SSD's, Trim, AHCI help

barnei

barnei

barnei

Associate
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Posts
62
After searching these forums and the internet I decided I still need more help before attempting the install.

My intel x25-M G2 jsut arrived this morning (80GB)
So far I understnad it as:

update to latest intel firmware for trim support in win 7 (64bit pro) (trim controlled by win7).

If I do this does that mean I have no require ment for the intel tool box?
Also can I run it in AHCI mode and still have trim?
 
If it comes with 02HA or 02HD firmware then it already supports TRIM.

There's no requirement for the Intel Toolbox unless you want to do a manual clean at any time. But it will also let you review the SMART data for the drive, and see wear, useage that sort of thing. Not a requirement, but might be interesting.

If you clone your existing Windows 7 installation on to the SSD, and that was installed on IDE then you will need to tweak the registry to tell it to load the msahci driver, otherwise Windows will crash when trying to boot.

TRIM works on AHCI providing you use the Windows 7 Microsoft default drivers, AHCI will give you a slight performance increase on reads.
 
The windows 7 install will be new one because I'm upgrading from vista so I wont have to worry about cloneing or registry tweaks.

Do I need to do any windows tweaks like disabling defrag etc after install?

If I install the Intel matrix drivers for better performance then trim support will be disabled in windows but I could just manually run the intel tool box as maintanence once a week?
 
barnei said:
The windows 7 install will be new one because I'm upgrading from vista so I wont have to worry about cloneing or registry tweaks.
Click to expand...

That's the best way if you can :D Change your BIOS to AHCI before you run setup though.

Do I need to do any windows tweaks like disabling defrag etc after install?
Click to expand...

No you shouldn't do. Check that defrag is disabled on the SSD by reviewing/changing the defrag schedule. You should just see any non SSD drives listed. That means it shouldn't run on the SSD unless you choose to run it manually - it's not very clear.

The other tweaks, such as Superfetch, Readyboot etc are not usually applied reliably during Windows 7 setup. You can turn them off manually, but to be honest it's probably not worth the effort.

If I install the Intel matrix drivers for better performance then trim support will be disabled in windows but I could just manually run the intel tool box as maintanence once a week?
Click to expand...

Correct - and you probably wouldn't even need to run it once a week - probably every couple of months would be ok, unless you're doing lots of writing to the drive - filling it up and deleting stuff on a regular basis.

To be honest if you don't like messing around, the performance increase from running the Intel drivers is going to be hardly noticeable unless you measure it, so you might just want to stick with the MS drivers installed during setup.
 
Thank you, :)

I do enjoy messing around with my pc so I think ill use this method even if the performance increase isn't noticible.
 
Chilean before installing win7 64bit on a new m25 how do you check the firmware to see if you need to update it? and if it does need updating does it make a difference if you update it before you install win7 or after?
thanks
 
You can either put it in as a "slave" to your existing install and then check it in Device Manager.

Start->Search->Device Manager <Enter>
Expand "Disk Drives" in the right hand panel
Find the drive and double click it
Select the "Details" tab
Select "Hardware IDs" from the drop down and you should be able to see the firmware as part of the string displayed

The other way is to look on the sticker on the drive, it should say the firmware revision there as well.

It's better to change it before installing, as TRIM will be running sooner, and there will be less cells in a dirty state, but TBH it will be negligible in the scheme of things, and you can always run the toolbox.
 
Cheers Chilean :D I had a few problems with AHCI when trying to install Windows 7 64Bit in the end I gave up and set it to IDE and everything installed fine, now is it possible to switch it from IDE to AHCI?





Just found the answer here :D
 
Last edited:
Received my 160GB (ordered OEM, got retail) this morning. Had to do the firmware update, but it went without a hitch. I've decided just to disable scheduled defrag and to leave all the rest as is.

Just installed Windows 7 updates and will make an image for future "reformats".
 
Now the trim firmware is out etc and updated when formatting for a install do you need to use hd erase or can you just format on install as normal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom