[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

Going to be upgrading to at least a 128 Gb Sammy 830 myyself. Heard good things about them.

I've got one of those. It's a great drive. I got it because it doesn't use one of those SandForce controllers that was causing issues with some SSDs, as I didn't want to have any reliability issues.

Originally Posted by namuk

here is a good guide SSD Tweak Guide

I wouldn't do any of those tweaks. They're largely pointless and some are just plain bad advice. Windows 7 and 8 configure themselves accordingly when you do a fresh install as they will recognise that a drive is an SSD. For instance, if you have disk defragmenter turned on and scheduled to run once a week (the default setting), Windows will exclude any SSDs from that automatically. If you turn it off, none of your drives will be automatically defragmented.

Disabling system restore, hibernation and the page file will free up space (potentially a lot of space), but that guide gives no reasons why you might want to consider leaving them on. System restore is useful! Some people use hibernation instead of shutting their PC down. HERE is an article on why you may not want to turn off the page file.

Disabling Superfetch is pointless.

Personally, if you do a fresh install I would just check that TRIM is turned on and that the disk defragmenter hasn't included your SSD in the schedule by clicking "Select Disks" and making sure that only mechanical hard drives are listed. If all is good, Windows has correctly identified your drive as an SSD and any other tweaks are optional and should be done for a good reason, e.g. because you never use hibernate and therefore you may as well turn it off and free up some space.

[alphaomega16]

Originally Posted by namuk

It is just like connecting Hdd's there just smaller , just plug it into the intel Sata port and set ACHI in bios as ACHI is for Trim any other mode trim is not used.

also remember do not Use any defrag programs on the drive it can damage it as win7 uses Trim which is around the same type of thing there is a few guides in this thread as well i think if not they should be added to the first post i.e disabling Drive Caching,Superfetch/Prefetch ect

here is a good guide SSD Tweak Guide

some options i do not switch off though like Restore or page file i let windows sort that or when you use the Migration software, well it work well using the intel software.

I agree with the chap on the second page of that, the bloke could have gave a breif description of what the things your turning off actually does incase you would want to keep it and not just turn things off for hte sake of someone saying so.

[Marc]

i thought when Superfetch was disabled that "free" memory would be a large number, but with mine disabled it still only says 1 or 2mb free. When i installed Windows it was set to "manual" as well, isn't it normally set to Automatic, and if so, has Windows changed it specifically because i have an SSD?

[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by Marc

i thought when Superfetch was disabled that "free" memory would be a large number, but with mine disabled it still only says 1 or 2mb free. When i installed Windows it was set to "manual" as well, isn't it normally set to Automatic, and if so, has Windows changed it specifically because i have an SSD?

When you install Windows on an SSD, the Superfetch service is set to manual. There's a registry key here: -

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winsat\DiskScore

If the value of that registry key is above 65 (it's 79 in my case with a Samsung 830 128GB), Superfetch will not run as it no longer offers any benefit as your drive's performance is so high. The value of 79 on my system relates to the 7.9 that the drive scores in the Windows Experience Index benchmark. That key is checked every so often, which is why the service is set to manual. If, for some reason, the performance of your drive was to decrease and that value dropped below 65, Superfetch would run. That's another reason why disabling it is pointless. If your drive is fast, it's off anyway. If your drive is "slow" (relatively speaking), it turns on, but that speeds up the loading of applications, so I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't want that.

The service is set to automatic if you install Windows to a regular HDD.

[namuk]

Originally Posted by DJSigma

I've got one of those. It's a great drive. I got it because it doesn't use one of those SandForce controllers that was causing issues with some SSDs, as I didn't want to have any reliability issues.




I wouldn't do any of those tweaks. They're largely pointless and some are just plain bad advice. Windows 7 and 8 configure themselves accordingly when you do a fresh install as they will recognise that a drive is an SSD. For instance, if you have disk defragmenter turned on and scheduled to run once a week (the default setting), Windows will exclude any SSDs from that automatically. If you turn it off, none of your drives will be automatically defragmented.

Disabling system restore, hibernation and the page file will free up space (potentially a lot of space), but that guide gives no reasons why you might want to consider leaving them on. System restore is useful! Some people use hibernation instead of shutting their PC down. HERE is an article on why you may not want to turn off the page file.

Disabling Superfetch is pointless.

Personally, if you do a fresh install I would just check that TRIM is turned on and that the disk defragmenter hasn't included your SSD in the schedule by clicking "Select Disks" and making sure that only mechanical hard drives are listed. If all is good, Windows has correctly identified your drive as an SSD and any other tweaks are optional and should be done for a good reason, e.g. because you never use hibernate and therefore you may as well turn it off and free up some space.

Sandforce over any other controller has sold allot more over anyother controller used, so you will get allot more people complaining and firmware issues i no i held out just down to that fact but i was waiting for the 6gb drives in the long run,

if you look at the current there pretty rock solid due to current Firmwares on 6GB'S dives that is i looked at, even the older drives some members have had them 3 years or less as well.

the SSD Tweak Guide was an example there is many out there and common sense applys as most of the tweaks are due to the drive being small so allot are there to save space you just need to read into it more but there is better guides but that was a Quick Google on my part,
but the caching is one to look at but if you think Superfetch is a waist of time then every credit i take you never run the drive software utility when you installed the 830 as there is a OS optimization section
in fact other manufactures have software utilitys supplied too disable certain features in windows due to running SSD's but yet people seem to ignore it or not use it as it is there for a reason then you get the attitude if i can do better, makes you wonder were the reliability problems come from sometimes.

[namuk]

Originally Posted by alphaomega16

I agree with the chap on the second page of that, the bloke could have gave a breif description of what the things your turning off actually does incase you would want to keep it and not just turn things off for hte sake of someone saying so.

this is a better one as that was only a quick search as most can do

Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

with Description and vids,Popup book in the post do not use half myself most is just space saving.

[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by namuk

but the caching is one to look at but if you think Superfetch is a waist of time then every credit i take you never run the drive software utility when you installed the 830 as there is a OS optimization section
in fact other manufactures have software utilitys supplied too disable certain features in windows due to running SSD's but yet people seem to ignore it or not use it as it is there for a reason then you get the attitude if i can do better, makes you wonder were the reliability problems come from sometimes.

Well, you can blindly run software if you want. Here's an article from Steven Sinofsky (the president of the Windows Division at Microsoft) about SSD support in Windows 7: -

Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Some choice quotes: -

Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation on SSD system drives. Because SSDs perform extremely well on random read operations, defragmenting files isn’t helpful enough to warrant the added disk writing defragmentation produces.

But yes, I should let Samsung SSD Magician disable the entire service so it doesn't run on any of my drives, including the mechanical ones! Then I can run it manually, cos that's so much better than having it done for me.

Regarding Superfetch: -

By default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance.

Regarding the page file: -

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

But by all means, if you want to follow guides on forums written by random folks or trust an SSD manufacturer's advice over the guy that's in charge of the Windows Division at Microsoft, that's up to you.

[namuk]

Originally Posted by DJSigma

Well, you can blindly run software if you want. Here's an article from Steven Sinofsky (the president of the Windows Division at Microsoft) about SSD support in Windows 7: -

Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Some choice quotes: -


But yes, I should let Samsung SSD Magician disable the entire service so it doesn't run on any of my drives, including the mechanical ones! Then I can run it manually, cos that's so much better than having it done for me.

Regarding Superfetch: -



Regarding the page file: -


But by all means, if you want to follow guides on forums written by random folks or trust an SSD manufacturer's advice over the guy that's in charge of the Windows Division at Microsoft, that's up to you.

the blindly run software is developed by the manufactures to run with in firmwares on the SSD's for a reason also that post is from 2009.


if the guides are so bad why not Do your own and update all theses bad advised problems i am sure microsoft,Crucial,corsair ect would be interested.

hang on you do not run blindly run software designed.

i can see this running for a while

[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by namuk

the blindly run software is developed by the manufactures to run with in firmwares on the SSD's for a reason also that post is from 2009.

It's irrelevant how old the post is. It still applies.

Let's just take one of these "tweaks" and you can explain the logic of it to me: -

Disk Defragmenter in Windows 7 does not run on SSDs. It knows that the drive is an SSD and ignores it. When I click "Select Disks" in Disk Defragmenter, the only drive I can select is my D drive, which is a Hitachi mechanical hard drive.

So explain to me why I should allow Samsung's SSD Magician software to disable the disk defragmenter service. If I disable it, all it will do is stop my mechanical hard drive from being analysed and defragmented (if necessary) once a week on a schedule. To defragment my mechanical hard drive I would have to manually enable the service and then run Disk Defragmenter.

Just a short explanation will do on why I should disable that service.....

[namuk]

Originally Posted by DJSigma

It's irrelevant how old the post is. It still applies.

Let's just take one of these "tweaks" and you can explain the logic of it to me: -

Disk Defragmenter in Windows 7 does not run on SSDs. It knows that the drive is an SSD and ignores it. When I click "Select Disks" in Disk Defragmenter, the only drive I can select is my D drive, which is a Hitachi mechanical hard drive.

So explain to me why I should allow Samsung's SSD Magician software to disable the disk defragmenter service. If I disable it, all it will do is stop my mechanical hard drive from being analysed and defragmented (if necessary) once a week on a schedule. To defragment my mechanical hard drive I would have to manually enable the service and then run Disk Defragmenter.

Just a short explanation will do on why I should disable that service.....

you should ask your self as your the SSD king, i await your tuning guide as it will be the best Guide in the world.

[DJSigma]

So you can't see the logic in it then? You obviously have no rebuttal. Point proven.

We'll try another one then: -

The Superfetch service is set to manual when Windows installs to an SSD and only runs if the drive scores below a 6.5 in the Windows Experience Index benchmark. My Samsung SSD scores 7.9 and so the service never starts, and you can see here that it's not running: -

If I disable it, it would make no difference because unless the WEI score for the drive drops below 6.5 for some strange reason, it will never start. If your drive is so slow that it scores less than 6.5, you would actually benefit from having Superfetch running because it speeds up the loading of applications.

So explain to me why you should disable the service altogether. Just a short explanation will do. Sarcastic comments are OK, but they don't really get us anywhere. I'd rather you think about what I've written in the last 2 posts and provide solid reasoning against what I'm saying if you believe that what I'm saying is wrong. If you can't, then perhaps you should stop linking to guides that you don't even understand!

[IvyFanBoy]

Ive decided 128 gig will be enough for OS drive ... I noticed some idiotic put 40gig of iTunes backups on my c drive that didn't need to be there lol

[Houghsx]

All the guides on the net are just that, guides. Nobody is saying you must do this or your drive will explode. Its up to folk to make up their own mind on what to do.
It is interesting that the actual manufactures choose to disable these things and MS say no.

[thesilverfox]

Thread for discussion; not slanging kthxbai!

[majnu]

When I followed a SSD optimisation guide I found that Crystal Bench reported lower performance. The problem is when I tried to revert everything back to the original settings the performance wouldn't go back.

As long as Windows is installed with the SSD in AHCI mode and you have the most recent drivers I would leave it as that. If you want to follow a guide make sure you run a benchmark to compare results before and after.

CrystalDiskMark - Software - Crystal Dew World

[Marc]

common sense told me to ignore the tips about disabling degrag and drive indexing services because i have two mechanical hard drives in my pc as well, and i don't want them to never get degragmented, and i want to have the ability to index the files on them if i so wish, so i just unchecked indexing for my C: drive and confirmed that defrag doesn't list my SSD, and that was that.

I also ignored the tip about disabling system restore because that serves a fairly important function. Disabling shadow copy just to save a few GB is insanity, and if you're that worried about SSD writes that you'll disable things like this then you should just stick with a HDD

I've left my page file alone too. It's only 4gb and if i ever actually get so short on space that i need 4gb back then i really should get a bigger drive.

I have disabled prefetch as there's no point to having that turned on, but superfetch i've left at manual now i know Windows will automatically enable/disable it based on C: drive performance.

[Razor]

I have been running an ssd for about 3 years now and all I ever do is disable hybernate and check to see if trim is enabled.

[Oggie]

Same here razor, I though w7 deals with all that other garbage

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Oggie

I though w7 deals with all that other garbage

Same here mate. if it doesn't I really don't care as performance is fine as it is, benchmarks don't show any loss of speed and an ssd is in a different league to a mechanical hdd when it comes to access times.

[IvyFanBoy]

Then u 2 should right a guide you should if you think you no it all

[Razor]

Originally Posted by IvyFanBoy

Then u 2 should right a guide you should if you think you no it all

Razors Guide to owning an SSD


- Buy the biggest and fastest ssd you can afford.
- Select achi in the bios
- Install OS on ssd
- Disable hibernate (open command prompt and then enter powercfg -h off) <- optional
- Check to see if trim is enabled (always has been for me with win7)
- Now you have done all the above go and do something more interesting like play a game and forget about your ssd.


Common myths that aren't true -

- Placing porn on an ssd doesn't make you shoot your load any quicker.
- Fred Flintstone is not a real person.

[thesilverfox]

Having not owned an SSD, is checking that Trim is enabled easy enough?

Also, we could do with some clever people perhaps explaining some of the terminology to n00bs like me

[majnu]

Originally Posted by thesilverfox

Having not owned an SSD, is checking that Trim is enabled easy enough?

Also, we could do with some clever people perhaps explaining some of the terminology to n00bs like me

The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review

Number 15.

[DJSigma]

Originally Posted by Razor

Razors Guide to owning an SSD


- Buy the biggest and fastest ssd you can afford.
- Select achi in the bios
- Install OS on ssd
- Disable hibernate (open command prompt and then enter powercfg -h off) <- optional
- Check to see if trim is enabled (always has been for me with win7)
- Now you have done all the above go and do something more interesting like play a game and forget about your ssd.

^^Now that is a good guide.

I would add "install the latest firmware for the drive" to that list too.

[IvyFanBoy]

about to hit buy on this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT12...=38ZEU22VFZL5K

[Razor]

Originally Posted by IvyFanBoy

about to hit buy on this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT12...=38ZEU22VFZL5K

That or the Samsung 830

[IvyFanBoy]

Ok will look at prices of that when I get home

[thesilverfox]

Originally Posted by IvyFanBoy

about to hit buy on this
Crucial CT128M4SSD2BAA 128GB M4 SSD 2.5 inch with bracket: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Weird - it was £89.99 the other day

[IvyFanBoy]

it was 89.99 2 hours ago!!! loll
still in my basket at 89.99

[DJSigma]

The 830 is about £30 more. I have an 830 and I'm really pleased with it, but I would stick with what you've got in your Amazon basket. The performance is about the same and in terms of reliability they seem to be about the same too.