"System 3: 754 Athlon 64 3400+. Radeon 9600XT, Samsung HD322J ~120MB/s hard drive & Vista Business SP2. Snappy."
HTPC is similar, with a 3200+, and Nvidia 9600 Sparkle, and, perfect match for it, Velociraptor, with XP Pro, SP current. Also Explosion 7.1 sound card.
I recently installed a 30 gig SSD, but, for some reason, the sound control panel didn't install, and, I would need to reinstall everything. A big deal, since this doubles for the girls computer in the house. So pulled the SSD, and went back to the Velociraptor.
The speed difference is hardly noticeable in any of the things the computer is used for.
The drive was a Vertex Turbo, and, it is snappier in somethings, but the system just doesn't seem to be fast enough to really show much improvement, perception wise.
Benchmarks say the Turbo is much faster.
Suspect an old, breaking down XP disk is the cause of the lack of sound control, which is a real peta.
PS this is REALLY weird, since in my laptop, a IDE SSD seems to make a huge difference, with really poor test numbers. Kingspec SSD.