ssd set up

[BishBashBosh]

Hi there

hope someone can point me in the right direction with this query

i have a SSD but not sure if i am running it at its optimal settings, so i am looking for some advice on what what settings would give me optimal performance, i currently have the O/S on ssd and then everything else on my raid 0 array and in BIOS the SATA configuration it is set to raid


many thanks in advance

 

[tw33k]

Download and run ATTO and post a snip of your results.

 

[BishBashBosh]

here's the results

 

[pxsalmers]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html

this is a good thread that can boost the performance of your SSD. also, if you have a second hard drive (non-SSD is better), move the pagefile from your SSD to that drive.

Performance Boost: Move Page File to Another Physical Drive | Windows Vista Maintenance | Windows Tools, Help & Guides#

hope this helps.

 

[BishBashBosh]

I had a look at those tips and tweaks and already done all of them but how should my setup be for optimal performance ahci or raid?

 

[pxsalmers]

I had a look at those tips and tweaks and already done all of them but how should my setup be for optimal performance ahci or raid?

you need multiple drives for RAID. Honestly a single SSD is good enough for most home consumer usage, if you did work that involved multiple large file transfers on a regular basis, then I'd say invest in extra drives and run them in RAID 0. If not, a single SSD with AHCI is fine.

 

[whs]

Your numbers look pretty good to me. What do you want to improve. Some people say that AHCI is faster - I did not make that experience. I run none of my 4 SSDs in AHCI.

For the OS, all the "big" numbers are pretty meaningless anyhow. Most of the R/W is in 4K blocks. What really counts is the access time. That is what gives you the speed.

Btw: I never move any of the system files to the HDD - including the page file. I do, however, delete the hiberfile and move the user files. My SSDs are 80 and 90GBs.

 

[Golden]

Hi there
i currently have the O/S on ssd and then everything else on my raid 0 array and in BIOS the SATA configuration it is set to raid

Thats a close to perfect setup - my disks are configured in exactly the same way, and I have not had any trouble at all.

 

[BishBashBosh]

the burst speeds and access times are really low compared to others, it seems that every time i run the benchmark tests they appear to get slower

 

[Golden]

Its tricky to compare different makes against each other - alos be careful of running too many tests. Testing a huge amount on an SSD shortens its life span, which will eventually affect the scores.

What is your disk WEI?

 

[whs]

Access time of 0.2ms is not unusual. Yes my OCZs have 0.1ms, but my 2 Intels are also 0.2. I would not worry about it. In real life it makes really no difference - at least I have not noticed any.

And Golden is right. Running too many tests is not good.

 

[BishBashBosh]

 

[whs]

Hmm, the WEI does indeed not look right. Check your alignmnet. maybe there is a problem: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html?ltr=S The procedure for checking is towards the end.

 

[BishBashBosh]

i checked the alignment and it was ok and it was a clean install of windows seven so i think it should of done that automatically

 

[whs]

i checked the alignment and it was ok and it was a clean install of windows seven so i think it should of done that automatically

True, the installer does the alignment. But there were still cases where it was out of wack.

 

[Golden]

I agree with whs - I would have expected a WEI of +7.

Re-check the alignment. Have you implemented any tweaks before posting here?

 

[BishBashBosh]

yeah i done most of the tweaks but they don't seem to make much of a differnce apart from gaming which seems to be slower than normal. I have done most of the recommended tweaks here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html

i ended up turning on a few of the services back on because i am sure it was causing some perfomance issues

 

[Wishmaster]

The majority of these tweaks were for early generation SSDs and no longer apply.


IMHO, run the WEI assesment.
Then restart your computer.

Win7 will automatically make all the tweaks that were needed.

Thats all you should do.


Optionally, you can delete and disable the Hiberfile if you do not use it. And possibly turn off Indexing on the SSD, (Not disable the service just uncheck the index option for the SSD)


You can also turn SuperFetch back On if you choose. Completely optional.


But, overall, run WEI and reboot is the only "tweak' you need to do to a modern SSD. It will take care of itself.

If you have been benchmarking it a lot, just leave it alone for a while. In a few days, performace will return to normal on its own.

 

[whs]

The majority of these tweaks were for early generation SSDs and no longer apply.


IMHO, run the WEI assesment.
Then restart your computer.

Win7 will automatically make all the tweaks that were needed.

Thats all you should do.


Optionally, you can delete and disable the Hiberfile if you do not use it. And possibly turn off Indexing on the SSD, (Not disable the service just uncheck the index option for the SSD)


You can also turn SuperFetch back On if you choose. Completely optional.


But, overall, run WEI and reboot is the only "tweak' you need to do to a modern SSD. It will take care of itself.

If you have been benchmarking it a lot, just leave it alone for a while. In a few days, performace will return to normal on its own.

+1, that's the way I do it and never had problems. Many of those "recommended" tweaks are counterproductive - e.g. turning Superfetch off. The RAM is still a lot faster than even an SSD.