Looking to get an SSD

[Deathmineral]

Well, I got my drive in yesterday, installed it today, and I'm on it right now, so far so good.

 

Have to say though, I'm kind of disappointed, after all the praise everyone has given SSD's, I'm just not all that impressed really. Only thing I really notice a difference with it is with windows start up.

[IVIYTH0S]

Well, I got my drive in yesterday, installed it today, and I'm on it right now, so far so good.

 

Have to say though, I'm kind of disappointed, after all the praise everyone has given SSD's, I'm just not all that impressed really. Only thing I really notice a difference with it is with windows start up.

I blame it being the M4 (just kidding), I saw a big difference in my laptop oddly. (boots up way faster then my desktop's Vertex 2, but we'll see how my new SSD does in there) I mean I came from a VelociRaptor which is as fast as a non-modded platter drive is supposed to be but my Agility 3 in my laptop is way faster than it so it could be that the M4 is slow but I never hear other people complaining.

 

Are you running it in AHCI mode or IDE?

[Deathmineral]

I blame it being the M4 (just kidding), I saw a big difference in my laptop oddly. (boots up way faster then my desktop's Vertex 2, but we'll see how my new SSD does in there) I mean I came from a VelociRaptor which is as fast as a non-modded platter drive is supposed to be but my Agility 3 in my laptop is way faster than it so it could be that the M4 is slow but I never hear other people complaining.

 

Are you running it in AHCI mode or IDE?

I think my expectations were just too high really, I just really thought it'd be different than what it is. Other than when windows loads up, I can't say I've noticed any differences in anything else.

 

As for AHCI or IDE, I'm not sure. How do I check? Also, is it one of those things you can only change before actually putting stuff onto the drive? Yep, I'm not terribly knowledgeable with this stuff.

 

Edit: Well, I downloaded AS SSD Benchmark, apparently I'm using IDE, and from what I understand, AHCI is what I should be using, so is it possible to change that without any complications?

Edited August 12, 2012 by Deathmineral

[potatochobit]

changing the SSD does not change your processor speed

SSD is for faster reads and writes, you will notice a difference installing programs, uninstalling, accessing control panel, copying files, no hard drive access times like waking from sleep, etc.

 

to change to AHCI, first makes sure your SSD is in one of the first two sata slots, usually called sata0 or sata1

then go into your bios and you should be able to enable it without any problems if you are running windows7 (XP you must mod first)

[Tjj226_Angel]

changing the SSD does not change your processor speed

SSD is for faster reads and writes, you will notice a difference installing programs, uninstalling, accessing control panel, copying files, no hard drive access times like waking from sleep, etc.

 

to change to AHCI, first makes sure your SSD is in one of the first two sata slots, usually called sata0 or sata1

then go into your bios and you should be able to enable it without any problems if you are running windows7 (XP you must mod first)

 

I think you have to change some registry stuff before it works completely.

 

@death mineral, it would probably be best if you reinstall windows after you changed the BIOS to ACHI. The only reason I would do that is simply because your OS on the drive is so new that it won't be too much of a pain to reinstall windows.

 

You also need to make sure you optimize your SSD. For example you should enable TRIM and disable your page file.

 

When you say that the drive is not up to your expectations, how so? For instance, are your games not loading very quickly, are applications taking a bit longer to load than anticipated? Or were you just expecting everything to load instantaneously?

[El_Capitan]

Just simply change your registry while using IDE to AHCI, then reboot, then change your BIOS settings.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

[Deathmineral]

I think you have to change some registry stuff before it works completely.

 

@death mineral, it would probably be best if you reinstall windows after you changed the BIOS to ACHI. The only reason I would do that is simply because your OS on the drive is so new that it won't be too much of a pain to reinstall windows.

 

You also need to make sure you optimize your SSD. For example you should enable TRIM and disable your page file.

 

When you say that the drive is not up to your expectations, how so? For instance, are your games not loading very quickly, are applications taking a bit longer to load than anticipated? Or were you just expecting everything to load instantaneously?

Thanks for the reminder, I actually need to disable my page file anyway for a game I play often.

 

As for my expectations, hard to describe but I guess it would mainly be the "applications taking a bit longer to load than anticipated" part. I can't say I don't see major improvements, I do, especially in windows loading up, the OS itself loads up fast but also the logon screen appears sooner, and all of my startup programs load pretty much instantly, and that was my biggest trouble before, I often put too many programs into my startup, so that really doesn't work well with my mechanical drives. Like it said, I'm not sure how to describe it other than I probably had unrealistic expectations, but that doesn't mean I'm unhappy with it, I do like it.

 

Just simply change your registry while using IDE to AHCI, then reboot, then change your BIOS settings.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

I read about that a while after I posted, seems like it works for most people. I'm thinking I'll backup the stuff I have now and try that and should it give me any trouble I can always do it the proper way and work with what I backup to restore it.

[IVIYTH0S]

Let us know after you have AHCI enabled, I saw a little boost when i finally switched my desktop. My laptop came AHCI (badass lol) so I didn't have to touch anything

[Deathmineral]

Let us know after you have AHCI enabled, I saw a little boost when i finally switched my desktop. My laptop came AHCI (badass lol) so I didn't have to touch anything

I was actually going to search for a benchmark so I can test it out in both modes, but I suppose you guys probably already know of some good ones, care to recommend me something?

[SpikeSoprano]

Dowmload crystaldisk mark 3, should do the trick.

[InCrYsIs]

Samsung point blank and period. I have two and they are great. I have to find the article but they were voted most reliable.

[Deathmineral]

Well... it's been interesting. I attempted to edit the registry and switch over to AHCI in my BIOS as instructed by that web page, it didn't go too well. Next thing I knew, I couldn't boot, so I went about many ways of trying to fix it, and in the end I don't really know what fixed it but I was able to get it bootable in IDE mode again. Anyway, I don't think I'll be attempting it again, I'll simply stick to IDE as there really isn't any guarantee that I'll see an improvement by switching to AHCI, and I've even seen some people claim that their performance was worse when they made the switch from IDE to AHCI. In the end, I'm not displeased with the performance of it so there isn't any logical reason for me to risk it.

 

I think I'll just chalk this little misadventure up to "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"