Wanna buy SSD... but please put my mind at ease first!

jmp_78

jmp_78

jmp_78

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I've fancied an SSD for a little while now, to use basically as a boot drive (plus main apps). I am now looking at the OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB which is currently on a special, and was previously considering an Intel X25-V for under £100. My budget is ideally £120/130, and I value speed far more than capacity (assuming Win7 fits of course!)

However... I keep putting it off...

* What's TRIM all about - basically? Do I have to set it up, it will it just work in Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit?

* Do I have to start formatting/partitioning the drive, or can I just connect internally via SATA be ready for a fresh Windows install?

* Which drive should I get... and more to the point, what's all this controller business? Should I be checking that before I choose?

Can somebody else with say... limited experience, who HAS bought one, please tell me to just shut up and buy one by putting my mind at ease :D
 
TRIM will 'just work'. Install the drivers (if applicable), and Windows will do the rest.

You don't have to do anything with the drive that you wouldn't do on a normal HDD.

The OCZ model you mentioned is currently one of the absolute best out there - in fact, its speed is limited by the SATA II interface. The controller is important - it controls the I/O speed basically, and the Sandforce controller is currently the best.

I'd certainly choose it now - especially for the price, really excellent as an all-round drive.
 
Had the same dilema at the start of this week. I bought a Intel 80gb SSD and my new rig is a flyer.

All I had to do was go into the bios and set the SATA to AHCI mode. Do not connect any other drive if it has windows on it if your wanting to transfer old files wait till windows is all installed on the SSD first. Some thing to do with boot files.
When installing windows 7 just click advanced setup/install then click next theres no need to do any partitions win 7 dose that for you. Once windows is installed I then downloaded the drive tools from Intel. Depending on what drive you go for OCZ may do the same type of thing check there web site. Installed latest motherboard drivers then its the rest of the driver like a normal windows install.

I found this video on youtube that helped put my mind at rest. Installing win 7 on a new SSd. ther are more linked videos from the same guys.

 
To be fair, he was asking about Windows 7 Home Premium. But yes, probably should have mentioned...
 
Just checked the BIOS on my Asus P7P55D motherboard, to see if I could find the SATA mode options.

I found the (future) option of ACHI which is good, but it appeared to be a generic change as opposed to applying to a single drive only.

Therefore if I install an SSD and set the option to ACHI, does this mean that all other standard hard drives connected will be set to the same option? Will this be a problem?
 
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