Does turning off the SSD work?

[LonelyPixel]

Windows power configuration always had an option to turn off an HDD after a certain time of inactivity. This doesn't work well for system drives, but you could try it. In HDDs, there's clearly the spin motor that deactivates when the option comes into effect. You can hear and feel the difference and cen understand that it uses much less power then.

Does this also apply to SSDs? What happens when I configure the HDD idle time in Windows. (Let's say Windows 7, if it makes a difference.) Does it make a difference at all? Will the SSD use less idle power afterwards? I cannot measure it, but I'm sure someone here could.

 

[razel]

I wondered about it's power management as well. To summarize, even on a laptop you will not notice much difference. Even if you do, it may not be worth fiddling with. In fact back in 2009, with some setups, you actually reduced 4k read performance.

On top of the Windows HDD power saving, SSDs themselves have DIPM, device initiated power management, where the SSD wants to manage itself.

 

[LonelyPixel]

So I basically shouldn't have to worry about that?

In some reviews, the idle power consumption of SSDs is measured. This shows values between 0.3 and 1 W. I think I've read somewhere here that these values were determined with DIPM deactivated. How much saving does it bring on average, if this can be said at all?

 

[razel]

Like I mentioned... don't worry about it. .3 to 1 watt is nothing. Turning down your monitor brightness one notch probably will save you more power.

 

[LonelyPixel]

Well, the CPU uses 2 W in idle and the entire notebook consumes between 5 and 10 W, depending on how bright the screen is. 0.5 W more can make half an hour battery life.

 

[corkyg]

If you are on battery, and not using the machine, turn it off. The SSD cold boot speed is almost as fast as waking up from sleep, and faster than hibernation recovery.

 

[tweakboy]

Nice one Corky, but if you turn off the PSU switch it wont be that fast I assume. gl

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Nice one Corky, but if you turn off the PSU switch it wont be that fast I assume. gl

Boot speed is boot speed.

 

[LonelyPixel]

Okay, resume from suspend takes like 2 seconds, resume from hibernate a few seconds more. Booting time is like 20 secs. This is the latest Intel technology for Ultrabooks, Rapid something, don't ask me for the name.

But when I'm reading a web page, turning off the machine is not a good option. I just thought, while I'm reading, the computer doesn't have to do a lot. So the SSD might go to sleep in these short times of waiting.

 

[KingFatty]

I enable the sleeping so that my spinning HD can spin-down. Windows 7 will apply that setting to the SSD too, so I guess it's fine as I haven't had any problems.

Anyone know if Windows 8 lets you selectively customize which drives get spun-down, and if you can set different times for different drives? Or is it just like Win 7 and one setting applies to all drives?

 

[hhhd1]

it depends on how the SSD handle it when the OS send the command of spinning down.

 

[tweakboy]

Boot speed is boot speed.

True, and POST speed is POST speed I guess. :'(

 

[corkyg]

I'm talking laptop. Bootime is a shade of 12 seconds with Sammy 830. Sleep wake up takes longer on my lappy - it requires a password. Hibernation is a slight negative with a SSD because it writes a file to the SSD according to hiberfil.sys.

Since the SSD is not spiining, and if not reading or writing, it is not doing much of anything except keeping warm.

 

[imagoon]

I enable the sleeping so that my spinning HD can spin-down. Windows 7 will apply that setting to the SSD too, so I guess it's fine as I haven't had any problems.

Anyone know if Windows 8 lets you selectively customize which drives get spun-down, and if you can set different times for different drives? Or is it just like Win 7 and one setting applies to all drives?

The power management section of my Windows 8 VM looks identical to Windows 7 so... leaning towards no, 1 option for all.

 

[Auric]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html

 

[tweakboy]

I'm talking laptop. Bootime is a shade of 12 seconds with Sammy 830. Sleep wake up takes longer on my lappy - it requires a password. Hibernation is a slight negative with a SSD because it writes a file to the SSD according to hiberfil.sys.

Since the SSD is not spiining, and if not reading or writing, it is not doing much of anything except keeping warm.

More like 17 seconds with a few startup stuff and couple gadgets to boot.

unless your counting as soon as you see desktop I dont know....

Tom Hardware did comparison and Crucial was fastest boot time 16.8 seconds then Sammy and Plextor 18 seconds or so....

 

[tweakboy]

Guys trust me dont put your SSD computers laptop or desktop into sleep or hibernation.

Cuz my old man has been doing that to his Sandy computer and his POS SSD a-data is @ 97 percent , lifetime exptancy and crystaldisk used to be 375mbps now its 315mbps and very laggy SSD overall. Stay away from a-data and their cr*p. so he has 97 percent with crystal and shows error for lifetime exptancy or wear and tear. it does have TRIM... but ya , I see my blue windows screen for 3 seconds then I see the desktop. With his,, I see the blue loading screen for a while 10 to 15 seconds ... big diff,, but hes got a Sandy @ 4.2 dad OC

 

[WilliamM2]

Guys trust me dont put your SSD computers laptop or desktop into sleep or hibernation.

I've been using hibernation on my SSD's for a couple of years. They are all still at 100%.

For someone who bought his first SSD less than six months ago, you sure spread a lot of misinformation. I think I'll get my "advice" elswhere.

 

[Auric]

Sleep just uses RAM so "wears" drives less than needlessly booting. Hibernation seems a lot of space but I don't know that it actually changes significantly.