TRIM Question

I can only say for Intel drives, but the answer is typically no. You need the latest drive firmware, an OS that has native TRIM support e.g. Win7 and / or the Intel SSD Toolbox, depending on the HDD controller drivers you are planning to use. The default Win7 drivers fully support TRIM but using Intel drivers (for better performance) means you would have to use the Toolbox utility to run TRIM mnually or on a schedule. I'm guessing it's a similar scenario for other manufacturers. Can't do any harm to update the chipset drivers anyway. Any particular reason you are sticking with an older revision?
 
I'm not - i'm just looking at a build of mine that has a motherboard with the nVidia 9300 chipset and I wondered if TRIM would work on it.

Otherwise, given their nForce track record, i'd either be waiting years for an update to support it and/or there wouldn't be one at all. :(
 
I'm not - i'm just looking at a build of mine that has a motherboard with the nVidia 9300 chipset and I wondered if TRIM would work on it.
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Ah! I see. I hear you on nForce support (or lack of). I used to have a board with the 790i Ultra chipset and what a complete pain that was. At one point I couldn't even copy a file to another drive or d/l from the net without file corruption with one set of their crappy drivers. Your best bet with a non-Intel mobo is to jump over to the SSD manufactures website and double check if all is compatible. I can't see the drive not working but TRIM might involve a few extra steps, and I suspect it'll mean using a TRIM utility rather than automatically in the background. Not a big deal to be fair, and I'm doing so myself until Intel's controller drivers support Win 7's native TRIM on their own drives. Any ideas which SSD you will be going with?
 
Well as it's got to be mini-ITX, with Core 2 support, DDR2, and a full PCIe x16 lane, there' s not a lot of choice. Pretty much just the Zotac 9300-ITX.

And I remember the fun and games with my old DFI LP nF3-250Gb. The latest drivers were utterly borked with that board, they'd cause it to crap itself so badly you had to wipe Windows and start again.

I understand it's better now (from reading around) but believe me, given the chance i'd not take the risk again.

I am very tempted to go up to Core i5 though, with the DFI MI P55 board (Intel chipset) and that way I won't have as much trouble with worrying about support.

The drive i'm considering is the Intel X25-M G2 160GB. It's a pricey little 'un though, but I don't feel 80GB would be anywhere near enough. I guess I could go for something in the middle like the Samsung controller drives - P22J, M225 et al - but then the Intels get such good reviews i'm thinking I may as well just absorb the extra cost.

I have a 300GB Velociraptor on RMA that will be sold to fund the drive; if I can get a good amount for it, then it should take the "sting" off the price somewhat.
 
I thought 80GB would be enough for your OS Boot drive with enough space for a few favourite apps as well?

Or do you want to load all your game files as well?

Just interested on why you are considering a 160GB unit ?
 
Intel should be a safe bet. Haven't used a drive from the competion yet but I've been very happy with the Intel. So much so I bought another, and scrapped a Raptor RAID0 volume in favour of the single SSD drive. Also have a VR like yourself and the SSD canes it! Had a look at the firmware update documents I have here and the only NVIDIA chipset issue highlighted applied to the older G1 drives. I suspect you will probably have to update in IDE mode though but if so it's too easy. Just remember to pop the controller back into AHCI before installing the OS. If the auto TRIM doesn't work you can set up a schedule using the TRIM Toolbox. Your board is relatively recent so hopefully you shouldn't run into any problems. If you do, I'm sure there will be plenty of us around to try and help.
 
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I'm running Windows 7 64 Bit on a Intel 40GB SSD with a 300GB Raptor for Data. There is around 16GB free on the SSD. This setup works very well.
 
Well once Windows 7 has helped itself to a chunk, then Steam opens it's pipes and downloads a load of games, I can see 80GB filling up quickly.

The last time I reformatted the VR and installed my "basic" apps and games, I was over 100GB.
 
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Tute said:
Well once Windows 7 has helped itself to a chunk, then Steam opens it's pipes and downloads a load of games, I can see 80GB filling up quickly.

The last time I reformatted the VR and installed my "basic" apps and games, I was over 100GB.
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Would you not be better off moving the steam account to a seperate drive or Raid 0 array to cut down on the size of SSD required?

I noticed that steam took up a huge amount of my OS partition, so I moved it to another drive. It works just fine but the OS partition is now down to 40Gb ish with quite a few apps and programs in still that could be moved or re installed elsewhere.

I'm just interested to know before I opt for a SSD.... thanks
 
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