FYI Results of legacy machine SSD install

[jbrenan]

After following the advice in
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3266740/ssd-legacy-machine.html

I chose a Samsung 850 EVO SSD 512GB and installed it.

For anyone thinking of upgrading a legacy machine with one of these I can now highly recommend it.

Some stats I took follow:

Machine is Packard Bell iextreme quad core at 2.5Ghz
with 4GB DR3 ram Sata is ICH7 SATA-1
running win-7-64 home premium - all service rubbish turned off - no anti-virus/spam junk installed.

The machine also has an ST2000 Sata hard drive
The SSD is formated with 2 partitions containing all my programs - the seagate ST2000 is just a data drive and mostly empty ATT

Timings for comparison using PC wizard 2012 benchmark:

Seagate ST2000 average seek time is 17ms (linux tested as PC wizard doesnt give that)

Tests in sequence are for

sequential read
sequential write
buffered write
buffered read
random read

The seagate averages (MB/S):
112
118
169
16
13

The samsung SSD gives:
212
234
226
196
75-95 (Varies quite a bit for some reason)

as you can see thats quite a boost. I'm well pleased.

The SSD install came with magician V4.5 which identified the SATA and let me set TRIM on and Rapid mode on
HOWEVER I downloaded magician V5.0 and it
does not identify the sata type - says it can't recognise
the SSD itself and says rapid is not supported.
This all seems a bit retro but I left it like that.

The above figures are after magician V5.0 install.

Applications now start up instantly and windows boots in the blink of an eye. If you're daft enough to allow java applications this should also boost them.

I dont think I'll need to upgrade my system for some time now.
I hope this is of use to someone.

jb
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[Supahos]

Thats hardly a legacy machine. And it's not like ssds weren't in existence when it was built.

 

[jbrenan]

When I bought it 6 years ago SSD's that worked weren't available
It has sata 1 and the standard is now at sata 3
it cant do ahci
The hard drive I upgraded myself
the processor is before even I3 and now we are on i7 technology
it has DDR3 ram when the standard is now DDR4
It was a decent machine 6 years ago - now most of the
core functions are well out of date - in my book thats legacy.

You may think earlier tech is legacy but I'd call that vintage.
Its a matter of perspective I guess.

jb

 

[Supahos]

There were i7s the day the i3s launched that nomenclature means nothing. That was one of the last "core 2" CPUs they're now on the 7th gen I series. It is old no doubt, but honestly barring a few very bleeding edge titles that CPU is still capable today (I have my OLD) rig at my parents house and it'll still do fine at league or even overwatch. To me legacy is something old enough it can't run moden software. I guess it is just a debate of semantics however.

 

[Supahos]

It's a q6600 as well (I assume that's what you're is)