Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

I think i saw somewhere that when installing SSD trim gets disabled or something gets auto shut off... i tried rereadin a few forums on ssd but couldnt find it.. for now im running fine, but im affraid it might drop. how do i re-enable trim?

http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af11/dota_snitch/p3128-1.png

 

TRIM should be there unless the SSD(s) is(are) part of a RAID array. As long as your SSD firmware (pretty much ALL do now), OS (Windows 7 and latest versions of Linux), and storage controller driver (default MS and most modern chipset drivers) all support it.

You can see if TRIM is active in your OS through a dos command (google it)

 

Thxs, ill look it up when I get home. Its on ahci, raid seemed impossible when installing the os and updates.

 

You have to install the OS with RAID enabled, it cannot be set afterwards. You can switch between ATA and AHCI after Windows is installed however

 

Not for me.. I was having issues with ahci.. So I tried ata got that to work then went back to ahci to troubleshoot.. I went to 400mb read with ahci. From 200 ata
I had to reinstall the os a few times in ahci to get it to work

 

Anyone know why my 4k reads are so slow. It is in a desktop with a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H motherboard, 8 gb of 1866 ddr, and 2 Intel X25-M 120 gb SSD in a raid 0.

 

Try doing something to engage the turbo boost on your CPU. Something like running wPrime 1024M on 1 thread. Since it is software based RAID the higher clock speed from turbo boost can translate to higher 4K speed where you are processor bottlenecked

 

Virtual Friends, I have learned a lot on this forum. All are amazing persons willing to help without asking for rewards.
I have another question. I am planning to upgrade my current SSD to a bigger size; can I just uninstall my current SSD and copy all to a new drive and install the new drive?

Regards

 

Wouldnt it be better to install your new SSD with a clean OS install and then restore your files? - im no expert on SSD's but im not sure cloning SSD's works terribly well. Again, I could be wrong - just what I have picke dup so far on my SSD research too.....still learning!

 

ElSerch - yes just do a full drive to drive copy & it should be fine. Just like doing with HDD's.

What I've done before is two different ways ut the new SSD in the 2nd drive bay & copy - or - I've also used an external eSata dock & copied to the new SSD that way.

 

I pretty much always do a drive cloning and have not seen any performance penalty from it.

 

I second what scook said. I've cloned ssds but usually do an image backup and restore and haven't had any issues thus far.

 

what do people use to clone SSDs? acronis?

 

You can use a number of programs for cloning. In addition to Acronis, Macrium Reflect and Nero have worked well for me. I have been a fan of drive cloning for years and find it's a much better alternative to blowing an entire weekend downloading Windows updates, applying game patches, tweaking services to optimize performance and feeding installation disks into a computer. Cloning is (IMHO) the perfect solution to disaster recovery or migrating to a new drive. It works even better when your data files are stored on a different drive or partition than the OS and installed apps.

 

I've used both Acronis & Casper. Completely agree with Mr FOx's comments about using as a back-up/disaster recovery. I use cloning for several systems at the office as one of the several back-up techniques (which also include daily incremental to other HDD's as-well-as off site on line backup's for the servers). Nothing better than a good clone to get back up fast.

 

For those that dont want to pay for software, I recently found out about a freeware that could be useful too. May not have as many "features" as Acronis etc but it doesnt cost a penny.

It has a disk cloning feature in it so thought I would mention it to you guys.....

Free Backup Software for home users. Hard Drive System Backup and Restore in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7.

 

Thanks for mentioning this, steviejones. I tested that software recently on one of my son's desktop computers and it worked perfectly. If you are cloning a RAID setup, this software should work. According to the documentation, it should. I did not test it on a RAID volume.

I should also point out that the free version of Macrium Reflect does not work for RAID cloning, as the drives are not visible to the backup software when booting from DOS mode. I purchased the full retail version of Macrium Reflect, which includes a WindowsPE environment, and it works beautifully for RAID.

One thing that has caused me to shy away from Acronis software is that I think (not 100% sure) that it modifies the boot sector with a proprietary overlay. I used to utilize Acronis Disk Director and True Image Home 2009, and started having odd problems with Windows Vista losing track of the BCD. I would randomly get "No Boot Device" error messages when starting up. I'd power off a time or two, and then would boot normally. I tested my theory by creating a Linux dual-boot setup and used GRUB to load Vista and it worked every time.

After I fdisk'd the hard drive using a DOS boot disk and totally nuked the Acronis, that stopped happening. I haven't used Acronis products since the 2009 version.

 

Linux and DD is probably the easiest way

I use Acronis as I have been too lazy to make an image for linux

 

I use Achronis as well. Works well for me.

 

guys, looking for recommendations for the best SSD i can throw in my new R3 which is coming real soon.
I am looking at >200GB models, and i want it to be SATA III.
Currently considering either the Crucial C300 or the new Intel SSD 510, intel being about 150$ more expensive.

 

If you are considering the C300, i would wait for the C400 (should be out really soon), the 256gb should sell around $475.

 

^^ do you have an eta ?

 

Crucial UK told me end of March......mind you, if they are anything like Intel and the Postville refresh, that could be March 2012 lol

My research for SSD's currently unearthed this:

OCZ Vertex 3 240gb - fastest available to date (but we know that OCZ isnt the most truthful company in the world eh?) - reliabiity could be an issue.
C300 256gb - Great drive but read lots of reports on Crucial forums relating to stuttering and hanging in Windows and also Firware seemed hit and miss.
Intel X25-m 160gb - Rock solid, not the fastest but reliable as heck. Not SataIII so not the best for R3 to utilise the 6gbps bandwidth
Intel 510 250gb - Again, rock solid Sata III ready, speeds not as good as expected. Only just about keeps up with a C300 in various benchmarks.
Samsung 470 256gb - Great looks (but who cares when its in the laptop lol) - good build, not Sata III - VERY expensive. Performance on par with C300 there abouts.
Intel 320 (Postville Refresh of X25m G2) - Not released - this is the one I am waiting for but it I dont think ints SataIII for your R3.

These arent in order, just as I recalled them - again, its just my opinion/views on these drives - others may disagree. I spent ALOT of time already "trying" to compare all of the above for my SataII R2....still noo nearer buying one though LOL

 

Nope,

We are hoping to have the M4 available within the next month or so. We do not have an exact date at this time.

 

Does any one have experience with the corsair extreme x256? Its a 256GB ssd and the local microcenter is selling them at $255/ea. How would they compare to the Intel X25-M? Its a sata II which doesn't bother me as i won't upgrade laptops for a few years.

 

I have a x128 Corsair Extreme. bought it from scook9 as new last year. Never had a issue with it. And man that's a good price for a x256, isn't it?
<-- wants one

 

That price is good. And as katalin noted, I had that x128 and sold it. I actually had some issues initially and rma'd it, the result was what I sold (bnib). Was my first SSD

It is a Indilinx Barefoot powered drive with a huge 64MB cache (drives with the jmicron controller at the time had like 16MB lol). I seem to recall from the corsair forum that a lot of people were seeing issues with the 256GB version disappearing on them but that may be fixed now? I would check there to see if they are more stable now. The issue I had was my x128 would flake out on me after a heavy use session and it would not show up even in bios for a while. It was quite frustrating to me, thus the rma. The advertised reads are achievable but the writes will never be that high.

Keep in mind they are that cheap because they are refurbs and only have a 30 day warranty. I would be weary of that personally....

Here are a few results that I did with that x128 though (should perform same as the x256, although the x64 was slower due to less channels). Top is before tweaks, bottom is after (per this post)

 

Yes i remember reading about issues with the pre 2.1 firmware ones. But this one is great since day one. Thanks again scook

 

No problem. The drive I sold you was actually my 2nd RMA. The first and 2nd both had that iffy behavior. My first one was 2.0, the 2nd was 2.1 and the one you got was 2.1

 

Hmm, If I got them I don't think I would RAID them, I might test out a RAID 0 setup, but I want something that has a lot of space, and for the price at $1/GB, it's not bad. Now the write speeds seem slow, even compared to the intel drives.

 

The 4k speeds will be slow, others are comparable or better than Intel. The Intel drives are just 4k monsters - that is why they got so popular....that and they pretty much never break haha

 

Hi guys,
I'm going to buy the intel 510 ssd..FYI I'm a extreme noob in installing ssd in a system..

So, can someone please give me a step by step instruction on how to get everything works..

Do I have to put the ssd in the current HD drive and move the old HDD to the other bay? Also, how easy it is to install w7 in the ssd?

I also plan to make the old HDD as a storage only. How do I do that?

thank you so much for your time..

 

Hi itsKvn. If you're happy with your current system build & you're not running a Raid setup - you can just copy/clone your current HDD to your SSD & you're good to go. So if you don't currently have the other HDD bay filled, put your SSD in there & copy your HDD (bit for bit - full clone), then to test you can boot from your SSD by changing the boot order in the Bios.

Then you'd want to go through the process of optimizing your SSD performance covered on this forum in another thread.

You asked about how easy to install Win7 in your SSD - so the if you're not happy with your current setup & don't want to just clone your HDD, then see another thread like: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...d-your-m17x-r2-full-detailed-description.html
Although that particular set of instructions pertain to an R2 - your R3 would be conceptually similar. Good Luck!

 

Anyone going to get and test the Intel 320s? Looks like they are the G2's with better capacity and write speeds. Much more competitive with SF-1200 ssds (albeit a year late)

 

Yeah, I was saving money for a SSD for a while now... I'm going to get the 300 gig as soon as they're available here.

 

I would like to see the difference between the 300gb G3 and the 250gb 510.....those are the two on the top of my list atm.....

 

If you only have an R2 forget the 510, it is made for Sata 3 and not worth the price for Sata 2 operation

 

Yeah, i know that. Im still waiting on seeing what the UK prices will be for both. The 250gb 510 atm is about £450gbp. Not sure about the price of the 300gb G3, if its not significantly cheaper, the 510 would get my money.

 

Well depends what you call significantly cheaper, in the US is around $60.

 

Well, if its cheaper, more storage and just as good for a sataII system, sounds pretty good.....more gb/$ (or pound in my case) - will have to wait and see.....god, more waiting lol

 

Guide * Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaks & Utilities *

I hope this link proves useful,

I've only done the trim and hibernation tweak personally

What you guys think about the rest?

 

guys, please give me a suggestion..should I buy the intel x-25m or the 320 series? I'll be using it in my r3, I know the intel 510 is sata 3, but it's just too expensive..

 

At this point I would get the 320

They will be priced similar but the 320 has alot of improvements and makes it one of the best Sata 2 SSDs out there (competitive with many sandforce drives now but with Intel reliability )

 

darn i was going to click buy and then it became "out of stock" at newegg..now I don't know how long that I have to wait for the intel 320 to be in stock again

what's your comment on the intel 510 scook? for the 120GB it's $315 at newegg, but I'll get a free shogun total war 2 CD, which I can sell for $40..That makes the intel 510 120gb = $275, which not too bad right?

 

Still $55 more than the 320 for comparable performance on Sata 2

I would also prefer to have an Intel controller but that is just me

 

Im using the samsung ssd Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 470 Series MZ-5PA128/US 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

my reads are 244MB/s and writes are about 235MB/s on crystaldiskmark

WEI is 7.5 on HD performance

Just saying see if it helps any

 

I end up buying the intel 510 ..It's a little more expensive,but I got a free copy of shogun total war 2..However, I already have the limited edition one, so i basically have extra copy of shogun total war 2, which I'm willing to sell to anyone interested (PM me if interested)...

that's my bench result..

Intel 510 performing in sata III...7.8 WEI score..It may not be the fastest, but I'm very satisfied with it since it's my first ssd

btw it's in RAID configuration..I heard that it could be better if it's in AHCI configuration, I wonder how do I change it to AHCI without reinstalling windows

 

Here you go. Intel 320 series 300GB. Without and with tweak on a fresh install of Windows 7:

 

so can anyone please confirm, should I leave mine in RAID or change it to AHCI?

what's the difference between having it setup in RAID or AHCI?

 

I believe Raid0 will limit your SSD's speed if the secondary drive is not a SSD of equivalent speed. wher as AHCI allows both drives to function independently at full speeds.

I could be wrong but im pretty sure thats how it works