- Dec 7, 2009
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Hi all. Greetings from New Zealand (anybody here also a Kiwi?). After a year of saving I am *finally* able to purchase my new i7 gear, including a 5870 and an Intel X25-M G2 80GB (which is sadly out of stock in NZ at the moment).
Now, I am quite new to the whole SSD field, but have read quite a bit on the excellent articles Anand has written. However I am still not too clear on setting it up. Can anybody please explain to me several things:
1.) How do I format the SSD to an 'out-of-the-box' state - ie, all cells completely erased? From what I understand a normal format doesn't really do it for SSDs?
2.) I have an Asus P6T motherboard, which has two SATA controllers - the Intel ICH10R and a JMicron controller. Now, I know for the best performance and TRIM support I have to set the SSD to AHCI, and that I'll be putting the SSD on SATA port 1, which is controlled by the ICH10R. Now, I cannot set the mode (IDE, AHCI etc) to individual SATA ports, so the if I set ICH10R as AHCI all the ICH10R ports will be set as AHCI. The question is, is it OK for a normal SATA HDD and SATA optical drive to be running in AHCI mode? Or will I have to use the JMicron SATA ports for the HDD and optical drive and set them as normal IDE?
3.) When installing W7, will I have to install a driver first for the AHCI mode of the SSD to work? I think I read that W7 has a built in AHCI driver for the SSD that will support TRIM. Is that true? When is it installed?
4.) And finally, can anyone direct me to a link that details ways to take care of an SSD? I have read bits and pieces all over but often people have conflicting views etc....
Thanks in advance, and I'll be putting up pics of the new build if anybody is interested. Which forum is suitable for it?
Now, I am quite new to the whole SSD field, but have read quite a bit on the excellent articles Anand has written. However I am still not too clear on setting it up. Can anybody please explain to me several things:
1.) How do I format the SSD to an 'out-of-the-box' state - ie, all cells completely erased? From what I understand a normal format doesn't really do it for SSDs?
2.) I have an Asus P6T motherboard, which has two SATA controllers - the Intel ICH10R and a JMicron controller. Now, I know for the best performance and TRIM support I have to set the SSD to AHCI, and that I'll be putting the SSD on SATA port 1, which is controlled by the ICH10R. Now, I cannot set the mode (IDE, AHCI etc) to individual SATA ports, so the if I set ICH10R as AHCI all the ICH10R ports will be set as AHCI. The question is, is it OK for a normal SATA HDD and SATA optical drive to be running in AHCI mode? Or will I have to use the JMicron SATA ports for the HDD and optical drive and set them as normal IDE?
3.) When installing W7, will I have to install a driver first for the AHCI mode of the SSD to work? I think I read that W7 has a built in AHCI driver for the SSD that will support TRIM. Is that true? When is it installed?
4.) And finally, can anyone direct me to a link that details ways to take care of an SSD? I have read bits and pieces all over but often people have conflicting views etc....
Thanks in advance, and I'll be putting up pics of the new build if anybody is interested. Which forum is suitable for it?