SSD Setup Help

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Just took delivery of a G.Skill Falcon (64GB). Never had an SSD before so have no idea if there is anything special I need to do.

Planning to install Windows 7 on it. Can I just stick it in and follow the setup as normal?

Do I need to update firmware etc?

Also apart from disabling defrag, is there anything else to do once in Windows?

:confused:
 
With windows 7 you dont need to really adjust anything as it automatically adapts to SSD's.

As for firmware, it should ship with the latest one, if not head over to the Gskill site and get an update.

also, be sure to get the wiper/TRIM tool from OCZ or Gskill.

If you need any further help then the OCZ forums are the best option.
 
It will most likely be shipped with the latest firmware if you just got it. If your lucky, you can catch in the BIOS post what version, 1571 is the latest. If not, 'HDtune' (I think thats the name) will show you.

Factory alignment is not suppose to be that good, so re-aligning is recommended.

In windows, redirect temp internet files and temp files to a normal HDD, so save writing silly small data onto it.

Theres loads of stickies on forums with info on what to do with them.
 
Windows Vista takes care of alignment as well. It's Windows XP where you have to manually align it.

Panic averted lol.

So by the sounds my list of todo's is:

- Check for firmware update
- Install windows 7 normally
- Turn off defrag
- Move or turn off page file
- Move temp files
- Run TRIM every so often (weekly?)
 
Panic averted lol.

So by the sounds my list of todo's is:

- Check for firmware update
- Install windows 7 normally
- Turn off defrag
- Move or turn off page file
- Move temp files
- Run TRIM every so often (weekly?)

Regarding disabling the paging file, you can run without a paging file if you like but without monitoring the workload of your system, you increase the risk of running into problems by doing so and I do not recommend doing so anyway. There are a few disadvantages in doing so anyway, such as physical memory is wasted plus the fact that the system won't be able to generate crash dumps.

Mark Russinovich said:
How Big Should I Make the Paging File?

*snip*

Some feel having no paging file results in better performance, but in general, having a paging file means Windows can write pages on the modified list (which represent pages that aren’t being accessed actively but have not been saved to disk) out to the paging file, thus making that memory available for more useful purposes (processes or file cache). So while there may be some workloads that perform better with no paging file, in general having one will mean more usable memory being available to the system (never mind that Windows won’t be able to write kernel crash dumps without a paging file sized large enough to hold them).

Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory

If you want to manually set the paging file, then do it in accordance to the usage of your system and not the amount of RAM you have.

Mark Russinovich said:
How Big Should I Make the Paging File?

Perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions related to virtual memory is, how big should I make the paging file? There’s no end of ridiculous advice out on the web and in the newsstand magazines that cover Windows, and even Microsoft has published misleading recommendations. Almost all the suggestions are based on multiplying RAM size by some factor, with common values being 1.2, 1.5 and 2. Now that you understand the role that the paging file plays in defining a system’s commit limit and how processes contribute to the commit charge, you’re well positioned to see how useless such formulas truly are.

Since the commit limit sets an upper bound on how much private and pagefile-backed virtual memory can be allocated concurrently by running processes, the only way to reasonably size the paging file is to know the maximum total commit charge for the programs you like to have running at the same time. If the commit limit is smaller than that number, your programs won’t be able to allocate the virtual memory they want and will fail to run properly.

So how do you know how much commit charge your workloads require? You might have noticed in the screenshots that Windows tracks that number and Process Explorer shows it: Peak Commit Charge. To optimally size your paging file you should start all the applications you run at the same time, load typical data sets, and then note the commit charge peak (or look at this value after a period of time where you know maximum load was attained). Set the paging file minimum to be that value minus the amount of RAM in your system (if the value is negative, pick a minimum size to permit the kind of crash dump you are configured for). If you want to have some breathing room for potentially large commit demands, set the maximum to double that number.

*snip*
 
Nice post.

I take that to mean, since I don't care about crash dumps as I'm never going to read through them, that I'm perfectly OK with continuing to run with the page file disabled ;)
(as my RAM capacity covers pretty much all eventualities I will encounter)
 
I've disabled it as I don't have another drive (yet). Going to get a 1TB F1 at some point, but I'll see how it runs turned off until I get the second drive.
 
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