Was not hard to install, did a lot of research and this is the SSD I chose, couldn't be happier. I have a EVGA 680i SLI mobo, I re-installed win7 to the ssd and it's running amazing! And yes, I know the SSD isn't running to it's full potential since I don't have SATA3, but it's still better than a regular hard drive. Here are my optimization notes -
*Unhook all hard drives except the one you are installing windows to, after installed, feel free to re-connect all your hard drives.
*Hook SSD into first SATA port on your mobo.
*Update firmware on your SSD BEFORE you install windows on it.
*Update mobo drivers
*Make sure auto-defrag is off for SSD and on for HDD's.
*Change Power Options to High Performance in Control Panel. Go into advance setting - Turn off hard disk - Never.
1) Change nvidia storage controllers to stock microsoft controllers:
-Head to Device Manager (Open Start menu, type Device Manager), and click "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers", and you will see 3 Nvidia Serial ATA Controllers. Right click one of them and click "Properties" and go to the "Driver" tab. Click "Update Driver". Click "Browse my Computer", and then "Let me pick". You will see the option to choose "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller". Click this and click "Next" and let it install.
Do the same for the other two Nvidia Controllers in Device Manager and restart your system. After the controllers have installed, you will be asked to reboot again.
2) Turn off drive indexing:
-Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes to use for search so results show up quicker. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files. Searching for files will still work for programs and system tools and such when disabled. Since SSDs have such fast seek times and 4k reads that this feature is pointless.
Open the Start Menu
Click Computer
Right click C: drive > properties and uncheck drive indexing
Click apply (ignore all when comes up)
Once done press the start button and type "Indexing options" into the search and enter, a window will pop up and you can adjust Indexing for quick search exactly how you like.
Move index file to regular HDD.. Control Panel - indexing options - advanced - index location.
3) Turn off hibernation:
-Hibernation was a very useful program for hard drives as it enabled one to resume their work in a very quick time. It is less useful with SSDs as they can load completely in as quick as 10-20 seconds which, in some cases, equals Hibernation. Disabling Hibernation will return 2.5Gb of valuable ssd storage space to the user.
1. Using the start menu search box type “cmd”;
2. Right click the cmd program and select Run as Administrator; and
3. In the command line type “powercfg -h off”.
This will take about 30 seconds it has finished once the command prompt reappears.
4) Enable faster boot thru MSConfig:
-This technique will remove the splash scree at start which will cut your boot time by 2-3 seconds. It is advised that the user not experiment with other options not described as it can have a negative effect on the OS.
1. Press Winkey + ‘R’ and type MSConfig;
2. Check the radio option for ‘No GUI Boot’
Use the start box type “msconfig”.
3. Apply.
5) Turn off multi-boot selection:
-This should not be done if the drive is being used to boot multiple operating systems off the same OS drive.
1. Right click My Computer and select Properties;
2. Select Advanced System Settings;
3. Select the Startup and Recovery setting box; and
4. Un-check the Time to Display List of Operating System box.
6) Move user folder locations to Secondary HDD:
-Go to your User folder.
Right click your user folder you want to move (ex. the "My Pictures" folder).
Click "Properties."
Click the "Location" tab.
Change the destination to another location bu clicking "Move..." and selecting the destination (ex. "D:\Pictures").
Note 1: If there are two of the same folder in the User folder after the move (ie. My Documents "A" and My Documents "B") you should delete the empty one located on the C: drive. (May need to go into safe mode to delete it) Do not delete the other User folders, only duplicates that come up after the move within the User folder.
Note 2: If the folder already exists that you are linking it to you may want to merge the folders.
| Hard Drive | 512 GB Solid State Drive |
|---|
