Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

The real world performance will vary according to the type of data and how compressible they gonna be. You can test both your SSDs to see how they differ in real life situations. ie perform a couple of program installations, a few transfers of various types of files, boot times, etc... synthetic benchmarks are indicative but don't always reflect the real performance of the drive.

Off topic, even on the same processor, depending on the compiler, the instruction set, etc... a program will perform differently and will give you better or worse results (depends on the optimization).

 

But you would call it safe to assume that the OWC drive should be up to snuff compared to the Intel? You know more about ssd's so I just am looking for some reassurance on my purchase lol

 

For the money the size and the performance you wanted, that was the right choice Scook

 

That is what I wanted to hear haha (as long as you mean it )

 

of course I mean it

 

There is still the mystery though of why the drive will not work at all in my M17x R1

It is visible in computer management but any attempt to format it fails

And even though attached as formatted, it does not show as a accessible volume. There is a volume I can remove, but that is all I can do to the drive. I am using the default MS storage driver and the controller is set to AHCI mode. The desktop with x58 chipset and Intel RST driver installed is also set to AHCI and it works fine there.

 

What do you mean? it doesn't recognize the SSD under any kind of mode? That's weird. Did you try this drive alone?(without any other drive attached)

 

From windows on my intel ssd, I cannot access this ssd. It throws an error every time I try to format it. Windows sees is but always fails to format/access it

 

Did you try to boot with the OWC only and try to format it from the GUI of Windows installation?(no other drive attached)

 

I have not. My plans for this drive were to image the Asus disk to it for some benches. Having to do a fresh install would definitely be a downer but I will do it if nothing else seems to work

 

My Vertex 2 is up and running, so sweet, fast. I installed the Intel chipset by accident, is there a way to uninstall it? I want to use the MS driver.

 

Follow-up:

Was able to use Acronis to image my Asus hard drive over to the OWC and did the benchmark I was aiming for. PCMark05 of 6500 on an Asus UL80vt lol - I am happy!

 

Either uninstall the Intel driver (Delete the driver software for this device.) > reboot > let Windows install the MS driver
or just switch to MS driver if you intend to use the Intel driver in the future
update driver > browse my computer for driver software > let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer > Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller

Take a look here Link

 

You are da man!, thank you, +Rep I have been getting around 25sec boot times so far with the Intel Driver, so we will see.

 

Good to know help has been appreciated

Just curious, 25 sec boot time including BIOS POST, right?

 

23.6 secs now with the MS driver, I am using Boot Timer. I loaded my system normal, using only the basic SSD tweaks.

 

Got it

Have fun

 

So, does this mean that the MS chipset driver yields better performance than the Intel driver?

I wasn't having much luck updating the Intel driver to the latest version when I got my m17x, and I suspect (hope?) that might have been the reason for a sudden drop in my primary hard disk WEI (from 6.9 to 5.9).

 

The issue is more that the MS driver includes TRIM where alot of chipset drivers right now do not (for example the nvidia chipset in my laptop)

 

So since I've currently got TRIM enabled, there would be no benefit for me to switch to the MS driver?

 

Correct. Additionally, the intel driver is needed for RAID setups as far as I know

 

I called OCZ tech support and asked which chip set driver should I use, the phone tech told me I should not have to install any driver, Win7 will do it for me. Well we all know that's what he was told to say to any Joe Blow that calls in. So I asked him if there is a difference using either driver, Intel or MS, he siad no. So I guess that was 3 mins I will never get back, and the MS drivers are fine for now until I see a benefit to switch.

Now if I could just get a solid answer on my Seagate Momentus XT 500gb being a secondary drive for games and media, any extra benefit to that over a 7200rpm Seagate drive?

 

The XT drives are a little faster. I personally am not bothering with them but many people are happy with their performance

 

results on my Vertex 2 any good?:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 204.500 MB/s
Sequential Write : 138.682 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 185.328 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 133.533 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 11.763 MB/s [ 2871.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 19.534 MB/s [ 4769.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 116.857 MB/s [ 28529.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 123.792 MB/s [ 30222.6 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 46.4% (51.9/111.7 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/09/22 18:27:33
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

Your 4k reads and writes can be greatly improved. Follow either http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-series-4-5-965-chipsets-stamatisx-tweak.html or http://forum.notebookreview.com/6684914-post507.html guides to improve it.

 

I think they might be better now, I just loaded the newest Intel Chip set driver this morning, I had the MS driver. I have not had time to time my load time yet, I will post tonight. I have done most of the "Tweaks", we will see.

 

There is a known issue with the chipset m17x-r2 has. So no matter the driver you install unless you want a crippled ssd performance this is the only way to fix it until a real fix comes out.
Sure, it's a workaround but that is as close as you will get to see the intended performance out of your ssd.

 

I had some time tonight to apply the "JJB Tweak" method of adjusting processor power settings, and here are my results from CDM:



I'm not sure what else I can do to bring these 4k speeds up, but it seems like many people on these forums have much higher performance than this. I've done all the usual performance tweaks as well... is it time to just sit back and twiddle my thumbs while awaiting a true fix from Dell or Intel?

 

Hmmm, this is causing me problems, fortunately I only renamed the directory, I just noticed this thread has over 50 pages, so I guess that means more reading, fun...

Well I searched every page individually for Users looks like I should just rename it back, how do I remove the Junction I created?

 

ok so I typed rd Users to remove the junction that I previously created, renamed xUsers to Users on D: (which is really my C: drive) but I still cannot login, what a pain.

I get the message:
User profile cannot be loaded

I checked the registry under HKEY Local Machine...Windows NT (is that right?) under Profile List and it correctly lists %System Drive%\ for all of the folders so now I am stumped. Time to start googling for a solution, if anyone can lend assistance to undo this mess up I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

just copy it back to c: or where it originally was and try to boot. it should fix it.
weird, for me it worked a number of times without a problem and i know some ppl from this thread have done it as well. are you sure you're doing everything right ?
when you copy the directory you have to use the switches i used or it won't work

Code:

robocopy "E:\Users" "D:\Users" /mir /xj /e

 

finally found the solution, wasn't easy to find

Code:

Hey guys, try clicking on those links above if you need help.

If there is another administrator account that you can log into, then jump to step 7 after logging into that account.
However, if you can't get to any accounts at all, then start at step 1.

1. Restart your computer and hit F8 multiples times until you see a menu-like screen, if you see the Windows splash screen then repeat this step
2. Highlight and hit enter on Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Try logging in there. If it still doesn't work, then go to step17
3. If you are able to login, once a command prompt pops up, type: net user administrator password /active:yes (you can specify whatever password you want for the administrator account.)
4. If you get a message saying "The command completed successfully", then restart your computer by typing: shutdown -r
5. Boot up again pressing F8, but this time choose just Safe Mode.
6. You will be able to login as Administrator with the password you set in Step 3
7. Hit (windows logo)+R
8. Type regedit
9. Once the registry editor opens up, look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
10. In the left pane, find the one that starts with S-1-5..... and ends with .BAK; if you don't find one, skip to step 15
11. Right click it and click Rename, then change the .BAK to .BK
12. Right click the one with the same numbering but without the .BAK and add .BAK add the end
13. Right click the one that you renamed to .BK and clickRename, delete the .BK
14. Eventually, you have switched the .BAK from the end of the second entry to the first. That should probably fix your problem.
15. If you didn't find a .BAK then try this: Open Windows Explorer to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Application Data
16. If you find another Application Data below the one you're on, then delete it. That should probably also fix your problem.
17. If you can't login in Safe Mode, then reboot and hit F8 until you see the menu again, then hit enter highlightingRepair Your Computer
18. Wait until all Windows Files finish loading, then hitNext when it asks keyboard language.
19. Try logging in here also, choose your user from the dropdown menu, and type the password, then jump to step 23
20. If that still doesn't work, then if you have your Windows Installation CD still, put it in and restart your computer.
21. Hit F12 until you see a menu of boot options, choose Boot from CD
22. Choose keyboard language then hit next. Find Repair Your Computer from a little below the center left.
23. Choose Open Command Prompt and type: net user administrator password /active:yes (here again you can specify a password)
24. Close the command prompt and click Restart and jump to step 5

To disable the administrator account, type this in an elevated command prompt: net user administrator /active:no

If nothing here helps, then I'm clueless on how to fix this next.
Hope that helped though :D

-Roi

I suggest the OP puts a strong warning regarding trying to move the Users folder, and should probably include the code above to undo any errors it ends up causing the user.

NOTE: I did not try to move the Users folder after a clean install, I installed about a week ago, so not sure if that had anything to do with the problems I had.

 

I had moved the users directory during and after the install and never had issues. Having said that, I will edit the guide to mention those warnings.

 

I just moved all my picture, music, docs, ect to my D: drive each one at a time, using the move option when you goto properties in each folder you want to move. That's where most of the big files are anyway, I forgot about moving the user profile, maybe that's a good thing .

 

gotcha fractal, might have been an odd case in my system, the error I get is really weird too (and horrible grammar!)

The User Profile Service service failed the logon

 

that is pretty weird. don't worry though, you might have kept your SSD a little better with that tweak, but you gain speed when the users directory is on the SSD..
so that tweak is very individual.

 

I have never moved my user directory....and you all saw the speed my Intel G2 drives did

 

I don't say it improves the ssd speed but there is no argue that it significantly reduces r/w operations to the ssd. So over time it does keep it in better shape.

 

The only things that actually regularly does any read/write in my User folder is whatever is on my desktop (which is also my default download location)

 

Temporary Internet files are there, temp folder is there. Those get written to very often.

 

Heres another run, with some tweaks ( I finaly learned how to add images, lol;

 

Flynnaz try it again with 0Fill

 

Just a note, too much benchmarking while degrade your SSD performance sooner.

Set it to 3 only and 100MB.

PS: 100MB is better than 1000MB to check 4K read/write

 

Doing anything will degrade your ssd performance....but we bought them to use them not to sit them on a shelf and watch them last forever. That is like buying a car but being afraid to use it for fear of depreciation. This is why I did not bother with the trouble of moving my user folder lol

 

Ok heres the results;

 

Those are the numbers I was expecting for that drive

See the difference? lol

The fact that you have to do that to get the advertised numbers kind of turns me off from these sandforce drives. I want to get the advertised speed in a typical usage scenario (random/default settings) which is so far something I get with the Intel drives. I have that 40GB OWC Mercury but do not really have anywhere I want to put it right now. Maybe the HTPC when it gets reformatted?

 

Agreed.
Just want to warn him while he can still achieve the rated spec because some people (like me) are looking to get the fastest/best performance possible from a SSD.

On a side note, not much to worry when benching with 0's on his Vertex 2.

EDIT:
"Doing anything will degrade your ssd performance" ----- Benching will degrade your Vertex 2 (SF) much faster. Warning came from OCZ

 

Thank you guys

 

New tread for Intel RS Beta drivers;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...20325-new-intel-rst-10-0-0-1043-beta-out.html

 

here are my results by doing both ssd tweaks... boy did speeds go up or what? only question I have is how to check if turbo boost got disabled... i must've known how to check at one point but im quite forgetful.

sorry, i dont know how to thumbnail

EDIT: I found out how to monitor turbo boost and yes stamatisx tweak disabled it. shame because my scores with his tweak were much better than by just using JJBs.