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How should i set up my SSD?
Hello.
Ive ordered a new SSD harddrive. But I am not sure how to set it up for optimal performance. My hardware supports Intel rapid share tech. so what I am wondering is wether or not to install the system and games on my normal harddrive or on my SSD?
Intel® SSD 320 Series 120GB 2.5", 25nm
Also bought Windows 7.
Here is my DXDIAG.
http://www.text-upload.com/read.php?id=337098&c=2933641
Thanks for any help:)
Comments
I'm sure others will help you set up the ssd itself, I just wanted to remind you to make sure you have a 3.5 bracket! Most don't ship with them so if you just ordered the ssd hop back in there and get one just in case!
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
If you're asking whether to use Intel's SRT SSD caching or to use the SSD as a separate drive, you should do the latter. SRT gets you some of the benefits of an SSD in exchange for all of the price tag. SRT makes sense for a computer system that you might build for someone who is completely computer illiterate and wouldn't understand the concept of putting things in different drives.
But if you're sharp enough to understand "Put programs where speed matters on the C: drive and bulk data on the
drive", then SRT isn't for you. You've paid all of the price tag to get an SSD, so now you want all of the benefits, right?
Ideally, you'd like to install the OS and the main programs you use a lot on the SSD, and then put bulk data on the hard drive. If you bought the computer a long time ago, then transferring everything could be hard to do, however. Doing a clean install of the OS on the SSD and then reinstalling everything will work. But that's also a pain to do.
If you planned ahead and put the OS and possibly main programs on a 111.7 GB (or smaller) partition of the hard drive and everything else on a different partition, then you can probably copy the OS partition over to the SSD and then wipe it from the hard drive. But not many people would be sharp enough to plan that out ahead of time, especially if when you bought the computer, you didn't know that you were going to eventually add an SSD.
If your old hard drive has at most 111.7 GB in use, or you can easily get it down to that by uninstalling some stuff, then it's probably possible to just copy everything from the old hard drive onto the SSD, wipe the hard drive, and then move some stuff back to the hard drive. I don't know the details of exactly how to do that; it just strikes me as something that ought to be possible. That might also be possible if you have a spare hard drive that you can use to back up other data that you need, and can then copy it back to the main hard drive after you format it.
And if you can't do that, either, then getting the OS onto the SSD without doing a complete reinstall might well be impractical.
While it is more convenient to mount an SSD if you have a spot or bracket designed for it, it's not absolutely necessary. SSDs have no moving parts and put out very little heat, so you can basically stick it wherever and it will work. You could have it sitting loose in the bottom of the case, or duct tape it to the side of the case, or whatever. Not that I recommend doing such goofy things; my point is only that it will work and not cause any problems.
Well, explaining why the SSD has duct tape on it if you need to send it in for warranty service could get interesting.
120g is nothing. I have my ssd run my os and put all my games on 1.5 tb drive. Some rare instances i install my game to the ssd and just move the file off to another drive when i want really fast loading times for games with alot of loading screens.
Also, you can easily move your Temporary Internal Files (Firefox/IE/whatever), Windows TEMP, and some other folders to your secondary drives. I do this simply to avoid unnecessary writes to my SSD - thus prolonging the life. Will it make a huge difference? Perhaps not, but I think any bit can help.
tomshardware.com actually has a lot of really great articles that have a lot of information about SSDs, including how to optimize their performance.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part
Yea, that was my original thought to install the system and programs I use the most/require most on the SSD. Although Im sitting on a Windows Vista OS right now and I have purchased Windows 7. So I will do a clean install and start from scratch.
On more thing, should I set the harddrives in RAID?
I recommend against a RAID for everyday use. THere are some particular cases where I would recommend it (high definition FRAPS recording, increased data integrity needs, high volume file servers, etc), for most gaming computers it just becomes an installation and driver nightmare.
There is a way to change the registry setting though. Just do a google search on SSD AHCI.
Good reminder.