Advice for first time SSD user

Hello.
My first ever Lenovo (X201) will arrive soon with a first ever SSD (128GB).
I gathered some tips and advices here and there, but I cannot make sense of them.
Some say "turn off system restore" or "disable indexing".
Others say "just use it as you would use a HDD".

Can anyone help me what to do when it arrives and how to use it afterward?

Thank you.

 

Even in this thread, I'm sure you're going to get at least some conflicting answers... most modern SSDs should just let you use 'em as you would a normal, HDD, though. At least, I'm certainly of that camp...

 

I would disable indexing, prefetch and superfetch. These are all things that are totally useless with SSDs. Who needs indexing when searching happens in less than a second?

 

If it's a W7 laptop (which I hope it is) then by default:
Prefetch/Superfetch should be disabled.
Defragging should be disabled.
Readyboost will be disabled automatically since it's part of Superfetch.

The only other recommended tips may be moving high write/read programs like Live Messenger (5k~ read/writes per login) to a Ramdisk, or mechanical storage facility.

Indexing can also be disabled, although IIRC it shouldn't do much once it's indexed the SSD. Tbh I wouldn't recommend it but if you want to disable Indexing, it should not be much of a bother at all.

 

I installed my Win7 on this SSD fresh, and Indexing/Fetching were still definitely on.

 

Prefetch is not going to hurt, it just preload things to memory.

indexing may cause a little bit of write but nothing I would worry about.

Just use it as a normal HDD, no need to tweak other than disable periodic defrag. That said, I tried to defrag last week for my x25m(just want to see what kind of write it cost) and am not too concern given the size I saw so I may manual defrag as I see the need (may be after major update or new installation of programs).

proper partition alignment, TRIM support, reasonable free space and AHCI are the things that affect SSD most.

 

Just use this tool, it's the easy way to setup your new SSD:

SSD Tweak Utility 1.6.1 - TechSpot Downloads

 

Move things like browser cache to ramdisk. It will reduce writes to disk.

 

I didnt disable prefetch to prevent writes, I did it to stop wasting RAM....why preload things to memory when you have an SSD? Same with superfetch...these are both services designed with HDD's in mind, they are just wasted overhead when using an SSD.

I have kept my pagefile and browser cache on my SSD, and despite frequent use (2-5 hours a day, includng gaming and surfing), only write about 2GBs a day to my SSD.

 

wasting RAM ? It is cache so whenever your application needs more RAM, those cached RAM space would still be used as if they are free, I am not sure how they are wasted as they would still be using electricity anyway.

It is not that I 'prefer' preloading (though technically they are still way faster than loading from SSD but that would simply be not noticeable) but that I don't bother to tweak the system. In other words, 'no need to disable' NOT 'must enable'

 

It is though, a system based on assumption. Now, as you have just admitted, the speed difference between items preloaded to RAM "would be not noticeable" when using an SSD...so why waste RAM going with what the OS assumes you will use (if the speed difference in negligible)? The RAM is "wasted" in that there is less available for applications when needed, so the pagefile is used more often (which WILL impact writes) - waste. In either situations though, the impact on system performance is not high.

 

I don't know why you keep on using the word 'waste' ? in what form.

The essence of my message is 'don't bother to tweak'(that is for most people when the bother to ask what to tweak).

Now let me tell you what I do to my own setup. I disable indexing and superfetch when I am on HDD !

The reason I disable index is that in my years of usage, I have done only a handful of search the drive for something.

The reason that I disable superfetch is that I found my usage pattern again like you said didn't match the prefetch assumption. Very often, I need to work in things that need lots of RAM so all those cached thing by superfetch would be invalidated and after I close the program, superfetch kicks in and fill the cache(this means read from HDD which is slow). But shortly after that, I may need to reopen another program that would invalidate those cache and the cycle continue. So the cache doesn't serve the purpose or in technical term, the cache hit is low.

There is no 'one setting fit all' and I am inclining to the - unless it really hurts (or the gain is significant), don't bother.

I used to think that I should disable page file and hibernation to preseve SSD write but after checking out the actual usage pattern, they too becomes a don't bother. These two actually have quite noticeable difference in terms of SSD write but on the grand scheme of thing (I am sure in 5 years time, my current notebook would not be a frequently used one), I don't care anymore.

EDIT:
BTW, that is also the reason I bought (and recommend) Intel x25m because so far it is the only line that allows me to 'don't bother'. The famous Sandforce drive for example have 'precautions' like you better not heavily write uncompressable stuff to it or DuraWrite may kick in, you better leave the computer at the login screen so its internal GC would find time to work and those frequent firmware upgrade.

EDIT2:
Are you sure Microsoft's superfetch would hold on to the cache and use the page file(when there are RAM request) instead of just releasing them when RAM is called for ? Based on what I have seen, that is not the case.

 

2gb/day seems to me a lot. Browser cache is mostly useless - IMO keeping in on SSD is only wasting the drive's life.

 

2GB/day -> 800G/year

My x25M 80G is rated for at least 7TB host write, approximately 8-9 years. His 160G can easily double that which is 15+ years.

So why would it be a concern ? How long have you been using your current computer ? My average time between upgrade my computer is between 5-8 years.

 

Intel X25's ftw. I am not jumping on the SF bandwagon just yet. Not until they've gone through time's longevity.

 

Thank you, everyone.
I really appreciate.
I will try to summarize your opinions.

1. W7 should automatically disable prefetch and superfatch, but if they are not, I can manually disable them, but it might not necessary.

2. I can disable indexing and defrag, but I might not need to.

3. If I have applications with high write/read, I might need to move this to an external HDD.

So basically the take-home message is that I should not worry too much and just use it?

The Lenovo X201 will be my sole system, so it will be used around 12 hours a day.
At work, I will mostly use office programs, outlook, and firefox.
At home, I will connect this to an external HDD which will have my P2P downloading folders, music/movie files.

Since this will be my sole system, I don't mind upgrading SSD frequently.
I might even consider an annual replacement.
What I am saying is that I would like to get a maximum speed out of this system, but I do not want the SSD die prematurely by my ignorance (let's say within a year).

 

Alignment, Size, TRIM and AHCI(thus NCQ) are the only things that really matter, above all those tweaks (those can be argued to dead as it is more preference than anything else and have no noticeable impact in usage one way or the other).

The first three affect both endurance and performance, AHCI affects performance but not endurance.

 

Again, just download that program I put a link to, uncheck those which are not unchecked, save changes, and reboot. Then just enjoy and don't worry about your SSD, it will be fine.

 

Thanks, chimpanzee.
What do you mean by alignment and size?
What should I do about them?

As far as I know my X201 will come with Samsung SSD without TRIM.
Is there a thing I need to?

What should I do with AHCI?
Just make sure AHCI is enabled in BIOS?

Sorry for many ignorant questions.

 

Thanks, dlai.
I will definitely consider using this tool.

Is this tool is for longevity or performance of SSD, maybe both?

 

Alignment means that the partition has to be aligned to 4096B block as that is usually the internal block size(or the multiple of it). XP partition scheme is not and a misaligned partition scheme makes the internal write very inefficient (more write than necessary which is both slow and cost write/erase cycle). This is handled automatically by new Vista/W7 installation, so no need to worry unless you clone an existing upgraded system from ancient XP.

If the drive doesn't support TRIM, you can use manual TRIM tools to have the same effect.

If you enable AHCI in the BIOS, a new Vista/W7 installation again would automatically see it and use the proper driver.

 

In a way, both. It will automatically change the settings as suggested. Makes it easy for a new user, just set and forget. Good luck with your new SSD!