Dell Dimension 521

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I have an older dimension 521 with 4MB RAM. Would it be worthwhile to install a SSD to speed it up?

If so are there any suggestions?

Thanks,

santiago
 
Depends why you are doing it. Are you feeling your computer is "slow"
What is your budget? How much money do you have.


Can you save up more money and just buy a new desktop computer first

That will greatly speed up your computer, and it's arguable that spending your money first on a new computer makes more sense before an ssd upgrade.

Doesn't mean you can't do both. if you have more money, buy new computer+new ssd
 
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Yes and double yes. I have an old Dell Inspirion 531 desktop, and I put a SSD in it about a year ago, and it's a lot faster now. But I don't get the fastest speeds because of the slower chipset, and a SSD just saturates it. Just buy a cheap one with a decent warranty.

It's just an old computer that I keep going for the grand kids to play on. I bought an AMD 5600+ processor last year that cost me $8.00 shipped! It had a 4400+ in for years and years.

Now on the other hand, I saw a refurbished Dell or HP desktop on NewEgg for $156.00 shipped. It had the Intel Q6600 which is still very useable.
 
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Thats pretty slow under 1000cpumark.

you could get a refurb for around 100 or 150 thats easily 2x faster
 
SSDs can make a significant seat of the pants feel to the operating system, some of which comes just from the fresh install. As cheap as they are go for it.

Here is a handy comparison tool for SSD and more.


http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/


The Samsung EVO 250 gb is a great choice.


Also if you are still running the stock sempron processor you could easily upgrade a faster Athlon x2 most likely as mentioned above for next to nothing
 
Check out eBay item number 181862051099
smile.gif
 
Assuming that's 4GB of RAM.

If this is a computer you already have and you're interested in continuing to use it rather than replacing it and junking it, count me as another vote to put an SSD in. It'll make a night and day difference.


But, what OS is it running? If you're running XP then I'm not actually sure how great SSD support is. If you're running Windows 7 (not sure about Vista either) you should be good to go.
 
There's a section in this page: http://www.howtogeek.com/165472/6-things-you-shouldnt-do-with-solid-state-drives/

Titled "Don't use Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Disable TRIM"

Migrating Windows XP to the SSD, you could end up with your partition not quite aligned correctly, and this and the lack of TRIM support (TRIM is a cleanup feature for deleted files, to put it simply, which prevents drive performance from degrading with use) mean that you may not be able to extract the drive's full performance potential.

Another thing to consider is that Windows XP does not get security updates anymore and is slowly losing support from third party software. I generally advise people to be running at least Windows 7 if possible at this point.


That said, if you get a cheap SSD and put it in this computer as-is, cloning the drive over, the machine will be MUCH faster and nicer to use, regardless of these disadvantages.
 
Originally Posted By: rationull
There's a section in this page: http://www.howtogeek.com/165472/6-things-you-shouldnt-do-with-solid-state-drives/

Titled "Don't use Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Disable TRIM"

Migrating Windows XP to the SSD, you could end up with your partition not quite aligned correctly, and this and the lack of TRIM support (TRIM is a cleanup feature for deleted files, to put it simply, which prevents drive performance from degrading with use) mean that you may not be able to extract the drive's full performance potential.

Another thing to consider is that Windows XP does not get security updates anymore and is slowly losing support from third party software. I generally advise people to be running at least Windows 7 if possible at this point.


That said, if you get a cheap SSD and put it in this computer as-is, cloning the drive over, the machine will be MUCH faster and nicer to use, regardless of these disadvantages.


When I cloned my hard drive to a SSD on Windows 7, the SSD was not aligned right. Been a while back, but I think I used Mini Tool Partion Wizard Free to fix that problem.
 
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Originally Posted By: BigD1

When I cloned my hard drive to a SSD on Windows 7, the SSD was not aligned right. Been a while back, but I think I used Mini Tool Partion Wizard Free to fix that problem.


Some cloning tools will align correctly for you as well. I used the copy of Acronis TrueImage that came with a Crucial MX100 to clone a Windows 7 machine. I'm pretty sure I checked the partitions prior to the cloning and it was aligned poorly for an SSD. But now it shows as aligned correctly. It was either the clone or the subsequent upgrade to Windows 10 that fixed it, and I'd bet it was the clone.
 
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