Is SSD Even Worth The Effort Here?!?!

bvak123 · Nov 18, 2014

I have an old Dell XPS 625 that I am trying to bring up to date as much as possible. I currently had to replace a GPU that fried with a GTX 750TI. Made a world of difference! Right now I am looking into adding a SSD but I know I am not going to have anything near it’s potential… but anything will help. I know that it has SATA1 and PCI-e 1.0 interfaces. My limited knowledge in that :

SATA1 = 150mb/s
PCI-e 1.0 = 250mb/s (per lane???)

So would it be correct to say that:

PCI-e 1.0 X1 = 250mb/s
PCI-e 1.0 x2 = 500mb/s
PCI-e 1.0 x4 = 1000mb/s

If I could find a PCI-e X2 to SATA3 card and install a new SSD would I actually be able to transfer 500mb/s from the SSD? Seems that would be a pretty good jump from 150MB/s on the SATA1. Please tell me if my reasoning is off. And if you have any suggestions as to a card that would work for this scenario, please let me know. Thanks!

DataMedic · Nov 18, 2014

The card might be a good option to prevent a bottleneck for larger file transfers. However you should know that SSD's aren't much faster for sequential read/write than traditional hard drives. So something like copying over a movie file will take just as long. Where SSD's really take off is with random access seek time, which makes them much faster with loading your programs and operating system (because this requires thousands of reads of tiny files stored in different places).

You'll likely see a big improvement in that area despite the SATA 1 port. Then if you still want more, look into the PCIe adapter.

You'd probably want something like this: America%28EN%29&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-aujBRDqj772vpGfgooBEiQAzWAZUrVQuH9-n-aACAVmI_o8u_cOMqGRjn2JcDvueQiKaSQaAgWF8P8HAQ]http://www.eachbuyer.com/pci-e-pci-express-to-sata-3-0-esata-adapter-converter-extension-card-p14268.html?currency=USD&utm_source=google&utm_medium=CSE&utm_campaign=[PLA]America%28EN%29&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-aujBRDqj772vpGfgooBEiQAzWAZUrVQuH9-n-aACAVmI_o8u_cOMqGRjn2JcDvueQiKaSQaAgWF8P8HAQ

Though it will still limit you to 250Mb/s. If you want to get the max out of it you'll need to spend quite a bit more on the card, in which case it'll likely be cheaper to just upgrade the Motherboard.

kanewolf · Nov 18, 2014

An SSD transferring at 150MB/s will beat ANY mechanical HD. The zero latency combined with the 3x throughput will still be noticeable.

Wisecracker · Nov 18, 2014

If you have Win Vista and up, an SSD would be a great upgrade.

Eximo · Nov 18, 2014

Yes, you are correct. Hard to find decent standalone sata 3 controllers though. Not a fan of Marvell RAID chips, but it does work fine for a single drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124056&cm_re=sata_3_controller_card-_-16-124-056-_-Product

Ii may be wiser to start looking at a new motherboard, chip, and ram rather then putting new parts in an old machine. That sata controller will only be useful for the remaining life of that PC.

DataMedic · Nov 18, 2014

Oh and just FYI most SSD's can't hit more than ~300mb/s except for some really high end ones. So usually 250mb/s is adequate. Especially where other older hardware (like CPU) is likely to become a bottleneck anyway.

bvak123 · Nov 18, 2014

DataMedic :

The card might be a good option to prevent a bottleneck for larger file transfers. However you should know that SSD's aren't much faster for sequential read/write than traditional hard drives. So something like copying over a movie file will take just as long. Where SSD's really take off is with random access seek time, which makes them much faster with loading your programs and operating system (because this requires thousands of reads of tiny files stored in different places).

You'll likely see a big improvement in that area despite the SATA 1 port. Then if you still want more, look into the PCIe adapter.

You'd probably want something like this: America%28EN%29&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-aujBRDqj772vpGfgooBEiQAzWAZUrVQuH9-n-aACAVmI_o8u_cOMqGRjn2JcDvueQiKaSQaAgWF8P8HAQ]http://www.eachbuyer.com/pci-e-pci-express-to-sata-3-0-esata-adapter-converter-extension-card-p14268.html?currency=USD&utm_source=google&utm_medium=CSE&utm_campaign=[PLA]America%28EN%29&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-aujBRDqj772vpGfgooBEiQAzWAZUrVQuH9-n-aACAVmI_o8u_cOMqGRjn2JcDvueQiKaSQaAgWF8P8HAQ

Though it will still limit you to 250Mb/s. If you want to get the max out of it you'll need to spend quite a bit more on the card, in which case it'll likely be cheaper to just upgrade the Motherboard.

Would the extra $20 be worth upgrading to the PCI-e X4 card that Eximo suggested below. Would I really gain anything?

bvak123 · Nov 18, 2014

Eximo :

If using a card like this would RAID just be an option not a neccessity? I would still be able to use my old HDD as an independant drive right?

Eximo · Nov 18, 2014

Only reason I picked the PCIe 2.0 4x card is so that it could run at PCIe 1.0 at 4x rather then 1x on PCIe 1.0.

Eximo · Nov 18, 2014

bvak123 :

Eximo :

If using a card like this would RAID just be an option not a neccessity? I would still be able to use my old HDD as an independant drive right?

Correct, a RAID controller just has the capability to do that. You can still use it for single drives.

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