Fastest SSD upgrade possible for Presario desktop

[BostonBill]

Instead of buying a new desktop PC (or course with Windows 10), since I don't have unusual needs but would simply like faster response, I'm considering replacing the original 256GB HDD with a 512GB SSD (with DRAM) before (very belatedly!!) upgrading to W10. (The only changes I've made to the Presario's original configuration: clean install W7, and increase RAM to 4GB.) I understand that I can choose from among many plug-compatible SSDs with SATA III, but will probably not benefit from the faster speed since the motherboard SATA interface is only SATA II. The faster speed of an SSD with DRAM might not be worth paying the relatively little extra for it (although it would of course extend SSD life).

1. I wonder if it would be simply an additional waste of money if I were to not use the original SATA cable, but instead use something even faster than SATA III by, e.g., installing an SSD add-in card or an M.2 SSD in a PCI-e slot. (Both x1 and x16 are empty.)

2. Aware that some older systems have boot and driver problems with such as NVMe SSDs, I would like to know what drive technologies other than SATA III are compatible and would provide an observable improvement in speed to my admittedly old Presario. Thanks for making it to the end of this lengthy post🙂!

[itsmyname]

A "spinning" disk-drive is "slow" for 3 reasons:

1. because it is spinning, there is "rotational delay" to get the block of data "under" the read/write mechanism. Any SSD eliminates this delay -- statistically, and average of 1/2 of one revolution of the disk-drive (90 revolutions per second is 5400 RPM).

2. the speed of data transfer to/from the disk-drive to the motherboard -- SATA II at 3 Gbps versus SATA II at 6 Gbps.

3. the amount of buffers inside the disk-drive. A busy disk-drive might not write to the disk-drive in the order that the blocks of data were sent from the computer.

The SSD eliminates that "rotational delay", which makes it faster, even when it is connected to a SATA II interface.

Lately, the price of 250 GB and 500 GB SSDs has reduced. So, unless you "need" 1000 GB of SSD storage, a SSD is very affordable.

Do some math: how long does it take to transfer 4096 bytes of data over a 3.0 Gbit/second interface? Over a 6.0 Gbit/second interface? Can you honestly notice any difference? Compare to 50% of 1/90th of a second for the average "rotational delay".

I would not bother with a hardware interface (SATA III via PCI-e adapter).. Instead, save your money for purchase of your "next" computer, that will have SATA III ports.