OCZ allignment (vertex-120) + any tweaks?

iCe-BLaZeD · 22 Apr 2009 at 04:54

hi guise.. so I got a 120GB vertex today and ended up setting it up as a 32-alignment.. was wondering wat do u guys get best results from and also if you could help with some tweaks, have read a few posts over at OCZ's forum but havent really done much with the drive yet apart from fresh install windows 7 b7077 64bit since Ive not been on the pc too much

cheers

iCe-BLaZeD · 22 Apr 2009 at 05:12

also have noticed a slight stuttering every few seconds when i am driving around on GTA, this never used to happen, anyone know why this would be?

FaceplantSi · 22 Apr 2009 at 06:38

First question has gotta be what is the Firmware revision on the drive?

To check this you may need to enter BIOS and the drive should show as something like "OCZ Vertex xxxx" where the 'xxxx' is the firmware revision.

As regards tweaks etc then the OCZ Forums are prob best cause you are using Win7 - there may be some here who are using it too. I'm sure you've already seen it but here is the official OCZ Vertex setup guide.

iCe-BLaZeD · 22 Apr 2009 at 17:39

i have flashed the drive to latest FW as soon as i got it (1.1) aye iv quickly checked those threads, ill have a look again tho coz didnt have time last time thanks

Ninja Please! · 22 Apr 2009 at 20:11

Did it always stutter. Mine started after a couple of weeks of having it.

iCe-BLaZeD · 22 Apr 2009 at 20:29

iv only bought it yesterday, but:

update on the situation.. since updating my SATA controllers drivers with the vista64 drivers from asus (im on windows 7 so was just using the standard installed ones), it seems to have improved and be running pretty much fine, there was the odd stutter but i dont think it was anything out of the ordinary

other info: im on a 32 allignment.. duno wat works best (hence why i made this topic) but the default windows vista/7 allignment is not the best if im remembering correctly

FaceplantSi · 22 Apr 2009 at 21:26

Tony from the OCZ Forums had a post recommending alignment offset of 128k, but that was back in Jan so not sure if that recommendation has changed since... I use 128 and it seems fine - never had an issue.

Ninja Please! · 22 Apr 2009 at 21:35

FaceplantSi said:
Tony from the OCZ Forums had a post recommending alignment offset of 128k, but that was back in Jan so not sure if that recommendation has changed since... I use 128 and it seems fine - never had an issue.

Yeah I have read the same thing though I think it differs depending on if you are raiding or not. I also read on OCZ forums that there is no perfect alignment. Then I read on there that Vista can align it just as well as I could so decided to go that route. OCZ forums are not very clear.

FaceplantSi · 22 Apr 2009 at 21:42

Ninja Please! said:
OCZ forums are not very clear.

tbh I think it's more a case of them developing so fast that it's hard to keep up with what is considered current thinking. Plus the waters are muddied further by them having some posts relevant to all their SSD's and some specific to older jmicron based units - and it not being totally clear which is which! Still, they are our best source of info atm, just a lengthy job filtering it all!

iCe-BLaZeD · 22 Apr 2009 at 23:23

haha, true true... i think they've done an excellent job dealing with the issues and working on it, but god its confusing

LeJimster · 23 Apr 2009 at 03:15

32k ofset is the default for XP and bad for SSD's. 64k is the minimum recommended afaik, but as mentioned Tony(OCZ) recommends 128k. This is possibly the cause of your stuttering, but I didn't think this was an issue even on non-aligned Vertex drives.

FYI, the OCZ forums contain a wealth of info which I spent weeks absorbing. Some of it is clear some of it is a bit technical, but its all very informative and the SSD community would be worse off without it.

iCe-BLaZeD · 23 Apr 2009 at 03:32

LeJimster said:
32k ofset is the default for XP and bad for SSD's. .

damn, really? meh!... by the way the stuttering improved/almost disappeared with the update of the sata controller drivers, however my friend has just installed win 7 on his laptop and gta4 was working fine with no stuttering whatsoever on vista before, but now it stutters.. so this has lead me to think it may be a windows 7 problem?

iCe-BLaZeD · 23 Apr 2009 at 03:40

tonys guide says underneath one of his screenshots

"The above screenshot shows the commands for creating a primary partition spanning the entire SSD and being aligned at 32k, which is a valid setting for a single drive and for the default File Allocation Unit Size (4096 bytes)."

so i guess its ok as 32k offset right? I may re-align if its better otherwise.

also they say the default offset of XP is 63