'll be all VDI with eMLC intel inside our vmware servers direct attach and dual 10gbit to a row of machines for some thin/thick7(PCOIP) fun.
 
I would not have the guts to sell someone a P4 system even 1.5 years ago. Would feel like getting money for trash.

I've never tried it but I would say that it will be a lot faster, still the ssd will be like 10x worth the rest of the stuff or actually the only thing worth anything.
I would save it for a Athlon X2 + mobo + 500 GB HDD.
 
yeah but a p4-2.8 HT with an x25-m will smoke a brand new (anything) with any consumer hard drive. especially when they get it loaded with junk microsoft search/image cache
 
Emulex said:
yeah but a p4-2.8 HT with an x25-m will smoke a brand new (anything) with any consumer hard drive. especially when they get it loaded with junk microsoft search/image cache
Click to expand...

+1 to this. I have seen it...the SSD wins 😉 Even on old systems. I had a customer with a 7 year old Athlon 64 3500+ system...that bought a Vertex 2 120GB just after it came out. I installed it for him...even though it was against my better judgment 😉 It was a SATA mobo...but in order for SATA to be recognized, I had use the raid driver (XP PRO). It still rocked all over a HDD setup.
 
Well, I'm glad to see a few posts that are pro-SSD, even on such an old rig. But the point is probably going to be moot, I've just agreed to upgrade the computer to an AMD dual-core, with AMD IGP, and 4GB of RAM, for $200. Probably have to throw in a SATA drive, so I'm not going to be making anything off of it I'm afraid, but at least it will keep the client happy.
 
My main machine is actually a 3.06 HT P4. The reason why I keep it is for software interoperability (certain software I like and is real handy runs well on it and works with other applications).

In general, it is not a bright idea to keep investing in defunct technology. If you need parts for such machines then pull them out of the church sales or Goodwill store for practically no cost.
 
I am in the same boat as C1 with my main XP Pro machine. It is a very reliable Asus P4PE machine with a boatload of USB peripherals, and a SATA RAID1 array for data.

I do not intend to invest any more $$$ in it - like C1 says, the next step is to replace it. In the meantime, it keeps on keeping on.
 
corkyg said:
I am in the same boat as C1 with my main XP Pro machine. It is a very reliable Asus P4PE machine with a boatload of USB peripherals, and a SATA RAID1 array for data.

I do not intend to invest any more $$$ in it - like C1 says, the next step is to replace it. In the meantime, it keeps on keeping on.
Click to expand...

My old desktop has the P4PE, pulled it out of the garage for a temp machine for GF last month, still running great!

I bet an SSD would help a bit. Does seem like a waste of money though.
 
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