Thinking of making the jump into SSD

Praeceps

Praeceps

Praeceps

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5 Sep 2009
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Hi there I'm thinking of giving my pc an upgrade again and now I'm thinking of going for SSD now.

I'm mainly going to use it for the OS and maybe a few programs and games and the rest are goin onto my 1tb drive.

I'm thinking of going for the Crucial C300 60gb because of the sata3 seeing as I have a gigabyte ga-x58a-ud5 rev01 motherboard, but its on its release bios version(F1), would I need to flash my bios for the SSD or might I be ok with the version I have now?
I've been looking around and saw these instructions on how to install the C300

How to Install C300 Series Drives on X58A-UD3R, X58A-UD5, X58A-UD7, X58A-UD9, "Correctly"
First Step is to go into bios and goto Integrated Peripherals
Set GSATA 6_7/IDE Controller make sure it is enabled, then set GSATA 6_7/IDE Ctrl Mode to AHCI

Make sure you plus your drive into one of the first 2 white ports that touch the blue ones, only the first two on top of each other are SATA3, the bottom one is the Master.

Second Step is to Install Windows 7, but DO NOT provide drivers for the Marvell SE9128 Controller, at this time the drivers are TERRIBLE. So let windows install its own MSAHCI drivers, it will do this automatically. At this point if you run windows experience index score will be 5.9 for your drive, if you have enabled AHCI mode in the bios.

When you go into windows the Marvell Controller will not be installed. You need to install Marvell Mangi Console, this does not install drivers for the drive, just for the controller. Direct Link "Marvell Console"
Extract then install. After installation your windows experience index will shoot up to its maximum at 7.9. You have Success. Enjoy.
Click to expand...

Is there anything else I might need to know about too before doing the upgrade?
 
Those instructions sound quite specific for that Mobo and SSD combination so I'd just follow those. I'm on an ASRock and an Intel SSD, so it was different when I did it last week.

You'll love an SSD though. Just make sure you don't let windows take over. Reduce system restore size and disable hibernation.
 
64 Gb is completely fine for OS, drivers + apps, but the 120 Gb OCZ drives are really well priced atm, I'd get one of those over a 64 Gb C300.
 
I am seriously thinking about getting a SSD for my system, everything on my Windows7
rating is between 7.2-7.4 with my hard drive as 5.9 which is seriously bottlenecking my
system, I think i will be making a purchase especially with the OCZ prices at the minute
 
Griffyn said:
To get the full benefit do you need SATA 3? I can't remember if my mobo is 2 or 3, need to google when I get home.
Click to expand...

Not really. You will notice a massive difference even on SATA II with a SSD although I would probably go for an OCZ Vertex personally if using SATA II.
 
Griffyn, that's only if you get a SATA3 drive such as the Crucial C300. For the OCZ ones on offer at the moment SATA2 is perfect. Which is what you would have on your board. Think it's quite unlikely you'd get SATA 3 on a LGA 775 board :)
 
Cheers, didn't think it was Sata 3. I am thinking of changing the GPU, getting a SSD and installing Windows 7 for a small upgrade as still very happy with the performance except for gaming.
 
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