Show Us Your WEI [4]

[newpgm]

Someday I would like to put an SSD in, no hurry. But it is my understanding that is the only way to get above 5.9 on the hard disk. My machine = Dell Studio XPS 435MT & it also my understanding that I would have to enable RAID in the BIOS for AHCI (TRIM support) driver. This needs to be done before the fresh OS install or in my case I was planning on using the data transfer kit.

But the SATA II Barracuda & both Optical drives should still be using IDE & before they could be used I would have to change them thru the device manager to IDE/UDMA? Still a bit fuzzy on that part.

Is it as easy as just picking IDE thru a drop down window in the device manager after the OS is installed?

Thanks

 

[essenbe]

No, you need to use AHCI not raid or IDE, unless you have drives set up in raid. Ahci is set in bios. That should not affect anything other than the OS drive. My optical disk is in AHCI and works fine.

 

[Britton30]

Updated my system specs, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the 965 BE overclocks like a dream. I will make every effort to go through tutorials before I overclock!

Yeah they do well depending on your board. I had a 965BE and ran it at 4.5GHz stable.

 

[newpgm]

No, you need to use AHCI not raid or IDE, unless you have drives set up in raid. Ahci is set in bios. That should not affect anything other than the OS drive. My optical disk is in AHCI and works fine.

That would be great & I hope you're right

I don't have an optioin for AHCI in BIOS - only RAID & IDE. My understanding for this XPS 435 by selecting RAID for the SATA Mode, AHCI is enabled on all four SATA ports.

Then there is some discussion on the Dell forum regarding a failed install of the OS described in the MS Knowledge Base Article 2466753 -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466753
This is a known issue with both Windows 7 and Windows 8. Don't know about Vista though. There are workarounds involving editing the system registry by creating keys, subkeys, and values, as well as workarounds to the workarounds depending on what controller your SSD uses. Assuming at some point you get your system up and running from your SSD, there is one other problem that crops up when you insert a blank optical disk into your burner. Your system will likely either freeze or crash entirely. This is due to your optical drive(s) also running AHCI drivers when they should be using IDE/UDMA. When you select the RAID option for the SATA Mode in the BIOS, all the SATA ports switch over to AHCI. So, before you use your optical drive(s), check in Device Manager to see if you can change the driver for the optical drive's SATA controller in the OS to IDE/UDMA.

If it weren't for that paragraph I would have attempted to install a SSD already. Aside from upgrading the video card, installing windows a few times my knowledge of this PC is pretty limited.

 

[essenbe]

newpgm, You may be right then. I do know that Raid usually incorporates AHCI drivers, but it must be a Dell thing. I've worked on several Dells and all have had a AHCI option in bios, but maybe Dell made some models without it. It is a pretty common setting. Most of the new boards have AHCI enabled by default.

 

[newpgm]

newpgm, You may be right then. I do know that Raid usually incorporates AHCI drivers, but it must be a Dell thing. I've worked on several Dells and all have had a AHCI option in bios, but maybe Dell made some models without it. It is a pretty common setting. Most of the new boards have AHCI enabled by default.

Thanks for the assist. May give it a shot this coming winter & I'll come back for expert advice when necessary.

 

[A Guy]

I am very happy with this new build I have finally managed to find a way to connect to the internet and I am currently downloading some Steam games. I'm sure if a bought an SSD I would be happy with all above 7.0 score. Does anyone know if overclocking improves the rating?
View attachment 274415

Someday I would like to put an SSD in, no hurry. But it is my understanding that is the only way to get above 5.9 on the hard disk. My machine = Dell Studio XPS 435MT & it also my understanding that I would have to enable RAID in the BIOS for AHCI (TRIM support) driver. This needs to be done before the fresh OS install or in my case I was planning on using the data transfer kit.

But the SATA II Barracuda & both Optical drives should still be using IDE & before they could be used I would have to change them thru the device manager to IDE/UDMA? Still a bit fuzzy on that part.

Is it as easy as just picking IDE thru a drop down window in the device manager after the OS is installed?

Thanks

Great numbers guys

A Guy

 

[Stoffiss]

I'm Swedish and therefore the wierd texts ;P

 

[paulpicks21]

Great scores stoffiss

 

[A Guy]

Great scores

A Guy

 

[essenbe]

Nice scores, Stoffiss. Welcome to the Forum.

 

[Britton30]

 

[paulpicks21]

Looking good Gary

 

[Britton30]

Thanks, I can't get the i5 to run at 4.8 and be stable any more.

 

[Insanitic]

View image: WEI score
Here's my score.

 

[paulpicks21]

Hello and welcome to the forums Insanitic, great scores, crying out for an SSD

Here is your screen shot to make it easier to see -

 

[Insanitic]

Hello and welcome to the forums Insanitic, great scores, crying out for an SSD

Here is your screen shot to make it easier to see -

Thanks! I know, I really want an ssd too, but I just don't have the funds yet (splurged on the core i7 and 7950 lol) and I have a lot of data already stored on my main drive, more than any affordable ssd can hold

 

[Britton30]

You only need a 32GB SSD to run the OS, everything else could be on a spinner.

 

[Insanitic]

You only need a 32GB SSD to run the OS, everything else could be on a spinner.

I'm aware of that, but I have a lot of data and migrating ONLY the OS into another drive while keeping all my data/programs intact and working requires a full format

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

You only need a 32GB SSD to run the OS, everything else could be on a spinner.

That depends on your equipment and what you are running on it. My C:/ drive takes up 54.5GB, most of which is taken up by the hyberfil.sys file, which is larger than usual since I have 32GB of RAM (I need hibernation enabled for my UPS). Others may be able to keep things down to less than 32GB. Gamers may need far more if they want the fast loading speed an SSD gives and their games are very large.

Something else to keep in mind is that SSDs like to have at least 20-25% overhead to avoid excessive writes, which shortens the life of SSDs. If an OS (the OS itself, programs, etc.) is 32GB, then a 60-64GB SSD would be needed. I'm running a 128GB SSD, overkill for sure but I'll never worry about running out of space while maintaining more than enough overhead. I'm considering increasing the overprovisioning to help prolong the life (although it will probably outlast my machine anyway).