Got my SSD for boot..now what?

[NathanP2007]

Just a quick double checking question to make sure i dont screw anything up by missing something.
The situation is im building a new rig, and for the first time i got a SSD (Intel 520 120Gb). It will be my boot drive, i just need to know if theres anything i need to do/double check before i boot the rig up with windows 7 disc in, and start installing windows 7 to the SSD.

 

[TheWeazmeister]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

 

[ckryan]

As long as your mobo is set to AHCI and not IDE, installing Windows7 is all you need to do. If you have a modern board, it will default to AHCI. So you don't really need to do anything (prior to installation).

Win7 will automatically align the partition and install MSAHCI drivers. That's really all you need to do preinstallation.

 

[NathanP2007]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

Thanks i'll read that before i build the rig.

As long as your mobo is set to AHCI and not IDE, installing Windows7 is all you need to do. If you have a modern board, it will default to AHCI. So you don't really need to do anything (prior to installation).

Win7 will automatically align the partition and install MSAHCI drivers. That's really all you need to do preinstallation.

Yeah my board is Z77 so i guess i shouldnt have to do anything besides make sure its set to AHCI. So all that TRIM stuff is auto on as well?

 

[odditory]

So all that TRIM stuff is auto on as well?

absolutely. and with that SSD on a Z77 board you're in for some good times.

 

[NathanP2007]

absolutely. and with that SSD on a Z77 board you're in for some good times.

Very awesome i cant wait. Though im scared because of my mobo (Gigabyte UD5H) which some people are having issues with. And specifically i dont want to have those issues (random restarts) while im installing W7 onto my SSD.

 

[ckryan]

I doubt you'll have those issues. Don't be scared.

 

[criccio]

Specs of that board seem to point to there being 2 x SATAIII ports on the Intel controller and 3 x SATAIII ports on the Marvell controller. I guess you want to use the Intel controller?

Storage Interface Chipset:
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
1 x mSATA connector
* The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
3 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7/8) supporting up to 3 SATA 6Gb/s devices
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

 

[Forceman]

Yes, use the Intel controller if possible. And I wouldn't mess around with a bunch of "optimizations". Win 7 is SSD aware, so if you are doing a fresh install just install as normal and you are good to go. If you want to disable hibernation to free up the space used by the hibernation file, that's a good idea, but otherwise there really isn't anything you need to do to get it working "better".

 

[NathanP2007]

Specs of that board seem to point to there being 2 x SATAIII ports on the Intel controller and 3 x SATAIII ports on the Marvell controller. I guess you want to use the Intel controller?

Thanks,

Yes, use the Intel controller if possible. And I wouldn't mess around with a bunch of "optimizations". Win 7 is SSD aware, so if you are doing a fresh install just install as normal and you are good to go. If you want to disable hibernation to free up the space used by the hibernation file, that's a good idea, but otherwise there really isn't anything you need to do to get it working "better".

Okay thats good to know. That guide has a lot of things you can turn off or shrink, but yeah, they seem to all just be little things that can free up some space, probably advice strongest suited for a SSD that is 20-60Gb, back when those were super expensive and all people could get. I probably will disable/shrink a few things though, yeah like the hibernation (never use it, mainly because i havent had ONE computer (built by me or a legit company like dell/gateway) ever work right after waking up from hibernation. Sound or internet or USB ports or something would always act funky after hibernation, so screw it. And with a 10-15second boot time, why not just shut the PC down and turn it on when you need it?

 

[Forceman]

You can still do S3 sleep (suspend to RAM) even with hibernation turned off - that's what I do. Hibernation is really only useful for laptops - I'm not sure why it is turned on by default, actually.

 

[DlStreamnet]

Why wouldn't he use the Marvell controller? There was only really one bad one, if it's a newer board the 6GBps will make his writes substantially quicker.

 

[NathanP2007]

Why wouldn't he use the Marvell controller? There was only really one bad one, if it's a newer board the 6GBps will make his writes substantially quicker.

I think its something people just say in general, i have never not seen a video or read anything other than "Use intel first" both with LAN and 6Gbps sata ports. And its no biggy, the board has 9 ports, and i believe 4 are Intel, and i only need one of those for my one SSD.

 

[Forceman]

Why wouldn't he use the Marvell controller? There was only really one bad one, if it's a newer board the 6GBps will make his writes substantially quicker.

It's a Z77 board so the Intel ports are 6GB as well, and the Marvell controllers are notoriously buggy/slow. A good rule of thumb is to always use the Intel ports first.

For example, here the Marvell controller is almost half the speed of the Intel one:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2012/05/09/gigabyte-ga-z77x-ud5h-review/6

 

[DlStreamnet]

It's a Z77 board so the Intel ports are 6GB as well, and the Marvell controllers are notoriously buggy/slow. A good rule of thumb is to always use the Intel ports first.

For example, here the Marvell controller is almost half the speed of the Intel one:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2012/05/09/gigabyte-ga-z77x-ud5h-review/6

Ahh, I didn't realise his intel ports were sata3. Yes rule of thumb use Intel, but on my X58 board I have faster marvell ports on a better controller.

 

[PGHammer]

Why wouldn't he use the Marvell controller? There was only really one bad one, if it's a newer board the 6GBps will make his writes substantially quicker.

Driver issue - not necessarily a problem with the controller.
Windows has included a generic Intel SATA controller driver since XP - and a AHCI-aware SATA controller driver since Vista (also sourced from Intel). However, some combinations of chipset and controller may cause some features to not work (some, but not all, iterations of the Intel G41 chipset don't support AHCI, for example - surprising, as AHCI *is* supported by most iterations of G31 [Bear Lake], which G41 replaced, and dates back to 865PE/875P/ICH5).