My first SSD: What to do?

Yeah as the title says I bought my 1st ssd. It is an Intel 80g g2 which was about 135$ (auction) from eBay. The seller says it is brand new and only missing the packaging (he received it as a gift). I have 3 days to return it

Here are some questions:
How do I check if the drive is brand new?
Is there anything I should do prior to installing it?
Can I just put it on my laptop and run/install windows 7 by the optical drive?
(I have a g73 but probably will be using the ssd on my netbook)
Is there any tweaks on this drive which will make performance better?
Any tips/tricks?

Sorry for the many questions.
Thank you

 

Install Intel SSD toolkit and check the SMART attribute of host write, before you install anything to it.

no tweaks are needed and if there is any, the toolkit would do it for you.

 

That's pretty much it.

Although to be honest, I think anybody would be hard pressed to break an Intel G2 unless it was delivered in a faulty state.

-> Professional use could put a lot of wear on it, but even then, on the G2 I wouldn't worry about it. On the G3 with the cheapo Nand it could be an issue though.

 

Thanks for the fast reply!
After doing that, I should see the mostly zero on the values right?
One thing: Can I just install the drive on the secondary drive port on my laptop and install the toolkit on it?

 

yup, the raw column should mostly saying 0 or number close to that, you would make sense out of them when you see them.

you don't install the toolkit on it but just on to your existing system drive as an application. it will see the drive if it is connected properly to your SATA port. Not sure about your notebook so can't comment on the ports, though it is just an SATA device so you should be able to figure that out. No USB enclosure though as it needs the ATA interface to retrieve SMART info.

 

Smart Info can be retrieved through USB enclosures - at least it works for ALL external HDDs I have, OK, all are Sata drives internally, but their ages vary and it works fine.

 

oh really ? that is news to me and thanks for correcting me. Can you do other things like SE as well or it is just limited to SMART retrieval ? That would be a great help for notebook users(without eSata).

 

You'll have to test it yourself.

-> One point that did come up in discussions some time ago is that the program needs to be written to support it.

Crystal Disk Info definitely tells you smart data via USB:
CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

It also reads the host writes value... but I am not sure how to interpret it.

-> Hex 33A91 -> 211601 in decimal translates to 6,46TB of host writes...

And the Intel toolbox only supports Intel SSDs... I don't have any spares to test via USB (I only have the one in my laptop)

Edit:
have a look here http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-hey-value-smart-host-writes.html#post7205727

 

Update:
I got the SSD. According to the Toolbox, has been powered on for 12 hours (correct me if i'm wrong)?
I really don't know much the SMART Attributes.
Can you guys help me decide whether to keep it or not?
The seller said it was brand new?
Would you consider is as new?

Here's the PIC:

 

64MB of writes; I would consider that pretty much brand new.

 

What bothers me are that it was powered on for 12hrs and 5 unsafe shutdowns.
Do you think its worth the 135$?

 

I think it should be alright.
I don't think that improper shutdown is damaging to hardware.

 

Okay thanks.
I decided to keep it.

 

-> The hours counter is useless as far as I can tell.

At least it first climbed, then stopped....

-> The writes are really key, 64MB - which doesn't even sound like testing.
Unsafe shutdowns are any powercuts -> so running it in a USB enclosure and pulling the usb cable should result in an "unsafe shutdown" even though we do it with out HDDs all the times.

 

Thanks for the reply!
Thats what chimpanzee told me too.

Should I be honest on the feedback on the seller?
Item description on eBay: "New other (see details): A new, unused item with absolutely no signs of wear. "
I was thinking of giving the seller a neutral ratings.
Would that be too harsh?

Sorry, Off-topic

 

The problem here is, whether Intel tests their drive, and if they do, whether it reflects in the Smart attributes.

I think that the test done via the toolbox does not affect the write counter - at least it didn't seem to in my case.

-> So unless you can tell where the writes come from it's difficult to say what the best evaluation would be.

 

Was it still in the anti-static bag with the sticker in place?

 

Sadly there wasn't any sticker but it came with anti-static bag.

 

Im guessing it could have easily have been used but I dont think it was hurt in any way and should be fine.

Even still it should still be under warranty from Intel....right?

 

The seller said it is still under Mfr warranty.
However, I didn't get the original receipt.
Do I need that for the warranty?

 

That last time I RMA'ed a drive they just went by the code on the drive.

I dont think that has changed.Maybe someone else here can verify that for you.