sofakng wrote on 2024-02-12, 00:21:Thanks again for the information everybody. […]
Show full quote
Thanks again for the information everybody.
The seller just accepted my offer of $50 so I'm going to give the 4600 a try.
I know it's not period-accurate, but I'd like to use an SSD since the motherboard supports SATA.
Can I use anything modern (even the Samsung EVO 870, etc) or do I need to look for something that supports an older SATA spec?
What OS are you planning to run?
Assuming 98SE (which has to be the right answer for why you'd be buying a P4 in 2024), then... ouch, SATA and 98SE is ugly. It's much uglier on Via chipsets than on Intel, but I think on Intel you need some BIOS options to remap your SATA controller to traditional IDE memory addresses to have a reasonable amount of luck. And I'm not sure how many rloew patches you might need on top of that.
I... would think... any generic SATA SSD should be fine, I'd probably suggest sticking to the lower end, e.g. the Kingston A400, I forget the one from Crucial, etc. The ones that are explicitly marketed as upgrades for older (though their idea of older isn't exactly... ICH5) systems. Note that 98SE has limits at 137 gigs, so really, just find an elcheapo 120 gig drive. The early Via SATA controllers are known to have forward compatibility issues with anything newer than SATA 1.0 but I don't think that's true of the Intels...
Hopefully you don't end up in the ridiculous situation my AMD-powered 98SE project ended up - with a SATA drive connected via a PATA-SATA adapter to a PATA channel, even though the motherboard has SATA, and waiting for a NOS PATA DVD drive that's currently in shipping... (but at least your Dell should have come with a PATA optical drive) I naively thought I could get 98SE happy enough with SATA and I eventually gave up.