Intel 520 SSD Installation Questions

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2002
Posts
80
Hi, I'm upgrading to Ivy bridge the second the chips come out. In the meantime I'm stuck on my Asus p5b Deluxe.

My Intel 520 SSD has just arrived (taking advantage of that Intel cashback offer) and I'm SO TEMPTED just to install it now and see how everything runs on my SATA2 Asus to tide me over for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

I realise I will have to enable ahci before proceeding, but is there anything else I need to know?

I also heard SSD's and have a life expectancy on number of writes to each segment. Would a full (temporary and unnecessary) windows and software install take much of a toll on it?

I also heard about performance over time affecting SSD's. Is this (similar to mechanical hard drives and fragging.... ) solved by just wiping the drive and copying stuff over again? Ie. When my ivy bridge arrives, if i just wipe my C drive (the ssd) and reinstall windows/apps, will I get day 1 performance again?

I am also reading about GFS vs MBR - newer motherboards support the new GFS disk initialisation... Do all disks still come with MBR by default? If they do I will probably just stick with it. But is there ANY benefit of using GFD instead for my C drive (ie a smaller ssd - not for data). I understand it's essential for larger than 2tb partitions, but does that mean drives smaller than that will still explicitly NOT use GFS?

Thanks for your time.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2009
Posts
2,885
Location
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Hi, I'm upgrading to Ivy bridge the second the chips come out. In the meantime I'm stuck on my Asus p5b Deluxe.

My Intel 520 SSD has just arrived (taking advantage of that Intel cashback offer) and I'm SO TEMPTED just to install it now and see how everything runs on my SATA2 Asus to tide me over for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

I realise I will have to enable ahci before proceeding, but is there anything else I need to know?

Only have the ssd connected when you install windows, no other storage drives. (add them later)

I also heard SSD's and have a life expectancy on number of writes to each segment. Would a full (temporary and unnecessary) windows and software install take much of a toll on it?
Miniscule

I also heard about performance over time affecting SSD's. Is this (similar to mechanical hard drives and fragging.... ) solved by just wiping the drive and copying stuff over again? Ie. When my ivy bridge arrives, if i just wipe my C drive (the ssd) and reinstall windows/apps, will I get day 1 performance again?
You can download intel ssd toolbox from intel which has the option to manually run trim to 'clean' the drive at your command and can also set a schedule. Also has some other features:
ssd optimizer (trim manual and schedule)
quick diagnostic
full diagnostic
secure erase
firmware update (works on an active boot drive unlike ocz toolbox)
system tuner
system information.
reads smart data, life expectancy etcetc for all installed intel ssds.
reads capacity and free space of other ssds (maybe hdds, not sure I don't have any) as well as their firmware revision, model and serial number.


I am also reading about GFS vs MBR - newer motherboards support the new GFS disk initialisation... Do all disks still come with MBR by default? If they do I will probably just stick with it. But is there ANY benefit of using GFD instead for my C drive (ie a smaller ssd - not for data). I understand it's essential for larger than 2tb partitions, but does that mean drives smaller than that will still explicitly NOT use GFS?

Went straight over my head :)
Thanks for your time.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Mar 2012
Posts
91
Thanks for the post tooth, i too had the same questions.

I have a CM Storm Trooper case, where I can plugin SSD's (like a swappable drive). Does this mean if I had 2 SSD's, one with Windows 7 and the other Windows XP Pro, I can boot into different OS's?
 
Caporegime
Joined
11 Jul 2009
Posts
27,049
Location
BenefitStreetBirmingham
Thanks for the post tooth, i too had the same questions.

I have a CM Storm Trooper case, where I can plugin SSD's (like a swappable drive). Does this mean if I had 2 SSD's, one with Windows 7 and the other Windows XP Pro, I can boot into different OS's?

yeah or leave both ssd's connected and for me with z68 asus board i can press delete then f8 to go into the boot menu and choose which ssd/os to boot up into

or you can set the ssd/hdd priority in the bios
 
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