Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

Finally, someone replied me..lol

The thing is, I'm not using a secondary hard drive..just one 120gb ssd..that's it..so should I do another clean install in AHCI mode?

 

AHCI is the way to go if you're running a single SSD.

 

ok so what I should do now is shut down my computer, go to bios, change to AHCI, reboot, go to boot menu?

should I format my ssd first or I can immediately click new?

 

If you backed everything up/your SSD is new then yes go to BIOS change the setting to AHCI and change boot order (put first your windows install source DVD/usb key etc).
Format it and install

 

wait so I need to format it first? is it ok if I format the ssd?

 

Its best to just do a quick format on an rather than a full format.
During the install process, go to advanced settings and delete the existing partition on the drive, then create a new one. This will align the drive correctly, then format the drive and install the operating system.

 

If you want to switch from RAID to AHCI a re-install will be needed unfortunately. The performance between the 2 will be identical though.....so if you ever want to do raid down the road I would leave it so you can just copy the image from your single drive into an array.

 

Bingo..That's what I want to hear(read)..I might get another intel 510 in the future, so I will just keep it in raid..thank's scook..

 

If you do not mind the extra 2 seconds added to your boot time for the raid menu....you should always install with raid enabled to keep the option open down the road

 

So I just ordered 2 OCZ Vertex 3 120 gb's and I was wondering how I would go about setting them up in RAID 0?

Links, tips, etc. are greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Btw, it's on a new m17x R2 which I haven't turned on yet...

 

First off.....Vertex 3's are wasted completely in an R2 - should have got the cheaper Vertex 2's (same performance as Vertex 3 on Sata 3gbps port)....secondly....if you want to raid all 3 drives you have to get a caddy to replace the optical drive with a HDD. Thirdly, what on earth would you need 3 SSD's in raid for?! Pretty sure the controller can't even source that many iops

 

Never mind 3 in raid....why even bother raiding 2......why bother raiding any SSD for that matter.....I would have looked at C300 or X25-m G2 personally, favouring the 256gb C300 if space was an issue...its a great performer on sata II, as is the 160gb G2.....

 

IM actually thinking of breaking my RAID 0 setup. I just don't want to have to deal with reinstalling everything as it will take forever. Of course I'd have to backup both drives instead of just one, not to mention reimage both drives when I want to bench PC benches like PCmark 04,05, PCMark Vantage ect. But in the end I will gain the use of TRIM, which would be worth more then me having to constantly be concerned about having to re-image everytime I move large files across my raid setup to prevent speed degradation (sp?)

 

hey all,

have just installed an intel x25-m 160 gen 2 and below are my cd marks, is it me or do they seem a bit low compare to others. My specs are in my sig and i have installed the intel rapid drivers and run trim from the toolbox. any help/advice is appreciated.

Craig

 

Just get a 300GB Intel 320 SSD and image the array to that single drive. Then leave raid on in bios but break the array. Then you are running a single drive

 

Who said Raid'ing 3 drives? I was going to take out the hdd that it came with then put in the 2 OCZ Vertex 3's. So that would add up to 2 SSD's.

Agreed it's wasted, but it will still be faster than the Crucial's won't they? Not to mention they're SATA III's so I can just put them in future laptops/desktops.

Why RAID? To get faster speeds...?

So how would I go about doing this once my m17 arrives? Thanks.

EDIT: Not to mention, according to these benchmarks the OCZ Vertex 3 scores on par if not better than the Crucial c300 at 3 gb/sec (i.e. SATA II).

 

You beat Crucial but you pay ALOT more per GB for the Vertex 3 vs the Vertex 2 which will perform identically on Sata 2.....

And ya that is a "my bad" about raiding 3 drives, I misread - sorry

 

No problem and I'll give you that but it's already purchased so w/e's x)

Anyway, no one ever answered my question in my first post >.< What are all the steps to RAID'ing 2 ssd's? I haven't yet powered up my m17 yet. Should I replace the hdd and put in 2 ssd's then start it up and install windows or...? Any help is appreciated

 

On the fence:
New system, new Intel G3. Clone or fresh install? Figure fresh is probably easy, but of course I'm on the fence

 

Personally, I would go for a clean install but others may advise different.

 

I recommend a fresh install, best thing would be installing from a USB flash drive as it's insanely fast But I would clone the steam folder for example... this will save you a lot of time.

 

now my undestanding is that with the new sandforce controllers, not having TRIM in a Raid setup is a non issue as they will do garbage collection and run a more efficient controller that makes up for the lost TRIM function ???

 

What are all the steps to RAID'ing 2 ssd's? I haven't yet powered up my m17 yet. Should I replace the hdd and put in 2 ssd's then start it up and install windows or...? Any help is appreciated

Sorry if I'm being annoying but I would like to get this question answered. It seems you guys know a lot about this topic yet no one knows how to install/set it up? Help a newb out

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...pgrades/569899-setting-up-raid-0-oneself.html

How to set up Raid

 

Yaaays thanks FXi

 

It's the weekend. I bet you want to get to work on that Raid setup

 

Is there a simple guide with all the information on installing an ssd and keeping factory windows (ie from alienware) fresh. Maybe as the first post or something?

 

That is really at the heart of my debate. Fresh install I clear any garbage I don't want off, get the drive aligned right and all that. But cloning means I keep the Alienware specials that do seem kind of nice.

Anyway, there is a thread around the forums that has a step by step on getting your Alienware fresh formatted and with all the Alienware extras all installed. It's a bit time consuming but it can be done, supposedly.

 

Anyone recommend any good drive image software?

 

I used Acronis 7.0 easy migrate to go from my Samsung SSD to Intel 320, seems to have worked fine.

 

I use Acronis True Image Home 2010.

 

Is there anyone here using OCZ vertex 2 120GB? I run benchmark 2 times and the write seq are only around 59MB/s for 1000MB test (read speed is around 223MB/s)

 

I see, that looks like that will be my choice then. And how should I backup my SSDs since it is not recommended to use images? Thanks

 

same SSD as me which program you using? and I'll run a test

 

I'm using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1. I've also noticed that the temperature of this SSD always is 30c. Is it strange?

 

A good read for this thread:
Best SSDs For The Money: April 2011 : April Updates

 

+1 Definately a great read, and I may think about selling my X25-Ms for 320s. Although if I got the 18x route, the 320s are only SATA II correct?

 

Ya, I have not decided if I want to pay a premium for Sata 3 yet since Sata 2 speed drives more than make me happy

(and I only like Intel right now and would prefer an intel controller to the marvell one in the 510)

 

Yes 320's are SATA2 only, BUT the capacity of 300GB is more than 256 by a sizeable amount. For me, I went with the 600GB because capacity and not having to flip things on and off over the years ahead was more important to me than a small increase in speed.

Up to you of course, because everyone has slightly different preferences on speed vs convenience, but give the capacity of the 320's some thought before dismissing them because of SATA2 only speeds.

 

???? I use Acronis 10, never had any issues/problems. Keeps alignment, very quick restores, etc.

 

So if you install an SSD, can you "transfer" the key and OS to the SSD? Or do you have to purchase a new OS? I'm guessing the latter.

 

You can just clone it over. The software will not know anything has changed and will just think that you restarted the machine

 

Please post all SSD related items here...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/


NBR now has a dedicated sub-forum for SSD items.

Thanks.

 

Hmm, was this unlocked?

Anyhow, heres a question...

Currently I have my system running in SSD RAID 0 (See Sig)
They way I see it, I'm not really getting much benefit from the RAID Setup since SSDs are plenty fast on there own. I'm contemplating splitting the RAID 0 setup, so that I can have TRIM active.

Here are my plans. One SSD (Bay 0) will be for the OS/apps. The other SSD (Bay 1) will be a dedicated gaming SSD, where all my games will go, and I have plenty.

Now the question, If I install the OS (Win 7) on SSD 0, as well as a partition for a Linux OS, will TRIM still be active, and will it work on the Linux partition? How will TRIM be affected by a dual boot drive? Will it only work for the Win 7 partition, if at all? I'm thinking about installing Linux to just play with it and learn about it, but also my OS/apps won't take up the whole SSD. My gaming SSD though could get pretty full.

Anyhow thanks for any input.

@Batboy Sorry for bumping this if it was previously closed, just figured I'd ask the Alienware group as I don't venture far from this subforum often. Feel free to move the post or close the thread and I can repost it in the SSD Section

EDIT: Posted in SSD section, so feel free to disregard, unless you have some insight.