Ssd...

My SSD will be arriving tmr and I plan to use it as the Primary OS Drive. What do I need to do when I install the OS using the Gateway restore disc?

SSD: OCZ Core v2 60GB

 

With the Core SSD you might end up having to do alot of the OCZ tweeks if it shows signs of stuttering.

You might not have any problems but the jmicron controllers can, under certain situations, make your OS stutter during heavy random writes.

Other than having to apply the tweeks if it gives you much trouble, a SSD is basically a hard drive. Just install the OS and then the drivers and you're set.

 

Can show me the page for the tweaks?

 

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47212

You might not need them, or you might not need all of them to make the drive work like you want it to.

And remember:
Use registry edits and tweaks at your own risk. If you're careful though you should have no troubles

 

Thank and rep for you.

 

Any other advice, anyone?

 

I have 8 SSDs, 1 of them is a Core V2 60GB just like yours.

A clean install of Vista (Assuming you want to keep Vista) would work best (Use a flash drive to transfer files you need)

You don't HAVE to do all these, but to get the most speed out of your SSD these are the tweaks I recommend:

Disable indexing: Uncheck indexing from drive properties + disable indexing service
Turn off system restore
Turn off hibernation
Turn off the pagefile (Or put pagefile on HDD or ramdisk)

Vista/7: Disable Scheduled Defragmentation

Type into cmd prompt:
fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1
fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

Go to Device Manager
Click the + By Disk Drives
Right-click on the SSD and go to Properties, then to the Policies tab
Make sure write-caching is on (power outage may cause loss of data..)
Vista/7: Check 2nd box for Advanced Performance
XP: Put dskcache in C:, open cmd and type c:\dskcache +p c:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Double-click the DisablePagingExecutive entry and change to 1 (If not already)
Repeat for LargeSystemCache and change to 1
Set SecondLevelDataCache to whatever your L2 cache for ur CPU is. EDIT IN DECIMAL MODE!!!
If you have 1MB - 1024, 2MB - 2048, 3MB - 3072, 4MB - 4096, 6MB - 6144
If you have L3 cache or dont know your L2 cache you can skip the above^ step, it will not make a noticeable difference

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Modify Enableprefetcher from 3 to 0 and hit OK
EnableSuperfetch change to 0

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib
Add a new DWORD Value named DisablePerformanceCounters
Set the value of DisablePerformanceCounters to 1

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
Modify "Enable" which is a "REG_SZ".. modify this from Y to N

 

Thanks and +rep
What's your Core v2 SSD's read / write peformance?

 

BTW, should I use AHCI or IDE mode?

 

I'd say AHCI, I remember something about SSD's and IDE at one point, but I think its since been resolved. Check the OCZ forums, LOTS of info there and I don't even own one yet.(Waiting for the NEXT gen SSD/Windows 7/i7 mobile CPU)

 

Use AHCI. I tested with my Vertex and other SSDs and AHCI starts faster and showed better speed in benchmarks.

IDE mode is needed for Vertex to update firmware and run certain utilities provided by OCZ. The Core V2 does not have that, so you do not want to use IDE mode.

I'll try to remember to check the read/write next time we work on it. We're redoing the whole setup once our ICD24 tubes get here. XFX 790i, liquid cooled Q6700, 4GB 1333MHz OCZ Fatal1ty DDR3, 9800GTX+, using my custom gaming XP locked with EWF. Partition will be aligned, SSD and OS will be tweaked to hell and back.

 

Ever since I got this SSD, I have benched it using HDTune. The read average is only 101.2MB/s, min 72.9, max 120.3, burst 107.4, access 0.3ms.

It's far from the 170MB/s read from OCZ.

All tweaks for OS and SSD applied.
Any idea how I can harness its power?

 

Did you enable write-back cache and advanced performance (Policies tab of the SSD under Disk Drives in Device Manager)?

Are all your drivers installed and up to date?

What chipset is in the P6860? ICH8? You have to remember that the posted max read/write specs are the maximum speed for that drive, there is a very slim chance that even with top of the line hardware you will hit the limit. With a good chipset like the ICH10 and a Q6700 processor with a nice board you will get close but usually will still be a few away from the posted maximums.

Try a bench with ATTO, and try not to benchmark the drive too much, as it does cause wear on the drive and the Core V2's do not support Trim to control the wear.

What matters the most is the way the drive feels during regular use. Does the OS boot faster? Do programs open faster? Is everything snappy and instant?

Did you do a clean install or did you do a restore install?

 

I have a 6860 as well and i can assure you that we can greatly surpass those numbers (my SSD is getting 242/168 read/write)

You will never get the full speeds listed for a SSD (unless its a blank drive with nothing on it) but you should get with in 20MB/s or so of the listed speed

 

Good point, if an OS is installed on the drive, and especially if you're benchmarking the drive FROM the OS that's installed on it, the numbers will be slightly handicapped.

I want to see a bench with atto, I've seen threads on OCZ forum where HDTune has shown different numbers due to the fact it was originally designed for HDDs.