[Orbitalzone]

Well I got a new Samsung 830 SSD (128GB) and installed into my new Dell desktop (which was already pretty quick) and I am pleased that the boot up times and other drive activities are sped up considerably. Just doing Win7 updates and it's installing all 80 of them about 1 every couple seconds which is remarkable compared to regular HD's

Now, I've got to install all my programs so wondered if people had any tips, such as install to less demanding programs to my 1TB secondary drive or install all programs to SSD and all user data to the HD?

Thanks for any ideas/tips etc.

oh and when I kept reading boot times can be 15 seconds I never beleived it, but so far my boot time is about 15 seconds!

[whoever,hey]

Have you enabled AHCI on your motherboard before you installed Windows?

As long as you install it fresh W7 should identify its an SSD and set up everything from TRIM to disabling defrag. But do google "w7 ssd tweaks" to check thats set up correctly.

Then if you have enough RAM you can disable the swap file etc. This sort of stuff is quite subjective. Many people dont agree, others do. Then there is whether you want hibernation etc because it should boot up much quicker anyway.

I install all software, but move old steam games onto an massive HDD. Then set up symbolic links so steam still thinks its on the main OS drive.
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourc...w=1680&bih=925
Some have posted on here about an app to do this, but i just use the command line.

I put all data on an HDD.

I also move my documents folders etc to my HDD, but i do this through a method similar to this
http://headstrongfarm.hubpages.com/h...g_My_Documents

Its an incredible upgrade isn't it? This really is an upgrade you will never go back on

[Orbitalzone]

Originally Posted by whoever,hey

Have you enabled AHCI on your motherboard before you installed Windows?

AHCI, oh bugger......



but seriously, yes AHCI is enabled (probably more luck than judgement there to be honest)

Thanks for those tips, I'll go through and check it all out, the TRIM bit was something I wondered if it needed setting or just worked as it was a fresh install.

The Samsung CD software had a tool to tune Windows features such as turning off defrag, indexing and a few other things.

And yes, it's gotta be the most noticable upgrade I've ever done to a PC....

[JeffG1]

One thing you mustn't do is defrag an SSD. Don't ask me the technical reasons, but I believe it reduces the lifetime.

In addition, there is no problem with fragmented files on an SSD - that's only an issue when the mechanical arm on an ordinary disk has to jump about collecting all the bits of a file.

A decent defragging program, such as Perfect Disk 12 will recognise an SSD and not do anything nasty to it.

[Orbitalzone]

Good to know, I was looking at the Samsung SSD tool and it has a performance test but then says using it a lot can reduce performance/capacity so I get the impression to much messing about isn't a good idea.

[Brush Master]

Originally Posted by JeffG1

One thing you mustn't do is defrag an SSD. Don't ask me the technical reasons, but I believe it reduces the lifetime.

Any write operation on a flash memory part reduces lifetime, as these devices only support a finite number of writes. The number is pretty high and any unnecessary writes are suppressed (e.g. writes that don't actually change data), so it's nothing to worry about too much, but you're right in suggesting that unnecessarily modifying SSD content reduces the lifetime.

Originally Posted by JeffG1

In addition, there is no problem with fragmented files on an SSD - that's only an issue when the mechanical arm on an ordinary disk has to jump about collecting all the bits of a file.

Also true.

[ForestChav]

http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/o...ion-guide-2/2/

Plenty there

[Frank1]

Originally Posted by JeffG1

One thing you mustn't do is defrag an SSD. Don't ask me the technical reasons, but I believe it reduces the lifetime.

In addition, there is no problem with fragmented files on an SSD - that's only an issue when the mechanical arm on an ordinary disk has to jump about collecting all the bits of a file.

A decent defragging program, such as Perfect Disk 12 will recognise an SSD and not do anything nasty to it.

In case anyone wants to know...

A fragmented file on a SSD does not affect the access time.
All SSD's have a limited life in terms of read/write cycles so performing an unnecessary defrag will affect the ultimate lifetime.
Of course, its only Microsoft filing systems that tend to produce a fragmented filesystem in the first place. Better filesystems tend not to
Frank

[JeffG1]

Originally Posted by Frank1

Of course, its only Microsoft filing systems that tend to produce a fragmented filesystem in the first place. Better filesystems tend not to
Frank

Yes, I have never understood why NTFS fragments files on a disk which has oodles of contiguous free space.

[Orbitalzone]

Thanks for all the tips and info, my SSD has installed nice and quickly (unbelievable fast fresh install of Win7) and the updates didn't take the usual 4 hours and 40 reboots

I declare the SSD upgrade a total success!

[JeffG1]

Congratulations. Join the club!

Someone mentioned Steam apps earlier: I avoided any complication by installing Steam itself on my other HDD, and Steam games just get installed in the same place by default.

No jumping through hoops and no large games taking up valuable space on my SSD.

[Orbitalzone]

Yeah I've been setting up programs on the SSD and files/docs/video etc on the 1TB drive.

Am keen to see if it makes any improvements to HD video editing (footage won't be on the SSD)

[Loobster]

Originally Posted by Orbitalzone

Thanks for all the tips and info, my SSD has installed nice and quickly (unbelievable fast fresh install of Win7) and the updates didn't take the usual 4 hours and 40 reboots

I declare the SSD upgrade a total success!

Congrats on joining the club mate.

Given the recent price drops, an SSD OS drive is the single best upgrade you can give to a computer (presuming it already has 3GB RAM or more).

[Orbitalzone]

Originally Posted by Loobster

Congrats on joining the club mate.

Given the recent price drops, an SSD OS drive is the single best upgrade you can give to a computer (presuming it already has 3GB RAM or more).

Thanks, I knew it would likely work well given all the info online and I remember there was a post about it a while back, I think you started it, saying how remarkably good this one upgrade was.

I stuck it with an i5 and wow, finally a PC that actually just gets on with stuff....

I did a before and after tests:
1/ fresh install onto fast SATA3 Seagate HD = not bad
2/ imaged that over to the SSD = better
3/ Fresh install onto SSD = faster

So it's well worth fresh installing and not ghosting an image (my Samsung 830 SSD came with Ghost but they tell you to do a new install)

[Loobster]

Sounds about right.

I built a friend a machine here for $440 - i5-2400, 8GB RAM (Ripjaws), 128GB Crucial M4 SSD. It's a flying machine.