I just bought my first SSD, a 120GB Vertex 2E. I don't know a great deal about SSD workings though What is the best way to set it up as my main boot drive for maximum performance? I'd like to just ghost my old primary hard drive over to it, but is that detrimental to performance? I could do a clean W7 install, but id rather not as then i'd have to reinstall all my games etc. Also are there any set-ups in windows i should do (is TRIM automatic?), bios settings to change (heard something about ACHI?) etc? Thanks guys!
Turn on AHCI, and if you had your current install without AHCI, then you should do a clean install. And of course use it as boot drive, if you can turn off swap file (but don't put it on normal hard drive), and if you don't use hibernation then turn the hibernation support of (you will get extra space on your primary drive according to size of your RAM).
I wouldn't remove the swap file completley i've got a few old programs that refuse to start if one is not present just put it on another drive.
In case that happens you know it happened and you can make some miniature swap file . But it is pointless wasting your write cycles even on small, 512MB swap file, just because you can by random stumble upon some super old app which requires swap file.
Trim is automatically supported in Windows 7. It will also disable defragmenting, Superfetch, ReadyBoost and Prefetching. Don't defrag it manually - you reduce drive life and get nothing back in return. If you want to check Trim is enabled, you can do it from a Command box. Type: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify If the result is 0, then Windows is sending TRIM commands to the device. hth Caroline
Windows 7 enables TRIM automatically. Don't remove the pagefile. Do disable hibernation... the details are in several threads on here, but I will try and dig out the details. You also need to set your PC in S1 sleep so that TRIM / garbage collection has chance to do its thing while the machine is idle. It is well worth investigating over-provisioning. Many people shy away from this because it means creating a smaller partion; typically 18-21% of the disk is set aside for OP. However, IMHO this preserves long term performance. Never de-frag it. Never run benchmarks on it. Don't run any P2P apps on it. Connect it to your first onboard SATA port (0 or 1) depending on the board. Oh and absolutely do not clone an image of your current Windows install. Suffer the pain of a fresh install as you will reap the benefits long term. Enjoy.
^ never run benchmarks. Wrong, there are benchmarks specifically for SSD drives. How else would you know your drive is running as it should? AS SSD, and Crystal Disk Mark are a couple I've used. Also download intel storage toolbox, which has a tool which optimises the configuration of the ssd (disables defrag and does a couple more things), and also has a optimiser tool that cleans the drives old memory bits, so that it runs a tad faster. I only use that once every few months though. My comp feels fast whether I run that or not, as TRIM is working, but yeah.
Intel Storage Toolbox is only for Intel, there is no point in running it for any other drive. And yes, don't run benchmark is a valid suggestion, SandForce drives suffer from benchmarks, because it is an unnatural use case for the drives.
This^ Thrashing a SF-1500 controller with a bench will probably not affect long term performance, not commenting on life-span as it depends how often you run them. Your eyes will show you it is so, so much faster than a mechanical, so I really can't see the need to run a bm as someone will always post a faster score... meh. SSDs are fast... if you want to enter a p*ssing contest order some LN. Basically anything that creates masses of writes in the short term will degrade performance and it takes idle time for TRIM/gc to recover this... so why would you?
Thanks all, really appreciate the info. So in summary 1. Do a clean install. 2. Turn on ACHI. 3. Turn off hibernation. 4. Check that TRIM is running, but it should set itself to go automatically. 4. Don't over-bench, defrag, or run any other background HDD heavy stuff.
I would add a step 1a. Disconnect all your other HDDs while you setup and configure your SSD, you can confuse the system boot preference if another drive with an OS is present. Here's how to disable hibernation.
Sure, will try, but not on a Windows PC at the moment, so it might be a bit vague to start off with. Basically all it means is in the Power Options in Control Panel, you need to disable your system from putting the SSDs/HDDs into sleep mode, so that the system remains on until you power it off. TRIM/gc works best when the system is idle, so it will reclaim dirty (used) nand when you are not using it. It's not essential to do this, but it will prevent some temporary (though minor) performance loss because TRIM/gc will not have to try to operate while you are performing reads/writes to the SSD. I think I also read somewhere that you can log off of Windows one a week or so and this also helps this process (I may have made that bit up though... happens).
PocketDemon's posts in this thread are a good place to start. It also includes some good links to helpful articles on the OCZ forums.
I always find the best way to set up a SSD is tell it that you have a fancy dress party to attend and need some company for moral support, have said SSD dress in a ludicrous garish outfit or cross dressing type outfit, and then when they turn up you and your mates can have a good ole laugh.
I think it's about time we got some ssd guides sticked. Pocket demon has put some great stuff out there and it keeps getting lost. I know I went through hell trying to optimise my windows install changing the default location for program files etc.... And there was a good post discussing how best to do that.........
another thing is making use of junction points. i use it quite a bit in my ssd / hdd set up with junction points to the high write locations. its also a good way if you're not planning on installing programs to the ssd. you can set a junction point from the ssd to the hdd for your program files directories. that way you don't have to manually type in / browse to a new install path. also because some programs give you no choice as it's hard coded to install to c:\program files, using junction points is a convenient way to have them installed to your hdd instead. i also make junction points for my user profile folders at install time via audit mode which is a great feature as well.
