Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

That mushkin drive uses the SandForce controller developed by OCZ and has the same stats and price as the Vertex 2 which makes me think it is just a rebranded Vertex 2 drive.

 

According to a guy that works for Mushkin these new mushkin calisto drives are manufactured in the United States. But I really don't know you could be right about the rebrand but I thought that might be unlikely.

 

Well the sandforce controller is OCZ Technology one...

The specs are exactly the same for read/write and 4K.

There is no doubt those drives are made by OCZ.

 

Hey

Here is my:



Intel x25m 160gb g2.

Its good? (The drive is full)

Thanks

 

Those numbers are ok for the G2. but pretty low

Look at my post a couple pages back to see what one of those should be at

 

I've emailed Mushkin about the low numbers.. Hopefully they will be able to provide some more insight.

 

Which driver do you use?

 

The intel rapid storage one

 

OCZ which makes the Sandforce controller says "OCZ does not recommend the Intel drive but the Windows 7 native driver"

You might have that problem already. I am not sure why so many people get the intel driver. It is not better for all drives...

 

wow really.. thanks joe i'll have to try that out then.. off to uninstall the intel one.. will report back

 

Let us know of your findings.

 

same results... lame sorry took so long i fell asleep while running the benchmark lol

 

This is a bit low for the drive you have. I wonder what could be affecting it.

Are you on a fresh install?

 

Yeah, brand new install with 65k sectors

 

This drive just gets better with age! This is the same tweaks and so on from the last posting

 

Scook, who knows... in a few years it may surpass the X25-E LOL
I suspect that the test was performed when no other processes where utilizing the disk. But those are really good results. Did you update to the new nvidia chipset drivers?

 

Chipset driver package is 15.49 from back in October I think. But using Microsoft ahci driver

 

Those Microsoft drivers are really good actually, I use them on mine as well. The next time I will format the disk I will run a boottimer and a couple of benches to see the performance. Who knows I may even beat that 7 sec boot up time of mine

 

Regardless of performance I use them because the nvidia storage drivers don't pass on the TRIM command

Which is CLEARLY working

 

Hi, I've recently installed my 80GB Intel X25-M and have followed all the optimisation techniques. I ran a benchmark to see what speeds I was getting and it'a bit lower than I had hoped. The result can be seen below.

Do yo have any ideas why it is low and how I could get it up?

 

Try runnig it again with 100mb size

 

I tried with 100mb size. Very minor change, I was hoping to get it up a bit more.

 

The write speeds do look a little on the low end. Did u install chipset drivers?

 

Hmm, changing that helped my write speeds

 

Guys need advice on which ssd is better to get:

Kingston V+ series
Kingston SNVP325-S2B/128GB 128GB SSDNow V-Series V+: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

or

OCZ Vertex Turbo
OCZ Vertex Turbo Series SATA II 2.5" SSD: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

I usually use my M15x on gaming (MW2), surfing and movies.

Thanks.

 

What are you paying because i would rather grab the Intel V for random 4kb writes than either of them.

 

About £250. Intel V? Can u post a link plz.

 

Skip that....for that money you can get anything you want. I would go for the OWC 100Gb myself but many will say it is similar to the vertex II.

Sandforce drive is the key for that kind of money and u r still saving yourself about 150 bucks in the end as it is only 300 or less US

 

Cant find anybody selling the OWC here in UK.

Found this tho:

OCZ Vertex 2
OCZ Vertex 2 Series - Solid state drive - 120 GB: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

A bit over the budget tho..

What do you think?

 

The vertex 2 drives are excellent. I would only consider one of them (sandforce based) or an Intel 34nm drive at this point in time

 

Hi there, Im now using an Intel x25-V with 02HD firmware (lastest i believe) for 2 - 3months. Now I want to do a clean OS install, and i want the drive to it factory (best) performance, should i do a secure erase or just simply format the drive using Win7 install DVD?

 

Simply formatting the drive won't restore the performance, you need to secure erase it.

 

My drive is only gaining performance as I use it

 

Thank you

LOL!

 

You laugh, but my posts speak for themselves!

I guess TRIM does work as well as it is supposed to

 

Scook, check this boot time out

5.616 sec

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6509330-post349.html

M17x-R2 + Intel X25-E simply rules

 

wow, this is faast!
i'd rep you for that but must spread rep
The login screen disappearing and the desktop appearing happens in like less than a second!! very impressive!

 

Thanks mfractal, indeed it happens very fast but remember it's heavily tweaked.
Nevertheless, with a fresh install the program displays a 9 sec boot time (all the services enabled)

 

the X25-E is seriously faster than the M series then. I think that a fresh install on mine was around 14 seconds.

 

Well I couldn't say it is that of a noticeable difference but there is a small one for sure. It also depends on the pre Windows installation preparation of the disk. For instance a secure erase and a format with a 64K cluster size could make the difference. Also it depends on the drivers that are installed, etc...
I really would like to have both of them to make a fair comparison...

 

next windows reinstall i am going to try the 64k cluster size and will secure erase it, but if trim is working i really don't see why a secure erase is needed.

 

That's true, for me is needed because I don't have TRIM but I would always recommend it as a precautionary measure (to make sure that performance is reset to factory defaults)

 

It was never a question that the X25-e is crazy fast lol, it is also true though that it degrades alot more over time isn't it?

 

Have a question about getting my M17x ready for my SSD installation. I currently am using a 250GB HDD that came with my system and plan to upgrade to the Intel 160GB G2 SSD.

Been reading the pass threads on this subject. I wanted to use the DELL DataSafe program to make recovery DVD's so I don't lose my Alienware wallpapers, plus this seemed like the easiest option. I heard all you have to do was create the DVD's take out old HDD and install SSD. Then put your recovery DVD in and your good to go, is this correct?

But I read that you can't go this route if the drive your using to replace is smaller in size, then the original drive that you made the recovery DVD's from? Would anyone be able to explain to me the workaround/solution for this problem? I'm not to computer savvy, so I want to make the SSD installation process as easy as possible, any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

You cannot clone everything from your existng drive onto a smaller capacity drive of course.Therefore you have to decide upon the necessary OS,games,etc that you`ll need on your drive.Everything else becomes a matter of strorage on flash,usb,nas,cloud or whatever you can manage.That`s the easy part of the answer,the technical part is more complicated to explain,for me that is.

This much I can tell you.The Intel 160GB G2 has about 149 GB of usable space,after formatting, I believe.Subtract approx. 7% about 10.5GB for headroom and that leaves you with 138.5 GB.

Probably you will want to ask other contributors to this thread more specific questions as they occur to you.

Good luck with your SSD

 

You can clone to a smaller drive as long as there is free space on the first one enough that the actual data is smaller then the 2nd drive. Of course that depends on the program being used, I know Acronis lets you do it but Acronis also will not clone with the Intel SSD's from what I have seen

 

Thanks for the replies guy, but unfortunately I still don't understand what I need to do. My main question is about this thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...create-recovery-cds-alienware-m17x-r-2-a.html

But to be more specific this is the post in thread I'm having trouble with.

I don't really understand what's the process I need to do, that this poster is saying. Thanks for any help.

 

The reads remain the same, writes can drop up to 15Mb/s ie from 200 to 185 but unless you run a benchmark you won't notice it.

 

@Philthy84

The way I understand nburro`s workaround solution has to do with the process of partitioning.You mentioned you didn`t understand the process.What you need to do ,according to nburro,is to fool datasafe into thinking that it is working on a smaller drive,one that has been decreased in size through the process of partitioning.My guess is that you`re requesting a step by step guide for this process.I`m sorry I can`t help in that way.At present my knowledge is theoretical.

Bottom line solution and advice: PM nburro yourself for guidance......what`s the worst that can happen?

 

Why the decrease in writes?Is it due to nand cell death that decreases overall capacity that causes the slowdown.

And of course now for the biggie,how long can the Intel X25 E go before it slows down noticeably?I`d like to think that if I`m spending that kind of money that it`s going last the life of more than one laptop.More than five years anyways!

Intel only gives mathematical estimates as to the expected life of a drive.Merely a mathematical assumption,nothing based on everyday usage.

What is your opinion and thank you for any answer.

I just looked it up again......2 million hours Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)
2 million hours of what precisely?