Intel 80GB x25-M plus Windows 7 and SSD toolbox??

Meds

Meds

Meds

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Sorry to start yet another thread on how to install SSD's but Im a little confused and just wanted to make sure I dont mess anything up.

So when I get my new drive tomorrow is the installation process as follows:

1) Install SSD Physically
2) Install Fresh copy of Windows 7 via DVD drive
3) Download SSD Toolbox and update firmware etc?
4) Install Apps

Thanks in advance

Meds
 
Well I installed mine last week and this is what I did (although I'm not saying this is the correct process)...

1. Disconnected Samsung F1 Conventional drive
2. Installed new SSD
3. Flashed SSD to lastest firmware
4. Installed Windows 7
5. Disabled superfetch service and checked that defrag was disabled
6. Re-attached F1
7. Moved page file to F1 drive (to save space and writes)
8. Moved user profile to F1 drive (to save space and writes)
9. Moved all temp locations to F1 (to save space and writes)
10. Installed Intel SSD Toolbox and other applications

btw I'm sure there will be some debat as to if steps 7,8, & 9 are worthwhile...

Hope that helps.
 
thanks for the reply zo1d, its a great help, couple of questions,

1) WHere do i get the latest firmware from, and how to go about flashing the drive

2) do you have a good linky to a site that helped you to understand how to go about installation?

Thanks in advance

Meds
 
thanks bro, appreciate it :)

I'm gonna try and sort it all out when i return from work, hopefully should notice a tangeble difference betweed the new ssd and my current green western digital 1tb drive :)
 
You’ll definitely notice a difference, my system is a relatively old Intel E6600 @ 3Ghz on a P965 chipset based motherboard and combined with a fresh Windows installation this SSD really has breathed some new life into my system.

Boot times are slightly faster but as soon as the desktop is loaded you have instant access to your system and applications and everything just feels much more responsive, so far apart from the high price :eek: I can’t fault the drive in any way! :)
 
By the way, there's nothing wrong with keeping Superfetch enabled. The benefits aren't as great as when you have a mechanical drive, but loading apps from RAM is always going to be fastest.

No point in disabling / moving the page file and your profile or temp folders off either. An SSD is the best place for them and current gen SSD's have more than enough life writetime to outlast the useful life of your pc. There's no point getting an SSD if you're afraid to take advantage of it.


The only tweak worth doing is checking that defrag is disabled because SSD's don't care about (that kind of) fragmentation. Leave the rest of the services alone.
 
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Zarf said:
No point in moving the page file and your profile / temp bits off either. An SSD is the best place for them and current gen SSD's have more than enough life writetime to outlast the rest of your pc. There's no point getting an SSD if you're afraid to take advantage of it.
Click to expand...


Currently pagefile.sys is at 3.99GB and My Documents is at 5.76GB, so that alone is saving me almost 10GB, surely you'd agree this a very good reason to do it considering that after formatting the disk you only have 74.5GB of valuable space to play with!
 
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zo1d said:
Currently pagefile.sys is at 3.99GB and My Documents is at 5.76GB, so that alone is saving me almost 10GB, so I'd say there is definitely a very good reason to do it!
Click to expand...

With that space saved you could install Modern Warfare 2 - although would imgine that the pagefile all the time so might actually be worth taking advantage of that. For me, I would want the SSD to handle the most common IO ops.
 
zo1d said:
Currently pagefile.sys is at 3.99GB and My Documents is at 5.76GB, so that alone is saving me almost 10GB, surely you'd agree this a very good reason to do it considering that after formatting the disk you only have 74.5GB of valuable space to play with!
Click to expand...

Depends how things are organised, I have enough room for around 5 big game installs as it is, and I don't find myself playing more than 3 games at any time (TF2 as a constant and whatever new games i'm trying at the time).
I find it preferable to move my game install directories onto mechanical drives once I'm done with them, then if I want to play that again in the future I just copy and paste it back where it used to be. It only takes a couple of minutes to move 10GB so it's small inconvenience.
For my documents folder I only keep my current years worth of uni work, older stuff is kept elsewhere.

I get the sense you think that having the page file or documents on SSD is a waste, but the truth is that the more that the files are accessed, the more deserving they are of a place on the SSD.

beh* said:
Zarf: Have you seen any performance loss? Assume the new G2's support trim?
Click to expand...

I have the toolbox scheduled to run a trim every morning with my G2 and performance is as new.
 
Arrr ok so you have to use 'the toolbox' to manually run TRIM. Its a shame it doesn't sort this automatically.
 
beh* said:
Arrr ok so you have to use 'the toolbox' to manually run TRIM. Its a shame it doesn't sort this automatically.
Click to expand...

The schedule is easy to set up, but if you use the default windows drivers for your motherboard TRIM will work automatically in Win7 provided you have one of the new firmwares.
You only need the Toolbox if you update your motherboard drivers.
 
Sounds relatively straight forward. What do I do if my current boot drive is also m storage drive And I don't want to format it when installing the new ssd? I read somewhere that without formTting it this confuses win7?
 
Meds said:
Sounds relatively straight forward. What do I do if my current boot drive is also m storage drive And I don't want to format it when installing the new ssd? I read somewhere that without formTting it this confuses win7?
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% i've understood you, but if you unplug your old drive before installing Win7, then connect it later (make sure bios is set to boot from the new drive), you'll be able to browse all the old contents.
 
thanks Zarf,

I just got home to find my SSD waiting for me, already physically installed it into the machine, but its not showing on my old installation of Windows 7, with my old bootable disk drive.

I think i now need to perform the following steps based on everyones advice:

1) Check Bios settings
2) Update Firmware
3) Unplug old Bootable HDD.
4) Reinstall Windows.
5) Tweak, SSD toolbox, and install apps.

thanks again guys
 
Hi

If you only got this drive today will the Firmware need updateing I only ask this as i have one coming tomorrow. So will i need to update it

Thanks
 
Ok the old version of the firmware was 2CV102HA, Updated version is 2CV102HD. Not too sure what the benefits are or differences but I updated anyway :)

Just started the Windows 7 Professional Install :)

Let me know if you have any other questions, by the way I also enabled ACHI in the bios, I read somewhere that its good
 
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