Best way to do this

DJMONDY

DJMONDY

DJMONDY

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Joined
18 Apr 2012
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496
Location
South Wales
Hi, i have a OCZ 128GB SSD with windows 7 installed. i will be getting my new IB bundle in a day or two aswell as my new shiney new GTX 680.

Shall i just let it format before installation or shall i do it myself beforehand? I do also run a normal HDD with Windows XP installed.

Also what is this AHCI setting in the bios? i didnt set it to AHCI when i first had the drive, i honestly didnt know i had to but the drive has been performing perfectly with a score of 7.3 in windows test. its the fastest thing in my current rig lol.

Last thing i wanted to ask, do you ssd owners run your games off the ssd or do you install your games on a different drive? if so, why??

Thanks
 
You absolutely must use AHCI with an SSD.

You can just let Windows 7 do all the partitioning and formatting. It will correctly align an SSD so do not do it manually yourself unless you have very specific requirements and know what you are doing.

I run my main games from my SSD and any other less frequented titles off my mechanical HDDs. Steam is installed to the SSD but I use GameSaveManager to move any Steam games to the HDD I do not want on the SSD.
 
So i set it to AHCI at what point?? does it matter when and what about my second hdd?

What does AHCI do exactly?? will it perform quicker?
 
Set it to AHCI prior to installing Windows 7.

AHCI has features such as NCQ. Performance differences or not - You should be using it - end of.

Setting AHCI will not affect non-OS SATA disks at all.
 
So let my windows disk format the drive, go into bios and set it to ACHI and proceed to install W7?

Anything else you can recommend? I just want to get this right :)
 
DJMONDY said:
So let my windows disk format the drive, go into bios and set it to ACHI and proceed to install W7?

Anything else you can recommend? I just want to get this right :)
Click to expand...

Just visit the OCZ forum for recommendations... a lot of the "old" tweaks are no longer valid since firmware updates etc. But some do still get trotted out here.


As per Sin_Chase

the main one that benefits the most ... is the selection of AHCI in your Bios BEFORE install.
 
DJMONDY said:
So let my windows disk format the drive, go into bios and set it to ACHI and proceed to install W7?

Anything else you can recommend? I just want to get this right :)
Click to expand...

Nope.

BIOS > Set AHCI > Boot Windows Setup > Let Windows Setup Partition/Format the disk > Finish OS Installation as normal.

SET AHCI IN THE BIOS BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING
 
sorry to hijack this, but sin chase this gamesavemanager, is this to allow some steam games on one hdd and other steam games on a different one, if so this sounds like something i need as my steam folder is getting quite big.
 
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