New to SSDs? Read this first before asking questions! (UPDATED 07/17/2011)

[RampantAndroid]

Dead images.

 

[red454]

I set up my new system yesterday, and in all the excitement, I did not set the SATA to RAID, and of course, the Intel SRT did not work on the Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD. My first clue was when the accelerate button did not show up in the Intel SSD software, so I figured something was wrong. I researched it and saw what I need to do.

So I set the SATA to RAID, reformatted the hard drive and reloaded Win 7 and all the drivers. The SRT appears to be working, and I accelerated the SSD, and set the cache size to the max (64GB).

But there should be a lot of space remaining on the SSD, and I don't see it anywhere - I expected to see it as another drive with available space. But I can't find it. Am I doing something wrong?

UPDATE: Figured out how to allocate the remaining space. Good to go now...

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Found a helpful guide for performance tuning of Win XP (includes disabling the prefetcher): http://www.prime-expert.com/articles/a06/performance-tuning-of-windows-xp-on-ssd-based-netbooks.php

 

[bryanW1995]

An SSD will work better with a 4k aligned partition and an operating system and BIOS that supports Trim. What does this all mean? 4k aligned partition is just some mumbo jumbo that means your system can support big hard drives (like the new 3TB drives). Windows Vista and Windows 7 support it, but Windows XP does not.

So in other words I should switch to UEFI mode. I didn't do it on my recent 2500k setup b/c my storage drive is only 2tb.

Here's an interesting UEFI article at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

 

[conorvansmack]

Thanks for the guide Zap! Very helpful.

 

[Zap]

You're welcome. Some of the information (such as drive listings) is in dire need of updating, but that will have to wait.

 

[thejunglegod]

Thanks for clearing all that up and was really really helpful. I have a very tiny, maybe dumb question here. Suppose i get a 250GIG SSD and install Windows 7 on it. Can i install games on this drive so that there are much better transfer rates and in turn, better performance??? i somehow get the feeling that this is avery dumb question, but an answer would be appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[blckgrffn]

Thanks for clearing all that up and was really really helpful. I have a very tiny, maybe dumb question here. Suppose i get a 250GIG SSD and install Windows 7 on it. Can i install games on this drive so that there are much better transfer rates and in turn, better performance??? i somehow get the feeling that this is avery dumb question, but an answer would be appreciated. Thanks again.

Yes. Keep in mind that "better performance" in this case means that levels/maps will likely load faster. This is not going to help at all when it comes to frames per second, etc.

 

[thejunglegod]

Yes. Keep in mind that "better performance" in this case means that levels/maps will likely load faster. This is not going to help at all when it comes to frames per second, etc.

Hmm thanks. I was actually thinking of an FPS boost. But Im all for faster load times. Thanks again.

 

[blckgrffn]

Hmm thanks. I was actually thinking of an FPS boost. But Im all for faster load times. Thanks again.

NP

Realistically, if all you care about is FPS you are better off dropping that $80-$200 on an uber video card/better CPU.

I am to the point where I hate using a PC without an SSD, though, so I am willing to scale back the GPU to make room for an SSD in my builds.

The SSD is also likely to be awesome for 3-5 years. Your GPU? Not so much. I love Zap's sig, so true. Pay for the performance you want/need today and put that $100 that would buy you that last 10 FPS in a cookie jar for your next build

 

[Anubis]

so ive asked this before but ill ask it again as i finailly got a SSD (should be here today)

are there any issues with cloneing the OS from a platter HDD to a SSD? or is it simply easier to do a fresh install?

 

[taltamir]

if cloning make sure your cloning tool knows to correctly align partitions for an SSD/4K HDD (most default to aligning for a 512b sector HDD).
Also you will need to make adjustment to windows setting (cancel defrag of drive C, etc).

Personally I think its simpler to just to a fresh install. Not to mention that fresh installs are good for you anyways.

 

[Destiny]

Hi ZAP!

Thanks for putting this thread together - VERY Helpful!

Just got my first SSD today, a Samsung 830 128GB, and going to install it tonite.

Doing a clean install...

Update 3-30-2011... install went well... have to download all my games again from Steam and Origin... and it is true what some people say - once you go SSD you won't go back!

 

[Alaa]

Hi ZAP!

Thanks for putting this thread together - VERY Helpful!

Just got my first SSD today, a Samsung 830 128GB, and going to install it tonite.

Doing a clean install...

Update 3-30-2011... install went well... have to download all my games again from Steam and Origin... and it is true what some people say - once you go SSD you won't go back!

Is partitioning required for these drives or do you just plug it in and install windows? I am planning to get the 830 as well.

 

[taltamir]

Is partitioning required for these drives or do you just plug it in and install windows? I am planning to get the 830 as well.

All windows drives need to be partitioned. Windows installer will partition the drive for you. Either automatically or as per your manual configuration (your choice).
Either way win7 installer will correctly align partitions it creates on SSDs & 4k HDDs. I think vista did too but I am not 100% sure about it. XP will align it incorrectly for those drives, as it assumes all drives are 512b HDDs

 

[Alaa]

All windows drives need to be partitioned. Windows installer will partition the drive for you. Either automatically or as per your manual configuration (your choice).
Either way win7 installer will correctly align partitions it creates on SSDs & 4k HDDs. I think vista did too but I am not 100% sure about it. XP will align it incorrectly for those drives, as it assumes all drives are 512b HDDs

Great, thanks.

 

[taltamir]

Make sure you have AHCI enabled in BIOS before installing windows though

 

[Destiny]

Do everything what taltamir said... enable AHCI first in bios, then install windows 7... Windows 7 will do everything you need for the installation... afterwards you don't need to do anything else... not even a Firmware update if you just got the Samsung 830 recently... all you have to do is install the Magician thingy.

So far everything is running great in my system!

I have the OS and my most played games/programs on my SSD... everything else I have directed to my HDD - including all those My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos, Downloads, etc...

:biggrin:

 

[Alaa]

How do you deal with STEAM? Is it possible to play STEAM games from a different directory? So I can keep all my games on HDD but frequently accessed ones on SSD.

 

[taltamir]

How do you deal with STEAM? Is it possible to play STEAM games from a different directory? So I can keep all my games on HDD but frequently accessed ones on SSD.

there are several apps for moving steam directories.
Here is one of them.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/15/joy-install-steam-games-to-other-drives/

 

[Alaa]

there are several apps for moving steam directories.
Here is one of them.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/15/joy-install-steam-games-to-other-drives/

Thank you so much for this.

 

[Destiny]

How do you deal with STEAM? Is it possible to play STEAM games from a different directory? So I can keep all my games on HDD but frequently accessed ones on SSD.

Yes, I have the steam directory and steam folder with all my games in my 1 TB HDD... I basically relocated the Steam Folder by while holding the shift-key I clicked and move the Steam Folder to my HDD... the same way how I moved my my documents, my downloands, my pictures, etc...

 

[Fjive]

To my fellow SSD owners, could you share what's the real life writes on your SSD? Just need to get an idea, like 10gb/day?

The new Intel SSD 330 has a rated life span of 3 years based on 20gb writes/day..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5751/intel-ssd-330-officially-announced-affordable-sandforce

 

[Destiny]

To my fellow SSD owners, could you share what's the real life writes on your SSD? Just need to get an idea, like 10gb/day?

The new Intel SSD 330 has a rated life span of 3 years based on 20gb writes/day..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5751/intel-ssd-330-officially-announced-affordable-sandforce

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the only time I'll get 10GB to 20GB writes a day is I am downloading "movies" or installing and uninstalling games once a day. Which is not normal use... I usually have things I am downloading/installing write to my 1TB HDD...

The only other use that will do 10GB writes/day are people using their SSDs for Photo/Video Editing...

 

[bryanW1995]

Intel is ridiculously aggressive with their ssd life cycle ratings. Even 20 gb/day forever would only net you ~ 7.3 tb/year. Unless you plan to use that drive for 15+ years with that type of usage pattern then you are unlikely to ever experience an issue. And keep in mind that 128-256gb drives will seem ridiculously tiny in the next few years. 15 years from now you probably wouldn't pay $5 for a 128gb usb 7 thumb drive...