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New SSD Questions
Metallikat
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, my current 1TB Western Digital Black drive is starting to have performance issues, so I've decided to take the SSD plunge. Getting the Intel 160gb SSD drive for OS and games, and a new 1TB Western Digital drive for storage, as well as a copy of Windows 7 (I'm still on Vista). Anything I should know about setting up Windows 7 on a new SSD? In particular, does Windows 7 know to enable TRIM support, or is that something I'll have to do manually once I get into things?
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I was considering this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167028
or this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227529
Any recommendations?
Edit: Also, I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I don't know if we need multiple SSD threads, and I couldn't find the new Computer Build thread
I was going to replace what I thought was a dying boot drive with the 120gb, but I switched the SATA cable, ran some diagnostics tests, and everything seems to be back to normal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233108
Looks to be ok for my $/capacity ratio. I just have no idea how to rate what is and isn't a good drive.
The only stats I can see are:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 270MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 130MB/s
But I don't know what's a decent average to compare to.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131604
It would appear my mobo only has 3gb/s slots. What would that mean if I were to get a SSD? I would assume there would still be a noticeable difference compared to a normal 7200 RPM drive, just not are large compared to the faster SATA bus.
If you can justify the higher price per Gb, an SSD is absolutely worth it and you certainly won't miss out from not having a 6Gb/s SATA connection. It might be less future-proof, but let's face it, SSDs are still very much a niche market and you'll be buying performance improvements that won't enter the mainstream for a number of years. I wouldn't worry too much about depreciation just yet!
(I will acknowledge that once SSD adoption takes off, I expect prices to plummet rapidly and performance to increase more rapidly as well. It's still worth investing now.)
If your drive supports TRIM, and you have Windows 7, that whole business is automated. Windows even turns off file indexing by itself. There's no need to muck about with your page file or other crazy tweaks no matter what paranoid posts you read on tech forums, since with all the recent optimizations, the life of a current generation Intel or OCZ SSD is fairly comparable to a normal HDD.
should you get an SSD make sure to install it in AHCI mode, so you get the best possible performance. it's easy enough, just select it in your BIOS before you run the Windows installer. And with a terrabyte hard drive connected, it's no big deal to tell Windows to back up your junk if you feel so inclined.
join us in the future.
This is what I have set up:
OCZ Vertex 2 50GB for Windows 7 64bit.
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB for WoW.
Decent HDD for installing programs onto and for the users folder.
WD 1.5 TB External HDD for backup.
I pretty much used the instructions off of here as a guide. It requires making changes to the Windows Registry though, but I did it on a clean install so I really didn't have much to lose.
You will not see any difference moving up to SATA III (6Gb/s) connection unless you purchase a Crucial RealSSD C300 (which have a small price premium) or a SandForce2500 based SSD (which are not out in retail yet). All the other current gen SSD can't even max out SATA II so you won't be losing any performance just utilizing the 3Gb/s slots.
You should be aware that there is currently an issue with brand new OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs under 180GB. OCZ is offering a replacement program for people affected by the issue, but it's something you should consider.
If you're willing to do a little more research, Storagereview is probably the best site for benchmarks on SSDs. They have a 'leaderboard' page that gives their current recommendations.
http://www.storagereview.com/best_drives
I currently have 3 different SSDs, a 120 GB G.Skill Phoenix Pro (Sandforce 1200) in my main desktop, 80GB Intel X-25M G2 and 64GB Supertalent Ultradrive GX (Indilinx controller) in my secondary computer, and in most subjective areas, I can't really tell the difference between the three. There is DEFINITELY a difference when comparing any of the SSDs to a normal 7200 RPM HDD. I have a similarly specced HTPC using a typical Western Digital Blue 7200 rpm drive and my other computers using an SSD boot up almost twice as fast.
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
Hrmm, gonna try that registry thing when I install my SSD. Just checked my Users folder out of curiosity to see how big it is.... yeah, definitely trying out those instructions.
I can`t imagine an SSD not being a noticable improvement. I upgraded to one of the hybrid drives (small flash memory cache and 7200rpm drive) and games loaded a lot faster. A SSD should be faster yet, though a lot more expensive for the capacity. If anyone is running a notebook with only 1 drive bay, a hybrid is a nice compromise for increased performance with larger capacity.
Looking for a Hardcore Fantasy Extraction Shooter? - Dark and Darker
Yeah, the users folder can get quite large. Plus if you're constantly adding/deleting things it will wear out the SSD a lot faster than just putting all that stuff on a HDD.
I was looking around, and found this post. Seems less complicated than editing the registry with the same effect.
EDIT: Also, doesn't Intel say something to the effect of their SSD's having a 5 year lifespan at something like 50 GB/day? I find it hard to believe I'd wear it out before it came time to upgrade.
I figured as much. You hear some guys on internet forums talking about the extreme lengths they go to in order to remove their SSD from the equation as much as possible from their PC's operation so as not to "wear it out". They act like if you breath on it funny it'll cut the lifespan in half.
I think I would be a lot more skeptical if not for having bought a Macbook Air. The SSD has been the biggest user experience increase i've experienced since going from DOS to Win 95.
I just got a 128gb C300. It's freaking awesome. And it's only a 3/gbps port, so I can imagine it'll be amazing once I get a mainboard that supports 6.0gbps.