Upgrading my dell dimension 3000 to a solid state drive.

Hi jbeastly123,

What's your CPU? The Dim 3000 used both 533MHz and 800MHz FSBs, so if you have something slow, a CPU upgrade might help. We had a 3000 with a 3.0GHz P4 running on the faster 800MHz FSB and it was pretty fast.

The fact is your system is pretty old. The older, slower CPU, RAM, chipset, etc. are what limits the speed. The only way to speed things up is to replace it. Of course, that does not mean you must get a brand new system. Depending on your personal needs, a system made in 2012 or 2011 for about half the price of a new system might be perfectly fine.

It'll work, but at nowhere near maximum speed given the older SATA controller in that system.  If you want to mount the drive inside the case, you'll also need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter.

So basically you are saying that for my case, it would be more logical to keep the hard drive that my computer has and just leave it as it is. If so, are there any other ways that I could increase my computer's overall speed?

I know it is a very old computer, but it is more like an expiramenting computer for me. I have already bought a new computer to replace it, but I wanted to use this computer for fun and to learning more about computers in general. This said, do you have any other ideas or suggestions on what I can do with this computer?

I know it is a very old computer, but it is more like an expiramenting computer for me. I have already bought a new computer to replace it, but I wanted to use this computer for fun and to learning more about computers in general. This said, do you have any other ideas or suggestions on what I can do with this computer?

You can add a SATA II card like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124028 A SATA I card like the Syba 150R might work, too, but the transfer speed will be slower.

You'll need a hard drive LED to retain the functioning of the front panel hard drive activity light.

 So unfortunately in my case, upgrading the hard drive will actually slow my computer down?

No; adding an SSD will make a huge difference in performance.

So if I buy a SATA II card like that, would I add it to the motherboard, and then would I replace the old hard drive or should I keep the old hard drive and put the SSD elsewhere, and just transfer my programs to the SSD? Also would the led you speak of be a necessity or just if I want all of the current features present?

If the old hard drive is small enough (and the 3000's factory hard drive was only 80gb or so), you can clone it over to the new SSD with imaging software like Acronis TrueImage.

Note that XP, being the ancient operating system it is, does not automatically adjust settings for optimized SSD operation. If you do add an SSD, you'd be well-advised to install Windows 7 rather than XP, but if you insist, here is a guide for better XP SSD operation: www.ocztechnologyforum.com/.../showthread.php

What kind of improvement will i see if I switch to an SSD? Also, what if I just used an external SSD and put everything on it instead of an internal SSD?

Regarding an external SSD for use as an OS boot drive, I suggest eSATA. I'm not sure if a USB drive can serve as a boot drive.

That machine is absolutely ancient and barely worth $50-100 all alone by itself.

You're better off donating it rather than putting an SSD in it. With that  PCI SATA2 card you'll barely get 70/80 MB/s. PCI slots are limited at 77 MB/s. A modern SATA3 drive goes as high as 500/550 MB/s.

That system is so old isn't not even worth bothering with.

PCI 32-bit 33Mhz transfers at up to 133 MB/s, and traditional hard drives simply don't work that fast at sustained rates.

Even in the 3000, an SSD will boost performance significantly.

So would it be better to put this hard drive in my computer:

www.outletpc.com/ma9966.html