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Getting SSD looking for installation guidance
Im looking to get an SSD next week. After reading many things, I am not so sure now. I'll be using windows 7 64bit, my GPU is DX 10 (read that it must be DX 9 or above)
) Im clear on the realiability arguement so skip that (Im not asking if you would get an SSD)
) My chipset is an ICH7 (No Im not going to buy another mobo cpu ram, so skip that arguement) and Im reading it allows TRIM, and Im reading it doesn't, and Im reading it does but it's tricky. Whats the truith and how do I do it?
) Ive read that the ICH7 does not allow AHCI mode, and I am reading it doesn't, and Im reading it's tricky, Whats the truith andhow do I do it?
) Ive read you cannot clone to a SSD from an HD, I am reading that you can, and I am reading that it's tricky. Again WTF and HTF do I do it?( I do have my copy of windows so that may fix that problem tho I like to keep a clone HD and periodically wipe my current drive and just re clone, that my security system, in addition to AV etc.and if I need to get away from that I will)
) Ive read that Ineed to install the SSD as a secondary, then update the firmware, then remove my primary, then install windows
on the SSD, and Ive read not to do that, and Ive read to just install the SSD by itself and then install windows, then update the
firmware, and about a dozen other scenarios. WTF WTF WTF? Oh and how do I do it?
) In short I really just would like it if Quiz could give me the skinny, on installing the SSD as my primary, and only drive, for now.
The drive Im getting is this http://www.staples.com/OCZ-180GB-Agility-3-SATA-III-25-Solid-State-Drive/product_603538 , and yes Newegg has got better deals, but because of the seventh level of hell that I live in, nothing can ever be delivered to me, other than pizza, and I cannot go to any other store that has SSD's.
Thanks
See the world and all within it.
Live a lifetime in every minute.
Comments
I haven't heard about chipset issues preventing TRIM from working, at least not with just a single drive. I do know that Windows 7 can use TRIM while older versions of Windows can't. But you should be fine on the OS. Putting an SSD in a RAID array will usually prevent TRIM from working, but you don't want to do that. Or at least, you shouldn't.
I'd be very surprised if the video card could prevent an SSD from working due to incompatibility issues. Though if you didn't have a video card that supported DirectX 9 or later, I'd worry about whether you have any SATA ports, either. And SATA has been around since 2003.
It looks like the ICH7 southbridge might have SATA 2 ports, which would sure beat SATA 1. SATA is backward compatible, so the SSD should work even if it's SATA 1, but that wouldn't be optimal. And it might not have been extensively tested for compatibilty and weird bugs.
A 180 GB version of a SandForce SSD means that two of the eight NAND flash channels are disabled. A 120 GB or 240 GB version will have all eight enabled, with helps with performance. Even with two channels disabled, it's still going to be massively faster than any hard drive. But unless you found a great deal on the 180 GB version or need that particular capacity, I'd sooner get a 120 GB or 240 GB one. In particular, on the Staples site you linked, the 120 GB version is $50 cheaper, while the 240 GB version is only $30 more expensive.
If the capacity in use of your OS drive is greater than the capacity of the SSD, then that would prevent you from cloning the drive onto the SSD. But if not, then I'd think it should be possible. And if the total capacity of the OS partition, including free space, is less than that of the SSD, then I'd be very surprised if it isn't possible to clone it. But I don't know how to do it.
Second generation SandForce drives have been out for a long time now, so the firmware should have been stable for quite a while. You might want to check the firmware version before installing stuff on it, just in case it has been sitting on a shelf for a year. But if it's recent, I wouldn't bother updating it.
If you plug the SSD in as a secondary drive, the drive name in the BIOS should tell you the firmware version. Then you can go to OCZ's web site to see the date of that firmware version, and the most recent one, and decide whether you need to update the firmware. You could update it if you think you should. I'd do that before installing anything on it, in case it needs a destructive (i.e., lose all data) firmware update. There's no sense in installing Windows, then immediately having to wipe it to update the firmware, and then reinstalling Windows all over again. That's harmless, but a waste of time and effort.
Thankyou Quiz, I really appreciate it.
Other things that come to mind are indexing, prefetching, those settings and the others like them. As I recall there is only one that needs to be different, and that a fresh install of windows will configure that.
However, in the event I clone, does anything come to mind I would want to enable or disable, after the SSD is primary?
And that begs me to ask , if so, would it be wise/unwise, to have the same setting cloned to my back up HD, which is the little one I keep off system, as a system restore drive, (the clone source)?
Come to think of it now, that one has tweaks on the OS from Black Vipers guide, not all of them, but its not purely a stock OS.
Perhaps a fresh install, then clone from the SSD back to my clone HD,,,, so would there be any SSD setting on the OS, which should not be applicable (or wise), to that clone drive, from such an operation?
See the world and all within it.
Live a lifetime in every minute.
You'll want to make sure that you disable defragmentation on the SSD. Other than that, you can use pretty much the same settings as you would for a hard drive.
Some people will say you should tweak a zillion things, and you can. Some of the tweaks do offer slight advantages, but they're pretty minor. Some proposed tweaks for SSDs are people trying to get too clever and will do more harm than good. In particular, don't disable your swap file.
You mention prefetching, but I'd leave that on for the SSD. Prefetching means extra reads, not extra writes, and reads don't meaningfully wear on an SSD. Indeed, prefetching is harder on hard drives than it is on SSDs. While a good SSD is massively faster than any hard drive, it's still 2-3 orders of magnitude slower than system memory.
Cool ty Sir
See the world and all within it.
Live a lifetime in every minute.
Why do you need to clone your hard drive? If there are files you need, it can be hooked up as a secondary drive. I know reinstalling games can take a while, but a fresh OS is nice to have.
I have a SSD as my only drive on my gaming PC. I disabled the swap file, but I have 8GB of RAM, so it shouldn't be much of an issue. I want to upgrade to 16GB if I find any games which use more than your typical 1-3GB of RAM, just to be on the safe side.