SSD & Page File

Swordfish · 3 Nov 2010 at 09:42

I have recently upgrade my system to the specs below:

Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67 (stock)
8GB DDR3 @ 1333
32GB Corsair SSD
P7P55D-E Motherboard

Now main questions is to do with the SSD. Got 7 installed with all about a couple of applications installed (most are installed on a separate standard HD).

Check my system this morning and I was down to 300MB free. The hibernation file was taking 6Gb and the Page file is taking 8GB. I have switched off hibernation as I never use it but was wondering what to do with the page file.

Would it be better to move it to my second HD or leave it as it is?

jbloggs · 3 Nov 2010 at 09:49

Would it be better to move it to my second HD or leave it as it is?

The SSD is the best place for your pagefile...

CaptainCrash · 3 Nov 2010 at 09:51

According to Microsoft, the pagefile should most definitely be left on the SSD.

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that

* Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
* Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
* Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Swordfish · 3 Nov 2010 at 09:52

jbloggs said:
The SSD is the best place for your pagefile...

Okay.

Though it might b good to get 8GB back.

Second SSD time methinks.....

64GB for windows and use the 32GB for games.

What can you informed people tell me about the TRIM command and do I need to use it?

DragonQ · 3 Nov 2010 at 10:13

Well hang on, there shouldn't be any need for a new SSD. You've already disabled the hibernation file, saving 6 GiB. What you should do now is make the page file a fixed size rather than system managed. In ideal situations system managed is probably better but Windows usually massively over-estimates the size required.

In my case, where I have 6GiB of RAM, the system managed page file is between 6 and 8 GiB. The only time I ever go over a 3 GiB commit is when editing a large audio file (say a film soundtrack) because Adobe Audition pre-loads everything into RAM. Even then I don't go above it much though, so I've set my page file to be fixed at 4 GiB. Maybe you should lower yours to 4 GiB, which would bring your total free space up to ~10GiB or ~33% of the SSD's space. Or you could go for 2 GiB and save a bit more - depends what you use your PC for.

Swordfish · 3 Nov 2010 at 10:19

DragonQ said:
Well hang on, there shouldn't be any need for a new SSD. You've already disabled the hibernation file, saving 6 GiB. What you should do now is make the page file a fixed size rather than system managed. In ideal situations system managed is probably better but Windows usually massively over-estimates the size required.

In my case, where I have 6GiB of RAM, the system managed page file is between 6 and 8 GiB. The only time I ever go over a 3 GiB commit is when editing a large audio file (say a film soundtrack) because Adobe Audition pre-loads everything into RAM. Even then I don't go above it much though, so I've set my page file to be fixed at 4 GiB. Maybe you should lower yours to 4 GiB, which would bring your total free space up to ~10GiB or ~33% of the SSD's space. Or you could go for 2 GiB and save a bit more - depends what you use your PC for.

PC is mainly used for games and net etc. I do a fair bit of data recovery and disc cloning as well though.