Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

Ok so heres what I found. I took the Inspiron drive (slow drive) and installed it into the M11x. I benched it immediately upon start up, and after a 10 min. idle wait at the login screen. Here are the results. Looks to me like the Intel driver is the issue. Firmware doesn't appear to be a problem. Also no that the M11x Drive (faster drive) when put into the 1720 showed the same poor results

Immediately upon installing and booting the drive in the M11x.



10 Min Wait at Login screen



Drive put pack into the Inspiron 1720

 

Nice, at least you know that's nothing wrong with your drive or the format procedure or the tweaks...

 

Yea, although I feel half retarded, LES asked if system restore was on and I was 99% sure I had turned it off when I was applying the tweaks. I mean thats a basic SSD thing, apparently I overlooked it cuz when I opened system restore it was on. Going to restart and give it some time, see if that changes anything.

 

Also another tweak I apply since I don't use the search feature of windows or the index is the following:
Start-> Control Panel -> Programs And Features -> Turn Windows features on or off -> Uncheck Windows Search (it will remove the search from the services too)

This is also my personal preference (according to my needs) about the services
Imageshack - servicesprt1.png
Imageshack - servicesprt2.png
Imageshack - servicesprt3.png

 

well I was thinking of putting only those programs that i use all the time on the ssd while most of the programs i use only for a short period of time(in this case games mostly) go on the hard drive. i don't want to ware out the ssd by installing and uninstalling tons of games

 

Thanks I'll definately look into that. I also tried installing Intel Matrix Storage Manager as was stated in the SSD Hardware thread and then removing that. Apparently this intel driver keeps poping up in Vista as well. Well that didn't work, turning system restore off didn't work and the numbers are no differant. Somehow gotta get rid of this thing. lol

 

And since I am in a good mood here is another tweak
Open Computer Management -> performance -> Data Collector Sets -> Startup Event Trace Sessions

Double click on Readyboot and under the trace session tab uncheck to disable like the screenshot below
Imageshack - readybootdisable.jpg

After that I would do a reboot and then go to C:\Windows\Prefetch and delete all its contents
Enjoy

 

That's a good tactic and I do the same ( I was actually referring to applications like MS Office, Photoshop, etc...) unless you got the SSD to increase the speed your games load.

 

Hmm heres another interesting thing. Since the Intel driver is a pain and I can't get away from it, I switched the BIOS from AHCI to ATA and ran the bench immediately upon restart. Here are the digits. They are better than my original bench from prior to switching to AHCI.

The only real differance is the second one is 64K clusters. Tommorrow I'll wipe, start with a new install, and apply all the tweaks. Now I'd be interested in starting from scratch on the M11x and going ATA and see if that changes anything. Apparently the 1720 doesn't like AHCI


Prior installation on ATA



Switch from AHCI to ATA

 

Interesting, it's usually the opposite..
Have you thought of doing another format and install windows without the Intel drivers?

One notice, from personal experience, if I bench the disk right after I boot on windows, I get lower scores because there are services running in the background that utilize the disk, so I wait for a couple of minutes, open the resource monitor to see when my disk activity is minimum and then run the benchmark.

 

I'll give that a shot tommorrow. It's pretty much a bare install at this point. Also I never installed the Intel drivers, just kinda showed up. Tommorrow when I wipe/install, I'm going to do so with the internet connection turned off and see if I'm getting the intel driver through Windows update.

I also would have thought that AHCI would have been faster too. Guess I'll be doing the install on ATA.

 

That's an interesting test to see, one favor, can you run a benchmark (including the winsat) before and after the tweaks so we can see the difference?

 

Sure, not a problem.

 

Tweaking.....eheheheh.....is bad....

We Optimize now. Its a politically correct term that we have adapted.

 

or tuning...

 

EDIT: nevermind, totally forgot about disk management

 

Does anyone know the specs and or model number of the ssds that come with the m17x

 

Its the samsung drive. Its posted in the owner lounge and in the samsung ssd thread..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ers-samsung-pm800-ssd-trim-now-available.html

 

Samsung. I have two 256GB SSDs w/TRIM.

Here is the Crystal Disk info on them. I posted it several pages back as Im working out kinks in my system. Bought them off two forum members. Not sure if they are still shipping these exact kinds, but here are the ones I got.

 

Ah, thanks bothof you

 

I'm new to SSD's, which of the of the numbers in the image below are the correctones to look at:

 

Just got my Intel x25-m 160GB SSD that was packaged on 1/29/10. Are there new firmware drivers out for it that I should flash?

 

U need to check your firmware version first.

 

Just ran these tests. Even though it's a Dell issued Samsung 256GB, I'm happy with it since I get more space. This is on my Inspiron 1720, I'll test the M11x tonight or tommorrow.

 

Nice times DR650SE
I still wait for someone to brake this time though
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6191194-post163.html

 

Wow nice, what is that, one service running?? lol The read times are faster in the M11x, so once I get to it, I might see how low I can get the boot time.

 

Actually services weren't that tweaked. It was though from a clean windows install and all the modifications applied.

 

Ummmm Unless someone wants to dish out the money for the identical drive, they wont. Hmmm....gimme a few days though because I have a brand new OWC Mercury Extreme RAID Enterprise sitting on my desk which has a SandForce inside that just maybe uncapped according to the read/writes they are posting (285/275).

I'll get back to ya!

 

@Les
I will wait for your results, and if you beat the score I will try go even further with the tweaks ("optimization" as you prefer) I am really curious to see how low it can go.
It has to be on a laptop though... otherwise it's not fair

 

Yup I am just cleaning up my other drive (Intel) before removing it. There are a number of comparisons I want to do before removing it and doing a disk image.

 

I bet that an Intel X25-M 160 G2 on an Intel chipset will boot faster than mine, because their firmware is optimized for desktop use

 

Well got it down to 11 seconds as you know but you CANNOT compare the mlc to the slc..

 

True it's MLC vs SLC, but,I believe the firmware gives the advantage in this particular case to the X25-M. (maybe I am wrong)
I also had the advantage due to my CPU. If I run at stock speeds it's 3 seconds slower. That's why I believe an M17x - R2 with the 920XM and an X25-M G2 will outperform mine even though it's an SLC.
It has to be proven though

 

Here ya go...what was your time again? And this is with a ssd that I can't get to reach its peak levels as of yet... OWC Mercury Extreme RAID Enterprise 100Gb SSD

 

Yikes.

Something tells me I shouldn't have made a 90 gig image to move all the stuff to the new SSD.

 

Nice!!! I want to see though its full potentials I bet you can go a sec lower.
my time
http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...367470-post-your-windows-7-boot-time-boot.jpg

 

Wow guys, those times are insane!! I can't get under 20 seconds no matter what I do! Which machines are used to achieve those times?

 

The R1 in my case

 

My windows boot time was 14.632 with the Inspiron in my sig, Samsung drive. Haven't installed much yet though. I'll be installing more tonight maybe. Than I'll run it again, but I keep my starts to a minimum.

 

Well, are there any modifications that you are making that are not listed in this thread? assuming the diff between r1 and r2 is negligible that leaves us with x25-e vs x25-m, it's hard for me to believe that this cuts boot time in half.

 

Actually the chipset on the R2 must give better results, I am pretty sure my SSD can do even better on the R2, this nvidia chipset cripples the performance.
The X25-E has to be better than the X25-M because of the SLC vs the MLC and because of the price, it's almost double (I bought it with shipping and taxes $800).
As far as it concerns the modifications, yes I did more than what are listed here because they are not mend for everyday use, it's only for this purpose. Mostly are services that were disabled and startup items, along with the firewall, UAC, etc...

 

@mfractal
Windows Boot time doesn't include BIOS (POST) Boot time.

You can lower your Windows Boot time by disabling some start up services in exchange with some features gets disabled. (not ideal for pips who opt to have a fully functional OS)

EDIT: @stamatisx,
what's your Windows Boot time for everyday use?
Have you tried doing some bench test on Safe mode? I'm wondering if there will be any difference on your R1 (nvidia chipset)

 

He is right...

My boot time on the Intel 160G is 11 seconds and on the OWC is 9 but these are completely bare new installation times.

My regular boot time on the Intel is 14 seconds with all the bells and whistles and its the same with this OWC now that I cloned my OS to be identicale to the Intel in an effort to find out why my perf scores are lagging a bit with this new drive.

My boot time stays low because I have cut al the fat from the OS completely as I don't need it. Pagefile....gone...hibernate....gone....Restore....Gone....Superfetch, Search, Prefetch...gone. I have followed the Optimization guide to a tee and my system absolutely flies as a result. For me this was inevitable as I have been watching times closely since 2007 when I first installed 64Bit on my first SSD and the start time was just under 24 seconds then.

MFractal....you can get down with that system but it will take the fresh install and then cutting the fat a way a bit at a time. You have to know each Service and if it will work for you, shut down any automatic updaters or program checkers, use MSE Antivirus as it is the best for boot times and just watch everything with a fine tooth comb. Watch the startup files especially. I have nly 4-5 running....Gadgets, Intel RST, and IGXFPers.

 

that depends on what I have to do that particular period of time, for instance there are days that I need to run an apache and mySQL server, so I have them enabled at startup items and as services. There are other times that I don't need tham to start with every boot so I have those services on manual and on the startup disabled.

With only the necessary items on start up and services I get 11-13. I don't get a fixed time.
With those on start up items and extra services mentioned above, I go to 17-19 and on a fully loaded start up system I go to 21-24. (including OSD, CCC, Mouse, Audio tray, etc)

*EDIT*
I haven't tried on safe mode but my guess is that it won't go that much faster, I mean the difference from a barebone setup to get the 8.1 sec boot time and the safe mode is not that big

 

I know, it's becoming quite the standard over here and rightfully so - it gives a unified way to compare user's results.

I have tried to disable non neccesary startup programs but i have left some "leftovers" such as the face recognition service and tray and some more AW stuff, and i do use MSSE.

Guess i will need to go over the services and startup programs and remove more stuff. My purpose is to get the machine to a fully functioning boot sequence (with all the stuff i need at startup) with minimal time.
I think it's wise to post the list of startup services and programs so that others could recommend stuff to be turned off.
what do you guys think?

 

Unfortunately services are very hard to standardize. Whatever service configuration works for me, will most definitely not work for the rest or will cause unpredictable behavior.

The only help I can give you is to post an excel with my services for everyday use and this site that does an excellent job by recommending the services that can be safely removed. (I don't disable all of its safe suggestions, so review them before you proceed)
Windows 7 Service Configurations by Black Viper

 

thanks mate, i used black vipers guide back when Vista was my main OS, but i never bothered with windows 7. I will try that and report back!

BTW, a great resource to examine EVERYTHING that windows starts on boot is autoruns

 

Yeah I agree with you about autorun, very useful and have been using it for a while now.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm just curious how much delay will it do when you start loading the necessary files.

Btw, is 11-13 (with necessary files) same laptop when you got the 8+ seconds (fresh)?

I'm more interested to see ATTO bench test on normal & safe mode (both basic/necessary files) only.
I get higher results on safe mode from my VAIO.

Aight. Thought you got mixed up when you said ff because my 20 seconds is from pressing the start button to desktop

 

I am sorry but I don't fully understand this question. If you could rephrase it

Yes all the benchmarks and optimizations are performed on this laptop and on this SSD only.

For this test unfortunately you will have to wait a couple of days since I need this laptop up and running. In order to do that I have to secure erase the disk and install everything from the very beginning in order to have more accurate results.