Intel X25-M G2 - Noob Questions

[Reisooh]

I just bought a 80GB X25-M G2, and I'm a little confused about the current state of things.

My plan was to reinstall Windows 7 64-bit once the drive arrives.

So, here are my questions:

1. Is there anything I need to do to make the drive work from its out of box state? (I read that Vertex owners had "align" the drives)

2. How do I get the "real" trim support (AKA works at OS level, and not only with the cleanup tool)

3. Do I need to get a firmware update? Is the firmware fixed? (I read there were some problems, but maybe only if you had a BIOS password?)

4. Is there anything important I need to know about install the OS to this drive? (Any special steps or drivers)

Other System Specs:
Evga X58 3xSLI
Intel Core i7 920
OCZ 3GB DDR3 (3 more is in the mail)
2x 1TB Samsung F1 HDD
Nvidia GTX285
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
Antec P182



Thanks for your help!

 

[Voo]

1. If you're doing a fresh win7 install you shouldn't have any problems. Just don't forget to activate AHCI before installing Windows.

2. Update the firmware and use the standard windows drivers that are already installed

3. Yes and yes

4. See above.. don't forget to activate AHCI before. Ah and it's probably a good idea to install the firmware update before Windows - not that I've heard of any problems (mine went without any), but who knows

 

[wgoldfarb]

To add to what Voo already said: I did my firmware upgrade before installing Windows 7 x64 with no problems. In my case the upgrade tool asked me to put the SSD drive in IDE mode. I did, completed the upgrade, and switched back to AHCI mode before installing Windows.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

I also have some noob questions:
I just installed a X25-m g2 onto my new laptop. I love how I don't have any mechanical parts now.

My friend told me to do the following:

1. turn off nearly all indexing (search, etc..)
2. When installing win7, make sure to set the offset (I'm not sure what he means by this..1024 offset.. etc..)
3. turn off virtual memory
4. get rid of all caching if possible

Getting rid of search and caching will destroy me. I'm at sea a lot with ultra slow internet. I NEED that internet caching.

*head asplodes*

My laptop specs:
http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=36092

 

[skid00skid00]

I also have some noob questions:
I just installed a X25-m g2 onto my new laptop. I love how I don't have any mechanical parts now.

My friend told me to do the following:

1. turn off nearly all indexing (search, etc..)
2. When installing win7, make sure to set the offset (I'm not sure what he means by this..1024 offset.. etc..)
3. turn off virtual memory
4. get rid of all caching if possible

Getting rid of search and caching will destroy me. I'm at sea a lot with ultra slow internet. I NEED that internet caching.

*head asplodes*

My laptop specs:
http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=36092

You can turn off indexing, without suffering any loss of high-speed searches. Win 7 will correctly set the partition offset, so you don't need to worry about it. LEAVE THE PAGE FILE (aka virtual memory) *ON*, danmit! And you can still cache internet pages. Your X25 will have a LONG life, unless you are converting movies to it 24x7.
Make SURE you enable AHCI. It takes multi-threaded reads from 21 MB/s to 150!

 

[shabby]

My friend told me to do the following:

1. turn off nearly all indexing (search, etc..)
2. When installing win7, make sure to set the offset (I'm not sure what he means by this..1024 offset.. etc..)
3. turn off virtual memory
4. get rid of all caching if possible

None of this is really needed for an intel ssd, just enable ahci in the bios and install win7, it'll detect your ssd and enable the appropriate settings.

 

[capeconsultant]

You can turn off indexing, without suffering any loss of high-speed searches. Win 7 will correctly set the partition offset, so you don't need to worry about it. LEAVE THE PAGE FILE (aka virtual memory) *ON*, danmit! And you can still cache internet pages. Your X25 will have a LONG life, unless you are converting movies to it 24x7.
Make SURE you enable AHCI. It takes multi-threaded reads from 21 MB/s to 150!

Specifically, as there seem to be many forms of indexing, WHICH precise index can be turned off without sacrificing search speed? Is it a "service", if so, which one exactly in Win 7? Thanks. I would love to turn something like that off Dave

FYI I have Win 7 32 with a 160GB G2.

 

[jimhsu]

In response to the "advice":

1. I usually keep indexing minimal (i.e. only start menu) and use Everything (http://www.voidtools.com/) for faster than fast searches.

For Indexing, goto Control Panel > Indexing Options and remove everything you don't want. I usually leave in the Start menu, some documents, and some code repositories for the in text searches.

2. For post-XP systems, this is completely unnecessary. Vista and 7 do this automatically.

3. Do NOT turn off virtual memory for compatibility reasons (some programs break). If you have truly excessive RAM, make a tiny page file (200 MB) and put it somewhere. No, turning it off doesn't make your system faster (placebo effect).

4. Firstly, Windows 7 does this (aka disable Superfetch on SSD drives) automatically. Secondly, your memory is still orders of magnitude faster than your SSD so doing anything more will not help. Thirdly, write caching still improves speeds on SSD as well as hard drives (and is on by default).

And yes I will claim that AHCI is required to use this drive properly. If you want proof, run AS SSD before and after enabling AHCI.

 

[taltamir]

windows 7 does everything automatically for an SSD, be it intel or vertex.
All you need is:
1. Upgrade the intel firmware to the latest version.
2. Set bios to AHCI mode
3. Install windows 7.

You do not need to set alignment, you should not disable anything (indexing or page file), etc.
Windows 7 takes care of things for you.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Thanks for the replies guys .

I've read more into the partition alignment/offsets, and now I somewhat understand. Win7 does it @ 1024kb. The X25-M G2 has multitudes of 128kb blocks that are striped..similar to a raid array.. right? I also found this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/157
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=107126
Cools.

 

[UltraWide]

Only thing you should disable is the disk defragmenter.

 

[capeconsultant]

Thanks, I had forgotten about that Indexing area in Win 7. I left in only Start Menu, but may need to put Outlook back in as I actually use that feature. Is it really necessary to have start menu in there? Mine does not change that much. I may try taking it out. I believe I have disabled ALL defraggers, but I will check again.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[jimhsu]

Defragger is automatically disabled (technically unscheduled) for all SSDs. It will run automatically for mechanical disk drives.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

wtf.. I did a fresh install of win7. The defragging schedule and superfetch was all started and scheduled. WTF? This pissing me off.

Windows 7 essentially DID not detect i have a SSD during my installation. Also, My laptop will always fail to come out of sleep mode. The screen is dark. I can't do anything. Arg wtf is going on. I swapped in my original disk, and everything is fine.

Also, I got this message during my installation:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk (Show details)"
When I click on "Show details," I get this message:
"...Disk may fail soon."

uggh.

 

[jimhsu]

Are you sure it is actually SCHEDULED on the SSD specifically? Open up Disk Defragmenter and see if there is a "last run" time for the SSD.

 

[holty]

wtf.. I did a fresh install of win7. The defragging schedule and superfetch was all started and scheduled. WTF? This pissing me off.

Windows 7 essentially DID not detect i have a SSD during my installation. Also, My laptop will always fail to come out of sleep mode. The screen is dark. I can't do anything. Arg wtf is going on. I swapped in my original disk, and everything is fine.

Also, I got this message during my installation:
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk (Show details)"
When I click on "Show details," I get this message:
"...Disk may fail soon."

uggh.

what drive are you using? do you have any other HDD's installed and powered on while installing windows 7?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

what drive are you using? do you have any other HDD's installed and powered on while installing windows 7?

I just have the X25-M G2. No other hdd was powered/installed. I'm also getting a smart error. "End to End error.."
I'm going to diskpart it with "clean all," then reinstall windows again.

Also, when I put back my original hdd onto the laptop, my laptop can resume from sleep fine. When I install the the X25-M, I can't resume from sleep. I'm assuming it has something to do with the acer's power management software + acer's hardware. I'll give that a shot next.

 

[SolMiester]

Ahhh Acer hardware!!

 

[RaistlinZ]

Is it worth buying the X25-M G2 or waiting for SATA 3 SSD's to come out? If I'm going to plunk down upwards of $400.00 on one of these I don't want it to be obsolete within 6 months.