First impressions using an SSD - OCZ Vertex 2

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First impressions - OCZ Vertex 2E

Just installed a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 yesterday, install and set-up was pretty easy, Didn't have to tweak much of anything ...

1. I Enabled AHCI in BIOS before installing Windows 7

2. Then installed the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology
drivers from here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...oductProduct=Intel®+4+Series+Chipset&lang=eng

3. Installed latest drivers for my GFX Card

4. Disabled Windows 7 Defrag

5. Ran this command to enable Windows 7 Trim "fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0" (without the quotes)

6. Enabled Write Caching *(tweak see below)

7. Disabled Hibernate in Windows 7 *(tweak see below)

8. Changed the Power Plan to Maximum Performance which should help with SSD garbage collection *(tweak see below)

9. The last thing I did was run Windows 7 Experience Index where the OCZ Vertex 2E scored 7.8 in Disc data transfer rates.

* no other tweaks were applied, but there's a list on OCZ forums you can try for yourselves. http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...3-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-amp-Utilities-*

******************

OCZ Vertex 2E SSD v Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache, both drives had fresh installs of Windows 7


ATTO Benchmark - Vertex has firmware v1.25 installed
ATTO.png


Rebooting from desktop > back to desktop
reboot.jpg


WEI
WEI.jpg


Temps
temps.jpg
 
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The above, whilst welcomed, are not really reflective of your first impressions of the SSD drive are they..? It is more of a set of instructions that you followed to install and tweak Windows on the drive. :)

What are your impressions of using it in the short time that you have had it..?

BTW - Windows 7 sets Trim up itself so no need to apply the command and, AFAIK, the temp reporting is known to be wrong with the OCZ drive.
 
Vimes said:
The above, whilst welcomed, are not really reflective of your first impressions of the SSD drive are they..? It is more of a set of instructions that you followed to install and tweak Windows on the drive. :)

What are your impressions of using it in the short time that you have had it..?

BTW - Windows 7 sets Trim up itself so no need to apply the command and, AFAIK, the temp reporting is known to be wrong with the OCZ drive.
Click to expand...


the Vertex SSD is fast in everything that I do on a PC, opening multiple applications, transferring large or small files on my rig, un-raring massive A/V files which is a godsend for Newsgroup/ Usenet users,
loading new levels in games, everything I do using this drive is way faster than a mechanical SATA II HD. Would I go back to to using a mechanical SATA drive as a system boot drive ? ... NO

Is it worth the almost £100 asking price, well that will depend on your priorities, for me it is because I wanted an SSD drive now, not in 3 months time when SSD's may be cheaper,
the Vertex is tried, tested, and available now, had the cash so I bought one. The prices will fall even further in the coming months, It's inevitable.

Regarding the Windows Trim function, a new Windows 7 install may very well enable Trim but I prefer to check things manually to ensure that it is indeed enabled,
it only takes a few seconds to enable Windows 7 Trim from a cmd prompt.

The Temp readings are taken from AIDA64 software, alas Everest is no longer with us, this should be fixed in the next OCZ firmware update,
it's not really a big deal as the SSD has no moving parts it will always be lower in temps than the two Samsung HDD's in the screenshot.

hope I've answered your question.

.
 
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IIRC I bought my 60GB Vertex 2E about three months ago. My primary reason for buying one was for the silence compared to a mechanical HD. As I leave my PC switched on all of the time, and use the S3 sleep function, I do not notice the boot times. I suppose I have just got used to the drive as I no longer think of it as fast but of others as being slow, when I use a PC without one.
For me it has been a worthwhile buy as I the clicking of the mechanical drive irritated me and I am looking forward to the newer generation drives.

To check if Trim is working on Windows 7 you just open a CMD prompt (as Admin) and type fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify. If it returns a 0 then it is enabled.

I understand about the temp inaccuracy it is just that you decided to show a screenshot of it without noting that you knew it was a false reading and thus worthless.
 
do you really have to enable trim in windows 7? i thought it would do it automatically?

i just reinstalled win7 on my vertex 2 day before yest.
 
how would you check to see if it's enabled? although afaik, sandforces inbuilt garbage collection would be almost good enough on it's own ya?
 
where you get all those temps from my ssd only gets 7.4 same one, also how do you do those tweaks writing cache ,and power plan ,also i like that temps info where can i get this ,
 
paul10 said:
where you get all those temps from my ssd only gets 7.4 same one, also how do you do those tweaks writing cache ,and power plan ,also i like that temps info where can i get this ,
Click to expand...

For temps I used AIDA64 or you can can use this tool which is free ...

CrystalDiskInfo 3.10.0 - Disk Information Tool
http://crystalmark.info/?lang=en

The Vertex shows 1 degree celsius in both tools, really a non-issue as it's probably the coolest running component inside the case, that will probably be fixed by firmware update soon.

The tweaks are from OCZ forum and you can find them in the 2nd link of my original post, I only used a few of them.
There's also an SSD Tweak Utility which will tweak multiple settings with a single click, I didn't used it, but you can find it here ...

SSD Tweaker 1.7
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...79-SSD-Tweak-Utility&highlight=ssd+tweak+tool

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A dubious case where the orginal firmware of the SSD in question might not have supported TRIM, not sure if he flashed after he installed Windows but i have had problems with drives originally not having TRIM implemented until after a few firmware rev. then manually having to enable it. Being Feb 2010, a lot of firmware might have had issues still.
 
Justintime said:
A dubious case where the orginal firmware of the SSD in question might not have supported TRIM, not sure if he flashed after he installed Windows but i have had problems with drives originally not having TRIM implemented until after a few firmware rev. then manually having to enable it. Being Feb 2010, a lot of firmware might have had issues still.
Click to expand...

despite all I've read regarding Windows 7 automatically enabling TRIM for an SSD install, I lilke to set it manually and then check it's enabled manually to ensure it's actually on. Probably unnecessary I know, but it gives me peace of mind,
I dont think this harms the drive in any way and during the process I've learned the right commands to enable, disable, and check the condition of the TRIM function for an SSD drive, which might be handy later on.
 
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Intel storage drivers aren't needed unless you are going to RAID.

Setting Power to Maximum performance means your CPU will not be able to utilise Speedstep/EIST/C1E. Balanced is best and if there's something that needs changing do it individually throught the advanced settings for that plan.
 
Dirk said:
Intel storage drivers aren't needed unless you are going to RAID.

Setting Power to Maximum performance means your CPU will not be able to utilise Speedstep/EIST/C1E. Balanced is best and if there's something that needs changing do it individually throught the advanced settings for that plan.
Click to expand...


Will probably buy a 2nd vertex for raid array if prices drop later on in 2011,

Speedstep/EIST/C1E are the first things I disable in BIOS to overclock my CPU to 4GHZ, I wont be changing those settings.


.
 
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EDC said:
..Speedstep/EIST/C1E are the first things I disable in BIOS to overclock my CPU to 4GHZ, I wont be changing those settings.


.
Click to expand...

Even more reason to use power saving functions. Why would you want your cpu running at 4Ghz when your pc is idling on the desktop?

Enabling those settings in BIOS won't make any difference to your OC.
 
Nice OP.

I'm soon going to be installing one of these for my father and haven't a clue how it differs.

could you actually do the above post as a how to guide? I know to you it may be obvious but to me it's not. e.g. exactly at which point did you install windows? I'm guessing between 1 and 2 otherwise how would you download drivers etc. perhaps you could also add in what all the tweaks you are doing actually achieve and how necessary they are.

Cheers
 
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