Switched to Intel SSD, quick questions

[Christopher]

Hi Forum,

I just switched my desktop system over to an Intel SSD (320 series 600GB, attached via an Intel ICH10 in AHCI mode). Fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit with SP1.

The hardware is a Gigabyte X58A-UDR3, I7 930 @ 2.8 GHZ, 12GB of RAM. The SSD is the boot drive ( C: ). I have a WD 1TB black as the D: drive for bulk storage, data, virtual machine images and other doodads. Games and applications still live on the C: drive.

The Intel SSD toolbox software recommends I disable superfetch in Windows 7. That seems kind of silly to me. The SSD may be fast, but if the RAM is free otherwise might as well use it to preload application data so it loads even faster. Superfetch is only reads anyway, so its not like its degrading the SSD faster. Am I correct on that?

Also, is there anything special I should do with the SSD, or can I pretty much treat it as another hard disk and expect to get 3 or so years of life out of it. Seems Windows 7 automagically disabled the scheduled defrag already.

Thanks!

 

[s0rce]

I believe that superfetch is recommended to be disabled on the SSD so that it can be most effective on mechanical drives (assuming you have some).

 

[ob1]

I'm pretty sure that you are supposed to disable super fetch. I am not an expert, but super fetch stores info in a database or lookup table or something, and it takes longer to read that information then retrieve the data than it does to just read the data from the SSD.

 

[JohnHenrySolo]

I never disabled anything or did anything after a win7 install, theres no need really.

 

[Surly73]

On superfetch, I've followed Intel's recommendations at this point and allowed it to disable it. I follow, understand and agree with your logic - it shouldn't cause any problems but will increase the RAM footprint (if that matters to you).

On defrag, I have also found that Win7 disabled the defrag on the SSD itself but it is worth checking. You do NOT want to disable defrag entirely (like many ignorance-plagued SSD tweak guides tell you to) because you still want your HDD defragged regularly.

The only "tweak" I've done on my system, which sounds an aweful lot like yours in terms of general setup, is to disable hybrid sleep. In hybrid sleep mode, every time you activate S3 sleep it will also write the multi-GB hibernation file "just in case". This will cause a lot of unnecessary SSD writes. I have left the pagefile on SSD, hibernation enabled and the hiberfil is on the SSD too. I've just disabled the hybrid part of S3 sleep. I also ran for most of a year with hybrid sleep enabled and my SSD degradation hasn't suffered greatly in reality but I still feel that this is more correct for SSDs.

I just did a SB upgrade and went to 8GB of RAM. I found that ate a little more SSD than I would like and I have disabled hibernation completely for the time being, since I find I almost never use it any more. It was nice to have the system auto-hibernate if we accidentally left it in S3 sleep for a prolonged period of time, that's all.

 

[Christopher]

On superfetch, I've followed Intel's recommendations at this point and allowed it to disable it. I follow, understand and agree with your logic - it shouldn't cause any problems but will increase the RAM footprint (if that matters to you).

I guess the real question is, have you noticed any difference in performance one way or the other with superfetch enabled or disabled?

A larger RAM footprint is fine, for free RAM is wasted ram... I'd rather it be put to use with something that can increase performance, and that can quickly be discarded if an application needs it... like what superfetch does.

On defrag, I have also found that Win7 disabled the defrag on the SSD itself but it is worth checking. You do NOT want to disable defrag entirely (like many ignorance-plagued SSD tweak guides tell you to) because you still want your HDD defragged regularly.

Right, thats exactly how its set. The SSD has no scheduled defrag, the mechanical drive has a weekly defrag scheduled.

The only "tweak" I've done on my system, which sounds an aweful lot like yours in terms of general setup, is to disable hybrid sleep. In hybrid sleep mode, every time you activate S3 sleep it will also write the multi-GB hibernation file "just in case". This will cause a lot of unnecessary SSD writes. I have left the pagefile on SSD, hibernation enabled and the hiberfil is on the SSD too. I've just disabled the hybrid part of S3 sleep. I also ran for most of a year with hybrid sleep enabled and my SSD degradation hasn't suffered greatly in reality but I still feel that this is more correct for SSDs.

I just did a SB upgrade and went to 8GB of RAM. I found that ate a little more SSD than I would like and I have disabled hibernation completely for the time being, since I find I almost never use it any more. It was nice to have the system auto-hibernate if we accidentally left it in S3 sleep for a prolonged period of time, that's all.

That is a good tip regarding hybrid sleep. I'll make sure its off. I almost never sleep or hibernate my desktop tho, just shut it down. With an SSD it boots plenty fast.

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

 

[Surly73]

I guess the real question is, have you noticed any difference in performance one way or the other with superfetch enabled or disabled?

My memory is failing me now... I remember when Intel SSD Toolkit v2 (I think) was released it included the host checker/optimizer. I was a little surprised to find that it recommended one thing which win7 hadn't already done. I can't remember if it was SF or something else - I think it might have been SF. I let it turn it off and I can't say I noticed a difference. The system seems to do plenty of other caching with free memory that isn't directly SF/PF behaviour, though, so it's still making use of available RAM and isn't running an XP-like memory policy.

That is a good tip regarding hybrid sleep. I'll make sure its off. I almost never sleep or hibernate my desktop tho, just shut it down. With an SSD it boots plenty fast.

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

For me, I want S3 sleep to function. We're a multi-user family and sometimes we're stepping away for 20-30 minutes and we just use S3 sleep - especially in the summer (power, heat, AC load etc...). Using sleep means that everyone is still logged in, all the programs are still running etc... but we're saving power when we're not in front of it at the expense of a little wear and tear. I also want the OS to be able to timeout-to-sleep if someone walks away and forgets... This also happens a lot. I used to hibernate more when boot times were longer, but in SSD-land there's not much of an advantage (and several disadvantages).

 

[Balthazor]

Be default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance. These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck.

Source.

The Intel Toolbox just makes sure the appropriate features are turned off for SSDs.