Sorry to annoy you again guys but i have some questions. I've just bought my first SSD and i'm preparing for its installation but have some doubts. Win 7 x64 Mobo ASUS P8P67 DELUXE i5 2500k HDD WD caviar black 1tb SSD Sandisk Extreme 240gb As i don't have a raid i haven't installed intel RST. However, i've read somewhere that it improves SSD performance. Is it true? Should i install it? On the other hand, my HDD has tree partitions: the special system partition (the one that is ~100mb), OS and programs partition (C: ) ( ~150gb) and the data partition (D: ) (~780gb). Can I delete the system and OS partition and extend the data partition to fill the whole drive without losing the data in the partition being extended (D: ) ? ********************************************************* |---sys---|-----------------C:-----------------|---------------D:------------| ********************************************************* | v ********************************************************* |---------------------------------------D:------------------------------------| ********************************************************* My D: partition is huge so it would be very difficult for me to make a backup of all my data beforehand.... Last but not least, if there is anything you think i should know (besides AHCI and defrag) to make out the most of the new SSD, please say it. Thank you in advance!
The number of people who are going to smash their fist on their desk a single time after reading your chosen SSD make...
sandisk extreme is actually a very good ssd... anyway, I install irst else it is better to use the generic MS AHCI driver than other chipset driver. You can extend the partition forward on you old hdd as you want, just not in Windows. You will need to grab gparted linux live cd to accomplish that. It's gone without a hitch every time I have used it, but do back up first just incase as it could destroy all data on the off chance. The only 'tweaks' I still do with ssd is disable hibernate and system restore as they use up a good amount of space if left on.
Well, the 240GB, which the OP's bought, certainly is pretty decent... ...the 120GB is a bit more ltd, appearing to be somewhere between something like the V3 & the V3 max iops in performance from what i've been able to ascertain... (Although, if you want a half decent 120GB SF on a budget then, as you can pick them up for ~£70, they're a much better buy than many other options; not 830 speeds (for ~£80), but a damn sight better than any other comparably priced SFs.) Otherwise, the two other major things to add to the list are to - 1. run windows experience index after installing the irst drivers 2. & to alter the power options so that (a) the HDDs do not turn off until at least several hours of idle time & (b) you don't set a sleep mode in the bios (if you use sleep) that kills the power to the SSD. Of course you can choose to increase the over provisioning to improve the maintenance of speeds & nand longevity - (i recommend adding an additional minimum of 7% + leaving at least 15% of the formatted space unused - though personally use ~28% total OP & at least 20% of the formatted space unused) - but that's naturally your call. As an aside, did the SSD come with any info as to the nand spec (the min cycle rating)? Simply that, whilst it apparently uses toggle nand, it's SanDisk's own 24nm stuff & i couldn't find any info for it when i was looking for someone else yesterday (or probably the day before yesterday now).
Not that i had many options, still from what i read it doesnt seem to be a bad drive. How many guys out there have smashed not their fists but their heads on their desks multiple times after buying a vertex 3? How can i increase over provisioning on my drive???? I couldn't find any specs on their memory chips too (besides their serial number xD), so i asked in their forum (naive). As soon as i get an answer i'll post it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_amplification btw i would get a programme called SSD tweaker - awesome programme , can shut off everything that can slow an ssd down (pre caching etc)
I'd say it's also worth checking out this guide. All the info on there is available elsewhere, but it's a pretty good comprehensive guide, although I think it goes a bit too far in some places.
wei in Win7 was designed to pick up the important things with SSDs... ...& most of the tweaks are hugely historical ones based upon - (a) garbage collection & trim either not existing or being very new (either actually not being great or misunderstood) - & so there was a huge fear that almost any day-to-day writes would cause the thing to grind to a halt in short order. (b) & a mistaken assumption that mlc nand would *very* quickly die irl. Now, that's not to say that you can't run tweaking programs or manually edit the registry & whatnot if you so chose, but the need to do so isn't there. Oh, & i did forget to add that it's useful to set the pagefile as a range from 800MB to whatever it recommends - that way there's enough for logging, & if more is needed then it can be used.
