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First SSD doesn't seem that fast?

V

Varmint

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
1,854
I just installed my first SSD, a 240GB Sandisk Extreme.

It's an Asus Z87 build from scratch, fresh install of 64 bit Windows 7.

It doesn't seem that fast to me. Boot up takes like 10 seconds, not much faster than my HD was. It sits on the "Press Del or F2" bios screen for 5 seconds.

And I installed a game on the SSD, Faster Than Light - the game still takes 4-5 seconds to load, just like when it was on my Hard drive.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there something special you have to do when you install Windows?

One thing I thought is I put the Windows TEMP folders on my hard drive, maybe that's a bad idea? It's copying data to the hard drive whenever I do something, slowing it down?
 
One thing I thought is I put the Windows TEMP folders on my hard drive, maybe that's a bad idea?
Click to expand...

Its a bad idea for performance reasons. I mean you purchased an SSD to improve your performance then you go and move things that will benefit from improved performance to the slower storage.
 
Is there something special you have to do when you install Windows?
Click to expand...

Did you switch your BIOS to use AHCI or RAID instead of IDE mode for your SATA devices?
 
Boot up takes like 10 seconds, not much faster than my HD was. It sits on the "Press Del or F2" bios screen for 5 seconds.
Click to expand...

Does it do that if you remove all other storage devices from the system? Also can you reduce or eliminate the memory test?

And I installed a game on the SSD, Faster Than Light - the game still takes 4-5 seconds to load, just like when it was on my Hard drive.
Click to expand...

Some games do not benefit from faster storage. Perhaps most of the load time is CPU related (like decompressing a map) instead of actual reading.
 
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Put a game with huge maps on the SSD. See the difference.

TBH, the biggest change with an SSD to me isn't the start up or day-to-day use, but the shut down. Shut down is almost instantaneous. It makes those troubleshooting reboots less irritating. YMMV
 
drescherjm said:
Did you switch your BIOS to use AHCI or RAID instead of IDE mode for your SATA devices?
Click to expand...

I was pleasantly surprised when I turned on my Asus Z87-Deluxe to find that the motherboard bios automatically defaulted to AHCI.

It's about time!
Why didn't motherboard makers make that the default 5 years ago?!
 
drescherjm said:
Its a bad idea for performance reasons. I mean you purchased an SSD to improve your performance then you go and move things that will benefit from improved performance to the slower storage.
Click to expand...

Ok, it was just an old habit, did it without thinking. I will move the TEMP folders back on the SSD.
 
drescherjm said:
Did you switch your BIOS to use AHCI or RAID instead of IDE mode for your SATA devices?
Click to expand...

I didn't check, haven't had much time to play around in the BIOS (we have a 2 year old and a newborn).

drescherjm said:
Does it do that if you remove all other storage devices from the system? Also can you reduce or eliminate the memory test?

Some games do not benefit from faster storage. Perhaps most of the load time is CPU related (like decompressing a map) instead of actual reading.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks, maybe I'm expecting too much.

I think I disabled fast boot during the install, I can try turning that back on.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Put a game with huge maps on the SSD. See the difference.

TBH, the biggest change with an SSD to me isn't the start up or day-to-day use, but the shut down. Shut down is almost instantaneous. It makes those troubleshooting reboots less irritating. YMMV
Click to expand...

I'll try that, thanks. Shutdown is pretty fast, yeah. Most amazing to me is how quiet the machine is when only using the SSD.
 
Some people just won't notice it. Especially if you're on Sandy Bridge or better with a modern HDD, the machine already feels really snappy.
 
I enabled fast boot and switched the TEMP folder back to the SSD drive.

It now boots up in like 7-8 seconds, and shuts down in 2-3 seconds.

Thanks for the help, guys!
 
Let me get this straight. You start this thread because you're not happy with how slow you SSD is. And are then made happy by a 2 second reduction in boot time? I'd say if a 2 second gain is your gauge for success/satisfaction with your SSD, then it was already plenty fast and your SSD upgrade was totally worthwhile from the beginning, haha :)
 
CMadki4 said:
Let me get this straight. You start this thread because you're not happy with how slow you SSD is. And are then made happy by a 2 second reduction in boot time? I'd say if a 2 second gain is your gauge for success/satisfaction with your SSD, then it was already plenty fast and your SSD upgrade was totally worthwhile from the beginning, haha :)
Click to expand...

Part of what I learned from this thread was not to expect too much from an SSD.

I haven't timed it but it's now quite a bit faster than my HD was. And it's generally snappy too, probably from moving the TEMP folders back on the SSD.
 
Varmint said:
Part of what I learned from this thread was not to expect too much from an SSD.

I haven't timed it but it's now quite a bit faster than my HD was. And it's generally snappy too, probably from moving the TEMP folders back on the SSD.
Click to expand...

It really depends on what you're coming from when you get the SSD.

Running a 5 year old machine with a 5400 rpm HD that's loaded with junk and bloatware, an SSD is going to be like going from 55 MPH to Star Trek Warp 10.

Running a lean, modern machine, without a ton of crap installed that loads on boot on a modern 7200 or 10k rpm HD... it wont be quite so drastic.

SSD's shine when doing multiple things at once (full virus scan while playing games for example), at keeping "popup" to a minimum on games like MMO's and lowering heat and noise in a PC.

Also, over time, the normal fragmentation that happens on a drive won't affect an SSD like it would a HD, so think of it as a solid, long term investment. ;)
 
Limahl said:
Running a lean, modern machine, without a ton of crap installed that loads on boot on a modern 7200 or 10k rpm HD... it wont be quite so drastic.
Click to expand...
Yep. As soon as I read the OP say a bootup of 10 seconds isn't much faster than his old drive....

I have a good amount of stuff that loads at startup. It can take two minutes for my desktop to load. 7200rpm drive vs. 7200rpm drive + cache SSD is like a 5x speed difference.

I had the SSD unplugged the other day while messing with some stuff. The bootups and shutdowns were painful.
 
Is your SanDisk a 60 or 120 GB version? (sounds like)
How full is your SSD?
BTW, don't fill up your SSD to more than 50% to preserve write speed.
Andy
 
SSD improvement isn't always obvious. However, switch back to your HDD and you'll notice how slow it is.
 
mrtheshaggy said:
SSD improvement isn't always obvious. However, switch back to your HDD and you'll notice how slow it is.
Click to expand...

This is the best way to really see where your improvements are. I cannot stand non ssd systems now.
 
you don't need an ssd for a fresh install of windows and a game like FTL. this is the least demanding use case before having the power off.

and yeah, you don't notice when things work well. sell your ssd and switch back to a hard drive and see if you notice it then.
 
The biggest thing I notice about my SSD is not particularly how fast boot up or shutdown is, but rather, how snappy the system is. programs open almost immediately after the click and there's no blue circling/beach balling while it hunts around to load up its data. Anything on my computer, instantly at my fingertips. It's a neat demo effect when you can't get the thing to slow down even intentionally trying to open multiple things at once.

Instantaneous random access > all

It dramatically reduces the stress of using my computer.
 
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