Ordered my OCZ SSD, next step

greymack

greymack

greymack

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Just taken the plunge and ordered the OCZ Vertex 2E 120gb Bigfoot This week only £162.99

Now that's it's on the way can anyone tell me the order of things when i go to install it?

For example, do you need to format it? Do i need to flash to the latest firmware and if so is that a simple procedure?

Any advice would be most welcome
 
if your using it as a boot drive for your os, don't format it. let the windows installer do everything..
make sure to set ahci in the bios.

u most likely won't need to flash it as it should already come with 1.23 or 1.24
 
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Do NOT format your Vertex 2 before using it.

1) Enable AHCI.
2) Attach it as a secondary drive and use the OCZ Toolbox to update the firmware and then secure erase it.
3) Remove all other drives and install Windows 7. Tell it to install to the raw unpartitioned space, do NOT create a partition or format manually.
4) Install Intel RST 9 series drivers or AMD drivers and restart.
5) Do an ATTO benchmark and Windows Experience Index. Don't unnecessarily do more benchmarks than you need cos it will reduce performance.
6) Re-attach your other drives and away you go. Leave the PC on but logged off for a few hours a week to ensure the garbage collection is given enough time to keep the drive at full speed.
 
DragonQ said:
If the drive comes with the latest firmware then yes, that's all you need to do. Do NOT format before installing Windows 7 - if you tell it to install to the raw drive space it'll create and correctly align a partition before formatting it, which'll give you the best performance.

Once installed make sure defrag is disabled and then decide what you want to do about indexing. You can either disable it altogether, leave it alone, or just disable it on the C: drive.
Click to expand...
 
The best source of info. for anything OCZ: (their forum is top notch)

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/index.php

Though DragonQ has pretty much summed it up for you.

Though the standard Microsoft AHCI drivers that W7 installs are fine if you can't or don't want to use the Intel RST drivers. They pass the TRIM command and work just fine. From what I can see, the difference between these and the latest Intel RST drivers is marginal. Well they work fine for me and benchmarks look good.

Enjoy.
 
but only the ssd drive was connected when installing win7 , so the MBR must have gone on the drive and there's 2 partitions, System Reserved and the main os partition.
 
Thanks DragonQ for the step by step guide just what i needed, i have printed it out and i'm ready to go.

One last question where do i find Intel RST 9 series drivers and i take it these are some sort of drivers for maintaining the SSD?
 
I'm about to do the same as you greymack so ta for making the exact thread I was going to make :D.

These Intel RST drivers - are these installed after the W7 installation?
 
Intel RST drivers are chipset drivers for certain motherboards. You might as well try to install them because if they're not compatible, the installer will tell you. You can find them here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18859&ProdId=3061&lang=eng

Also remember to make sure auto-defrag is disabled after you've installed Windows, I forgot that in my steps above! Type "disk defragmenter" into the start menu to find the control panel applet for this.
 
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I have an asus P6tV2 deluxe and i think i have chipset drivers i install from the asus website, are you saying i should still download the intel drivers or at least try?
 
If it's Windows 7, then the defrag schedule for your SSD should automatically be switched off.

The Rapid Storage Technology drivers are available on Intel's download site as pointed to by DragonQ. These are only required if you have an Intel Southbridge (IE. Input/Output Controller Hub ... EG. ICH9 etc.). Not technically required, as the standard Microsoft SATA drivers that W7 installs work just fine. But if your mobo will accept them, then also as mentioned by DragonQ, by all means have a go at installing them. But in my experience, the performance gains are minimal and mainly seem to be linked to NCQ processing. And also be aware that drivers later than version 9 can have issues with OCZ SSD's (only really applies to RAID controllers here I think).

Have fun.

PS. Windows 7 is VERY good at installing the correct drivers for all your bits and pierces these day (not like some earlier OS's). So there is a good argument these days (IMHO) for not bothering with drivers supplied by Mobo manufactureres. Though I am aware that some people may disagree here with me. They are rarely the latest versions anyway!
 
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greymack said:
I have an asus P6tV2 deluxe and i think i have chipset drivers i install from the asus website, are you saying i should still download the intel drivers or at least try?
Click to expand...

I have the same motherboard and the Intel RST drivers are compatible so you can install them, yes.
 
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