My First SSD installed - Questions and How does it look?

Spike_UK · 1 Sep 2010 at 20:44

Finally took the plunge and picked up two OZC 60gb Vertex2 this week.

I've decided against Raid0 at the moment. I don't like the idea of not having TRIM. Plus even in a Raid0 I would most likely still partition it into two 60gb drives, one for OS and one for Games (I like them seperate). Am I missing out on extra speed by not running the striped?

It took me a while to get Windows 7 on the first one. It would only let me install to it if every other drive was disconnected from the PC, which from reading around seems to be fairly common.

All is looking good though. Windows 7 seems to fire up quicker than before. World of Warcraft loads up very nicely (under 20 seconds from Character Screen to fully loaded in Dalaran), but as it's my first I have no idea what I'm doing really. I've run CrystalDiskMark but if I'm honest, I have no idea if this is a good result or not. It does look a little slower than I was expecting, but I have no real idea.

I'm using the onboard SATA ports on a ASUS M4A89TD Pro. I've got all SATA ports (1-6) set to RAID, with the SSD's in Port 1 and 2. In ports 3+4 I have two Seagate Barracudas in a Raid1 for my Main Storage and then in port 5 I have a further Barracuda unraided for random junk.

Also, I wanted to have a quick look to see what Fireware is on the drives, but neither CrystalDiskInfo or SSD Update from OCZ will detect the drives. Not sure why

Tikkabhuna · 1 Sep 2010 at 20:56

Have you got AHCI enabled? Also, can you use the ATTO benchmark. Apparently that's supposed to be more reliable for the Vertex 2. Although, that says mine maxes out at 240MB/s

Spike_UK · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:00

On my board I haven't got many options.

It's either...

Port 1-6 as Raid
Port 1-6 as AHCI
Port 1-6 as IDE
Port 1-4 as Raid, Port 5-6 IDE
Port 1-4 as ACHI, Port 5-6 IDE

I need Raid for the two Barracudas, but in doing that I can't have AHCI as well.

Spike_UK · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:08

I think the ATTO result looks better. A lot more comforting than the other one.

tankskun · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:11

Try using AS SSD Benchmark

Spike_UK · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:20

Looks good. I have no idea if that's optimum speed though, if you know what I mean.
Real world speed feels good though, which if the important thing I guess

Is there a way I can tell that Windows 7 Auto TRIM is working?

manishpatel80 · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:22

The vertex 2 using compression and therefore as ssd and crystal disk mark will show lower results then the specs show. Atto shows the fastest results.

Tikkabhuna · 1 Sep 2010 at 22:12

That ATTO benchmark looks almost identical to mine. I'm not sure how to get it higher. Not too fussed since its still lightning fast.

hartty · 1 Sep 2010 at 22:27

You need to use atto for the sandforce base ssd's, its somthing to do with the way it compresses data

Spike_UK · 1 Sep 2010 at 23:13

Good good, I'm not going mad then. I feel a bit more relaxed about the results now.

I'm assuming as I'm not Raided but the SSD's are plugged into Raid eneabled ports that I'm still getting semi AHCI so TRIM is working. Is that right?

Is it worth going Raid0? They're already lightning fast really.

Boozebeard · 1 Sep 2010 at 23:15

ATTO will show you best case scenario using data that is easily compressed. Real world performance depends on how compressible the data you are writing is. Also you should refrain from running too many benchmarks as it will slow the drive down until it has time to clear all the nand that you will have written too.

reygjabla · 2 Sep 2010 at 00:28

Spike_UK said:
Good good, I'm not going mad then. I feel a bit more relaxed about the results now.

I'm assuming as I'm not Raided but the SSD's are plugged into Raid eneabled ports that I'm still getting semi AHCI so TRIM is working. Is that right?

Is it worth going Raid0? They're already lightning fast really.

Here's Vertex 2E single drive

And here's 2 x Vertex 2E 60GB in Raid O

As long as you have extended the OP, Sandforce GC will take care of itself.

Atom · 2 Sep 2010 at 01:58

reygjabla said:
As long as you have extended the OP, Sandforce GC will take care of itself.

What size partition have you left spare? Considering getting another 2E myself..

Spike_UK · 2 Sep 2010 at 07:33

Holy crap! I didn't think it was that big a jump!

Excuse my ignorance though, but what do you mean by "extended the OP"?

reygjabla · 2 Sep 2010 at 08:26

Atom said:
What size partition have you left spare? Considering getting another 2E myself..

Spike_UK said:
Holy crap! I didn't think it was that big a jump!

Excuse my ignorance though, but what do you mean by "extended the OP"?

The 60 GB Vertex 2E is actually 64GB where 4GB is left as "OP" Over provision, meaning "RESERVED NAND" to replace any NAND that becomes read only after sometime. You can increase these OP during W7 initial process of installation where it ask you where to install the OS or during Raid setup. As you can see on my raid setup, it only reflects 100GB instead of 111GB, which means, I have now 28GB of reserved NAND (OP).

Spike_UK · 2 Sep 2010 at 10:25

So anything you leave unprovisioned will be used as reserved nand?

Creating a 100, 105 or 110gb array instead of the full 120gb for example?

Atom · 2 Sep 2010 at 13:35

My understanding was you are supposed to leave some space free if raid0 so to let the onboard garbage collection work..

reygjabla · 2 Sep 2010 at 20:56

Spike_UK said:
So anything you leave unprovisioned will be used as reserved nand?

Creating a 100, 105 or 110gb array instead of the full 120gb for example?

Atom said:
My understanding was you are supposed to leave some space free if raid0 so to let the onboard garbage collection work..

Yes.

Spike_UK · 2 Sep 2010 at 23:17

I've created a 110gb array which when installed Win7 I've partitioned 40%/60% OS/Games (I like having all games seperate).

That should do the trick shouldn't it?

reygjabla · 2 Sep 2010 at 23:29

It's best you head straight to OCZ forum as they've got a lot of techie's who can you offer you a more informed advise.