Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

Alrite, I finished doing a secure erase, installing and tweaking. Here are the results. I'm pretty satisfied at this point and I think its the most I'm going to get out of this SSD. Thank for all the help.

 

Well here is the best I could manage with my measly MLC drive

I am still pretty happy about its performance!

 

Scook I am not sure but I think that's the best time I've seen from the X25-M so far.

 

I aim to please

 

At least I won't have to open the laptop again for a while

Scook just curious, did you disable the readyboot ?

 

I dont think so, since not sure what that is.

I did turn off ALL services as well as some other tweaks and the CPU OC

And I am sure the qx9300 would still get you faster!

 

give me a second to take a couple of screenshots, otherwise you will get confused.

*EDIT*
I just remembered that I had already post it here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6210740-post157.html

It will make a difference

 

well guys the question is.... Which ssd should i buy, the 160 gb intel G2 or the 80 gig one?

I would put my os and a few games on the ssd. Any suggestions?

 

Whatever u can afford best... They are both solid drives with similar performance. Myself, if I could afford both, I would go for the OWC 100Gb RE drive I recently reviewed and not because it is one of the top drives on the market all around. I would grab it because it has 28% over provisioning which means you dont have to be careful for performance slowing as the drive fills past the 60% mark. It also has a 5 year warranty and guarantees against performance degradation with age.

Even completely full it blows away other drives. Here is the benchmark completely full:

 

From what I read online, Intel drives need at least 20% unused space leftover to maintain performance. I went for the 160gb since I knew I would be filling up about 70gb right off the bat for all the software I wanted installed.

Right now I am sitting at 86gb used up of 149gb on the M11x. The only time I would consider even a 80gb ssd is for a desktop pc not a laptop.

 

thanks for the advice gentlemen. Les, where can one purchase an owc in canada?

 

Only in the US and exclusively from here:

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE Solid State Drive (SSD) RAID Ready - High Performance, Reliability, and Endurance

Mine arrived the next day...

 

well that's pretty pricey. I was thinking about the 160 gb intel G2, 160 gigs for $400 (newegg).

$400 for 100 gig is a little steep for me right now...
thanks for the link.

 

Yes a bit but thats why I explained the over-provisioning. Technically if you are watching performance, you are only filling the Intel 60-70% whereas the OWC can be filled completely with no slowing whatsoever.

In the end, they are equal with respect to what the storage capacity will be for all intensive purposes, the difference is the performance in the end.

So whats the better value for the same price if u r considering getting the Intel 160Gb (as u were) or the OWC? eheheh

 

wow very informative ssd review site Les!

 

There is also the fact that new pc tech always comes out with a higher price premium on it.

 

What would be the best way to reinstall win 7 on my Intel drive when I install it into the new laptop? I read that you are not supposed to re-partition or format those drives. Not sure if it's just bad info, but I didn't want to mess up the drive.

 

Just do a fresh install and decide what partitions you want in the process. It was bad info.

I try and advise against cloning because I have hjelped so many with performance issues afterwords.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

If you feel like you need to do a secure erase (which is the equivalent of resetting the drive to the shipped factory condition for the best possible performance), go to here and download the respective Linux usb stick/cd image in the download section and follow these instructions.

 

hey... everyone... was looking to buy a ssd... was waiting for intel x-25 g3... will there be any performance difference.. if there will be aperformance difference i would be getting a Intel X-25v 40gb for now and would sell that off when g3 comes out.. Or shall i go with the 160gb Intel X-25m.... and just leave the g3 be...

 

I think without hardware changes in the systems the only improvement you will see from the G2 to the G3 will be uncapped write speeds to equal that of the newest SandForce drives now. They will prob be SATA 6Gb compatible for future hardware compatibility but I dont see the lower random reads/writes changing much with respect to visible performance...

I might grab the X25v for now and enjoy the performance/value ratio.

 

the x25v drives are not really that good of a deal....

 

Yeah I don't like them either, better with a X25-M G2

 

I have an X-25V, only use I could find for it was to install Ubuntu 10.04 on it since it's small and not as fast as the X-25M. Got it cheap otherwise I have no use for such a small SSD.

 

i was going for intel x-25v because i won't be losing much when i sell that off... If that is true with 80gb or 160gb then i will go ahead and buy the 160gb g2... but if i say loose something more than £50 then i might end up buying the intel x-25v for now... doesn't the x-25v give similar read performance only problem is it has half of the write speed when compared to m drives.... I want to wait for the g3 but if it is coming out end of this year... I can't wait that long... Just weighing my options.... can't really decide what to do...

 

The write speed is VERY low (like 1/3) and the read speed is about 100 MB/s less

If you want a good value, get the X25-m 80gb or 160gb (they are about the same price/gigabyte)

 

Anyone else considering these?

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE Solid State Drive (SSD) RAID Ready - High Performance, Reliability, and Endurance

 

They look very nice, but not for that price, you would think they were SLC, but they are only MLC

 

@scook9 thnx man.. but i need to sell the ones after say 2-3 months when intel g3 comes out... so which out of the 2 (80 or 160gb) should i buy so that i won't loose a lot £££ when selling these.... and is vertex 2 any good...

 

Hi, I am planning to buy a SSD for my M17x. I see on newegg there are 2 sizes 7mm and 9.5mm of height (both 2.5") which one should I buy?

 

I have not used vertex 2, or anything using the sandforce controllers that are supposed to be pretty good. If you are worried about resell value, the bigger one should do better

 

I honestly have not heard of a 7mm 2.5" drive before.....

 

+ rep for u scook9

EDIT: Can't rep ya now... it won't allow it but will def 2mrw..

 

no worries, and thanks in advance

I have had the corsair x128 and used it thoroughly (indilinx controller) and have been very happy with it as well - if you can settle with an "older" drive lol

I also like the Intel 160GB I have now although I have not spent nearly as much time with it yet

 

This one:
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G201 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I see, that is the same as my 160gb but lacks the black plastic "bumper" on top making up those other 2.5mm. Did not know that they sold them without the bumper on there

this is what I am referring to:

 

So the 9.5mm one can fit in the M17x right?

 

yes

9.5mm is the standard height for 2.5" drives

 

So just to be clear (or not lol )

formatting and a fresh install of Win 7 should = aligned SSD drive ????

 

I had a bad alignment in my 4k sector on my ssd raid setup did a fresh install of windows and no longer have alignment problems.

 

Any news regarding the upcoming G3 release?

 

I suggest anyone trying to move their entire profile with the instructions on page 1 read this:

How to Move your Windows User Profile to another Drive | Core Dump

It's not that simple. You have to then make all these crazy junction points for the inside of each of the user directories. I gave up and reverted, and will just move it the M/S way.

 

Intel Confirms 25nm NAND Flash for New SSDs

 

Thanks, but the actual official G3 release can be anywhere from July to December...

 

you nailed it

 

Yeah, I don't believe either that we will see them in the following couple of months. Also I don't believe there will be such a great performance improvement other than the bigger size for the price that will justify the waiting. Also I see no reason to upgrade to a new drive unless it supports the 6Gbps SATA interface.

 

For me it's good news because it'll drive the G2 prices down.

 

Anyone know if its worth to have two 160GB Intel G2's in Raid 0? Pros/cons?

 

Pros would be speed, cons would be price/space. I'm going to try it, but honestly, probably going to swap my 640GB HDD in place of the second one. Just interested in seeing what the speed will be.