Upgrade Q6600 or buy new i7 ???

Cal516

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Jun 30, 2014
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I have an older Dell Inspiron 530 with Q6000 quad core. Running win 7. C drive is 75gb Velociraptor with a 340gd data drive (MB SATA I controller on both). I'm planning on replacing the C: drive with an Intel 240gb SATA III SSD. I gave a gigabit home network with 50/25 FiOS service. Principal uses are Photoshop, image server, and music server. I also have 4 340gb drives in a Buffalo enclosure attached by USB.

Seeking opinions: keep upgrading this Q6600 with things like a SATA III drive controller, USB 3.0 card, etc?or is it time to put this machine in a secondary role and buy an i7 ??? Of course, money is always a consideration.

Current Q6600 performance is fine for me but the Velociraptor is about full and linking the big OS directories to the D: is not a desirable answer. Also probably looking for a multi-terabyte NAS in the future.
 
Solution
Go anead and upgrade your "C" drive with a ssd.
Yes, the sata II interface is slower than III, but it is still 2x faster than your velociraptor in sequential transfer.
The os does mostly small random I/O. In that arena, the ssd will be 50x faster despite the sata II interface. Such a ssd will be easily transferred to a future new build.

If you have usb3.0 devices that you use for sequential backups, then a usb3.0 expansion card would be fine. They are not expensive. If you are connection ordinary devices such as keyboard, mouse, printers, don't bother.

Past that, I would not pour more money into your current rig.
Go anead and upgrade your "C" drive with a ssd.
Yes, the sata II interface is slower than III, but it is still 2x faster than your velociraptor in sequential transfer.
The os does mostly small random I/O. In that arena, the ssd will be 50x faster despite the sata II interface. Such a ssd will be easily transferred to a future new build.

If you have usb3.0 devices that you use for sequential backups, then a usb3.0 expansion card would be fine. They are not expensive. If you are connection ordinary devices such as keyboard, mouse, printers, don't bother.

Past that, I would not pour more money into your current rig.
 
Solution