SSD checklist before i install. EDIT : Yahoo ! My SSD works.

[William Gaatjes]

Since i am finally at the moment to buy a SSD, a Crucial M550 256GB. I had to prepare some materials. Such as a conversion bracket to keep the SSD in place. I bought that one last year. :thumbsup:

http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/525-bayextension

Since the M550 has a theoretical maximum read and write throughput that surpasses the sata II (3Gbps) standard i should make sure i use a SATA III (6Gbps) port.
My motherboard (GA-F2A75M-HD2) has 4 SATA III ports, that is alright. :thumbsup:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4393#ov

Lucky me, i have another sata cable (2 came with the package) that came supplied with the motherboard. Should also be SATA III ready. :thumbsup:

Just in case, i also need to buy a sata cable. When looking around at internet shops, i noticed that there exists sata 3Gbps and 6Gbps cables.
Is this really an issue ? Has anyone ever tested if they have a lower performance when using a 3Gbps cable ?

According to this site, it does not make a difference if you use 3Gbps or 6Gbps. At least with "quality" cables with a SATA III (6Gbps) port.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SATA-cables-Is-there-a-difference-97/

I should be set then.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Cables.2C_connectors.2C_and_ports

 

[William Gaatjes]

Well, the M550 256GB from Crucial is ordered. If all goes well, i should receive it Monday or Tuesday. ^_^

 

[Charlie98]

The SATA cable thing has been gone over a few times... basically it doesn't matter.

That's a nice drive... enjoy!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Lucky me, i have another sata cable (2 came with the package) that came supplied with the motherboard. Should also be SATA III ready.

Just in case, i also need to buy a sata cable.

Huh? First you say you already have a cable, then you say you need to buy one.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Huh? First you say you already have a cable, then you say you need to buy one.

In the case that i really needed a 6Gbps cable. But that is not the case.
So, i am not going to buy a cable.

 

[Essence_of_War]

The SATA cable thing has been gone over a few times... basically it doesn't matter.

What charlie98 said!

All SATA cables since SATA 1.5 Gbps are backwards AND forwards compatible. It's the controllers on the devices or the motherboard that are only backwards compatible.

 

[smitbret]

I was always under the impression that it was just a matter of being certified to be 6Gbps compatible.

Similar to the old 5 1/4" floppy disk days. You could buy single-sided or double-sided disks. The double-sided cost more but you could always take out your hole-puncher and make a notch on the side of the single-sided floppy and turn it into a double-side. The risk was that the second side might not meet specs or have been tested to meet specs so you could have gotten data loss. I "converted" hundreds of singles to doubles and never had a problem.

 

[Charlie98]

I was always under the impression that it was just a matter of being certified to be 6Gbps compatible.

If you think about it... how would manufacturers certify to, say, 6GB/s if the standard doesn't exist yet? It's nice that SATA is forward/backward compatible so we don't have a bunch of old SATA1, then SATA2 cables lying around...

 

[Elixer]

Well, to be fair, there was some really crappy (really, really thin) 1st gen SATA cables out there that barely worked for SATA I. Hooking it up to SATA II would cause errors.
However, since SATA II came out, SATA II cables are interchangeable with SATA III.

While there are some thicker gauge SATA III cables out there, most of us wouldn't bother with them, or notice any difference.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Aha, i see.

Well, good news. I received my SSD.
When i have time i am going to reinstall windows.





Anybody got some advice about getting service packs ?
I have windows 7-64 home premium. And windows update has installed multiple gigabytes on updates since i got it. I do not like the idea of getting a few thousand updates one after the other.

edit:
Never mind about the service packs. Already found the Microsoft page.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I noticed that the Crucial M550 256GB has a label on it. Current consumption at the 5V line is 1.7A. I assume peak current consumption. That is a lot. But then again, there are 32 8GB chips present and a controller with 512MB DDR2 RAM . Then it is really not that much. less than 50mA per flash chip.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/crucial-m550.html


I will be reading the stickies now. ^_^.

 

[Data-Medics]

My guess would be that it only comes down to tested speed. A SATA III cable has been tested to meet that speed, whereas a SATA II cable will probably still work at that speed but hasn't been tested to the specification.

 

[master_shake_]

copper is copper length and quality are the real culprits.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe..._down_your_data_transfers_max_pc_investigates

whoops guess length is no biggie either.

well within a reasonable length. 9 feet for example.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Well, i have been reading the SSD sticky and other threads of users.
I am going to sum it up now.
Do you guys have some good suggestions about what i might have missed ?

• Mechanics.
  Bracket is present, screws (SSD have a handy M3 thread), sata power cable and a sata data cable.
  
  
• Disk Imaging software.
  I am not going to use it for now, although i have a WD.
  I did however downloaded the acronis WD edition.
  http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
  Anyway, i am going to do a fresh install.
  
  
• Passwords and install keys.
  I have to make sure i have all my passwords and install keys ready for my email accounts and programs and w7 os.
  
  
• Fresh windows install.
  It is recommended that during the install of the OS, i should keep the SSD as the only drive attached. This to prevent w7 do the installation of the boot partition on the wrong drive, not on the SSD. However, according to a colleague, when selecting the advanced setup of the windows setup disk, everything up to the bootloader partition can be selected and setup as desired.
  Shall i just disconnect my HDD to be on the safe side or do the advanced setup ?
  
  
• Over provisioning software or setup is not needed, the drive has factory installed over provisioning.
  
  
• Test software.
  I have downloaded crystal disk mark.
  
  

Tomorrow morning, i am going to start my SSD install.
Anybody can help me out about what i might have forgotten ?

 

[Elixer]

Well, i have been reading the SSD sticky and other threads of users.
I am going to sum it up now.
Do you guys have some good suggestions about what i might have missed ?

• Mechanics.
  Bracket is present, screws (SSD have a handy M3 thread), sata power cable and a sata data cable.
  
  
• Disk Imaging software.
  I am not going to use it for now, although i have a WD.
  I did however downloaded the acronis WD edition.
  http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
  Anyway, i am going to do a fresh install.
  
  
• Passwords and install keys.
  I have to make sure i have all my passwords and install keys ready for my email accounts and programs and w7 os.
  
  
• Fresh windows install.
  It is recommended that during the install of the OS, i should keep the SSD as the only drive attached. This to prevent w7 do the installation of the boot partition on the wrong drive, not on the SSD. However, according to a colleague, when selecting the advanced setup of the windows setup disk, everything up to the bootloader partition can be selected and setup as desired.
  Shall i just disconnect my HDD to be on the safe side or do the advanced setup ?
  
  
• Over provisioning software or setup is not needed, the drive has factory installed over provisioning.
  
  
• Test software.
  I have downloaded crystal disk mark.
  
  

Tomorrow morning, i am going to start my SSD install.
Anybody can help me out about what i might have forgotten ?

Since to cloning software is used, it is a good idea to only have the SSD hooked up to the system. Just yank the SATA cables off the other drives. Yes, it is true that you can do some stuff in advanced, over the 'normal' install, I don't really see a reason to bother with that, since you already are going to have the case open to install the SSD, might as well let that be the only one on during the install.

About the test software, Crystaldisk mark isn't really for testing, it is for benchmarks.
I also install Crystal disk info, to get a base read on all the SSD's SMART attributes. (You can save that to a picture if you want).
If you actually want to test the SSD, then, there is no better way than zipping/raring up lots of whatever (programs, video files, anything really) and just copy it back & forth to the SSD a few times. Then, once that is done, do a 'verify' operation on the archive, and it should say 0 errors.

Have fun!

 

[William Gaatjes]

Yahoo.

I am running from W7-64bit from my SSD. It is indeed extremely fast.
Fun fact is that my motherboard allows for the selection of a bootdevice.
I still have my old C partition available on my HDD and when selecting my HDD
as boot device, i have my old windows back. But i am not going to keep it for long. Only until i have everything installed.

SSD works like a charm. No problems what so ever.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I now notice how fast my HDD is, since i have my SSD. It does sequential reads with 120MB/s.

 

[William Gaatjes]

The only issue, i have now is that since my PC is so fast, i get annoyed that i have to wait so long for web pages to load. :biggrin:

Here are my crystal disk info screendumps :

My SSD :

My HDD :

 

[William Gaatjes]

Here are my Crystal Disk Mark results :

My SSD :

My HDD, first partition :