Windows 7 Tips & Tweaks

[SSDMonts]

You can still search without Windows Search being active - it's just a bit slower, but if a few seconds is not too precious then it is best disabled. Doesn't matter on a spinner, but it can hit an SSD quite hard if there are a lot of files to be indexed.

 

I have it disabled on my machine and I too have tons of emails that I often need to refer back to, but the lag is barely noticeable.

 

As Wired said to each his own, you either love it and can't live without it, or you can turn it off and see if it makes such a huge difference to your searches; it will make a huge difference to the overall performance of your SSD ;-)

 

To me, this approach is a bit of a contradiction.

 

One buys an SSD primarily for speed. Since speed is important, why tolerate the noticeable lag with Windows Search turned off each hand every time one does a search? To be constantly reminded multiple times on a daily basis that your computer could be and should be responding instantaneously but isn't due to self-inflicted "discipline" would be too much of a sacrifice for me.

[besweeet]

Thanks for the guide! I've followed everything mentioned. I also changed my Chrome cache directory, since that's my primary browser. Hopefully this will all give me much better life expectancy.

[Davyc]

To me, this approach is a bit of a contradiction.

 

One buys an SSD primarily for speed. Since speed is important, why tolerate the noticeable lag with Windows Search turned off each hand every time one does a search? To be constantly reminded multiple times on a daily basis that your computer could be and should be responding instantaneously but isn't due to self-inflicted "discipline" would be too much of a sacrifice for me.

 

No contradiction at all - the small lag created by turning off Search is barely noticeable and the degradation that Search causes in performance is eliminated. It's an indisputable fact that a large amount of small writes to an SSD has an impact on performance and Search is one of the biggest culprits for enaging in small writes so there is no contradiction at all. Try turning Search off (you can always turn it back on again) and see if the time difference in searches really is significant and if it is then carry on using Search ;-)

[SSDMonts]

No contradiction at all - the small lag created by turning off Search is barely noticeable and the degradation that Search causes in performance is eliminated. It's an indisputable fact that a large amount of small writes to an SSD has an impact on performance and Search is one of the biggest culprits for engaging in small writes so there is no contradiction at all. Try turning Search off (you can always turn it back on again) and see if the time difference in searches really is significant and if it is then carry on using Search ;-)

 

Naturally I tried stopping Windows Search. That is why I stated

 

"why tolerate the noticeable lag with Windows Search turned off each hand every time one does a search? To be constantly reminded multiple times on a daily basis that your computer could be and should be responding instantaneously but isn't due to self-inflicted "discipline" would be too much of a sacrifice for me".

 

I noticed no performance increase with search turned off. The only difference I noticed with search turned on was instant results. I am sure these drives are made for this kind of use. If not there is always the 3 year warranty.

[Davyc]

Each to his own :-)

[DimSumGuy83]

Speaking of tweaks for the SSD, shouldn't we move the whole "Users" folder from the SSD to our platter drives? I remember reading something about moving that folder on this forum and that it could help reduce the wear levels?

[alert5]

I'll be implementing a bunch of this threads' suggestions for reducing SSD writes on my new build. Thanks for publishing this.

 

In the interim I just wanted to free up space on an 80 GB SSD that windows reported as 74.4 GB with 48.1 GB free after a Win7 Home Premium 64-bit install. Over 26 GB just for the OS!

 

1. I deleted the paging drive on C: entirely and set up a fixed paging file on my data drive. 48.1 GB free increased to 56.2 GB free. Not having a paging file on C: has never caused a problem for me since XP days.

 

2. Turned off system restore on drive c: which deleted the existing restore file. Now seeing 57.5 GB free.

 

3. Ran the CMD prompt as admin to execute "powercfg.exe /hibernate off". Free space now 63.5 GB for a net gain of 15.4 GB from the initial install.

 

System restore has the potential of quickly sucking up available space and I've never found it to be particularly useful. If you have a disk imaging program, you'll be much better off recovering from a catastrophic event anyway.

 

There are quite a few Windows 7 programs that can be removed to reduce the footprint even more.

[abidderman]

Just for me, my email is stored in folders on my email program, I keep my docs, pix and other stuff organized in specific folders, and I don't think I have had to use search in over a year. I turned it off when I bought my ssd, and have not needed to use it yet. I also have much email from over the years, but keeping my email folders organized keeps me from needing to search.

[SSDMonts]

I have over 7 gigs just in email folders. I operate more efficiently with much less impatience utilizing and enjoying instant search results.

 

Another benefit of an SSD and why I bought one. Why put a governor on it?

[abidderman]

As far as the search, I turn it off for the SSD, because I store most of my stuff on my HDD. I use the SSD to run my most needed apps and programs for work, a few for play, but store my docs, pix, most stuff on my 2nd drive. As per my earlier post, I also stated that having 2 drives, I can turn off search on my ssd, but If you only have one drive, the ssd, YOU have to decide what will work for you. I probably would NOT turn it off if I only had the ssd. But be aware, if you have one drive, you have to balance to your satisfaction between life and performance and day to day needs.

 

No disagreement here. I just don't need to use search. Why have a service running when I don't use or need it on my SSD?

[Davyc]

As I said previously each to his own - no arm twisting employed to use the tweaks, use the ones that work best for you. If you don't see any benefits don't use them. No need to create an issue where no issue exists ;-)

[MetalRush]

SSD, go to start, accessories, system tools, system info, components, storage, disks, and look for your SSD. Then look for partition starting offset. Devide that number by 4096. If it is a whole number, your alignment is fine.

 

And if it doesn't... :confused:

My little calculation brought it to 7.875 :sigh!:

[abidderman]

And if it doesn't... :confused:

My little calculation brought it to 7.875 :sigh!:

 

Then your ssd is not aligned. You should align it, as if it is not aligned, it will actually be making twice as many writes, leading to premature degradation.

[raydabruce]

My alignment calculation came to 256 so I'm good with that. But beware of cloning and disk imaging with SSDs. I have heard that cloning from a HDD or restoring an image can lead to mis-alignment. I always do a clean install on SSDs and always end up with proper alignment (using Windows 7). For Linux, use kernel 2.6.33 or later. Ubuntu 10.10 comes with 2.6.35. These kernels are TRIM enabled after making a minor tweak to /etc/fstab (noatime, discard). Also, alignment is good with these SSD-aware kernels.

 

As for Windows Search.... I never use it. I don't keep emails locally... they're all on the web and I can search them there and let Gmail's indexer do the work. As for local files, I'll just drop to a command prompt and use wildcards to find whatever file I'm looking for... I don't need indexing and don't want that service taking up memory and don't need the writes on my Nova V128.

 

BTW, I had an Intel X25-M 80GB (generation 2) and I like my Nova much better. The Intel drive degraded in performance over just a few weeks to the point that I just sold it and got the Nova. The Intels are better at small-file random reads and writes, but I think you get much more "bang for the buck" with the Corsair Nova.

 

EDIT: Here are a couple registry tweaks to use if you have either the PM55 or HM55 Intel chipsets (laptops have them, don't know about desktops):

 

These tweaks overcome the power throttling built into the chipset and provide better performance to the SSD (benchmarks confirm this).

 

Type regedit and change:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

 

Change on both the "Start" from 3 to 4. Only side effect is the increase of temperatures by a couple of degrees.

 

Reboot and your benchmarks should be higher.

 

Make sure your laptop is in High Performance mode, so you can still use the other profiles for power saving. These changes are profile-specific depending on which one you're using when you enter the changes.

 

REBOOT

[abidderman]

My alignment calculation came to 256 so I'm good with that. But beware of cloning and disk imaging with SSDs. I have heard that cloning from a HDD or restoring an image can lead to mis-alignment. I always do a clean install on SSDs and always end up with proper alignment (using Windows 7). For Linux, use kernel 2.6.33 or later. Ubuntu 10.10 comes with 2.6.35. These kernels are TRIM enabled after making a minor tweak to /etc/fstab (noatime, discard). Also, alignment is good with these SSD-aware kernels.

 

As for Windows Search.... I never use it. I don't keep emails locally... they're all on the web and I can search them there and let Gmail's indexer do the work. As for local files, I'll just drop to a command prompt and use wildcards to find whatever file I'm looking for... I don't need indexing and don't want that service taking up memory and don't need the writes on my Nova V128.

 

BTW, I had an Intel X25-M 80GB (generation 2) and I like my Nova much better. The Intel drive degraded in performance over just a few weeks to the point that I just sold it and got the Nova. The Intels are better at small-file random reads and writes, but I think you get much more "bang for the buck" with the Corsair Nova.

 

EDIT: Here are a couple registry tweaks to use if you have either the PM55 or HM55 Intel chipsets (laptops have them, don't know about desktops):

 

These tweaks overcome the power throttling built into the chipset and provide better performance to the SSD (benchmarks confirm this).

 

Type regedit and change:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

 

Change on both the "Start" from 3 to 4. Only side effect is the increase of temperatures by a couple of degrees.

 

Reboot and your benchmarks should be higher.

 

Make sure your laptop is in High Performance mode, so you can still use the other profiles for power saving. These changes are profile-specific depending on which one you're using when you enter the changes.

 

REBOOT

 

You are right on here. When I first got my Nova 128 I cloned, and was misaligned. I backed everything up, did the fresh install, then reinstalled what I needed, and it has been great ever since.

 

And like you, earlier when I said I keep my email organized on my email program, it is web based, so none of my email is on my computer. I just keep folders organized on my Cox email, and so searching only requires me looking into whichever folder it should be in, taking just a few seconds to ever find what I may look for. None of us really knows how these ssd's life will work out, they have not been around long enough for us to know. But for what and how I use this one, it kicks butt, and I use it with my Scorpio black to keep my writes down, but between them it just blows me away how fast they work together.

[Giocas]

Hi guys,

 

this is my first post. Sorry for my horrible english first of all :-)

I'm reading this excellent thread, very useful.

Just one question about Virtual Memory.

In the first post of this thead I've read that is better to limitate Virtual memory (i.e. to 1000mb) leaving it in the same SSD.

But in the "official" Corsai PDF guide called "H o w T o O p t i m i z e

y o u r S S D B o o t D r i v e", it's written to move Virtual Memory to a mechanic HD.

So...the question is: what is better? :biggrin:

Thanks a lot to everyone!!

[Synbios]

Personally on my machine I have paging file completely disabled, if you have ample amount of physical RAM you should be able to get by without it at all.

 

If you do need a paging file:

I recommend putting your paging file on the mechanical HD.

 

Here's why:

RAM is magnitudes faster than any hard drives, DDR3 RAM is capable of transfer speeds of at least 10,000 MB/sec. Your average mechanical hard drive speed can transfer at say, 50-100 MB/sec tops. Your top of the line SSD can transfer at say, almost double or triple that.

 

Needless to say, the fact that SSD are faster than HDD does not really take into account with paging files. If your computer is using a paging file, it's performance is going to be AWFUL compared to physical RAM regardless. You should avoid using a paging file as much as possible. If you do need a paging file, leave it on the mechanical drive. The constant writing and deleting of memory to the SSD will shorten it's life and slow your SSD down over time. SSD are not designed for constant write and deletes, especially not MLC SSDs. An SLC SSD is much, much more expensive. However, a mechanical HDD is much more resilient to abuse with respect to writes and deletes.

 

P.S. The correct terminology for random access memory on a hard drive is paging file. Virtual memory is the way at which the OS allocates it's memory, and actually includes physical memory as well.

 

Physical Memory + Paging File = Virtual Memory

[Giocas]

Well...thank you so much for this exhaustive answer.

My sistem will be equipped with 8gb DDR3 RAM, so I'll try to start without any Paging File. ;-)

[Synbios]

Yes I would try to run the system without any paging file. It is pretty tough to fill up 8 GB of RAM, depending on what you're doing. But if you run into any problems you will know right away from memory low errors from Windows or from the applications you're using.

 

Keep an eye on your RAM usage with task manager and see how close you are to filling the RAM. Most of the time you will have ample RAM remaining, assuming you're not doing any sort of memory intensive applications. Even gaming should not fill up that much.

[Giocas]

assuming you're not doing any sort of memory intensive applications.

 

Basically I'll use Video Editing Software, such Adobe Premiere and Pinnacle Video.

I know that these are not "light" in terms of momery usage...

What do you suggest me? Go ahead with no-paging file at all?

[Synbios]

It is your choice but 8 gigs is quite a bit of memory even for those applications. I would disable paging file completely and monitor your memory usage using task manager while using your applications. If it looks like your memory is filling up or if either your application or windows gives you low memory errors, then enable the paging file on your mechanical hard drive.

[Giocas]

So finally I've set-up my PC (I7-2600, 8gb DDR3 RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, Corsair F120).

In the order I have:

- Clean Win7 64bit installation

- Disabled defrag

- Reduced to the minumum possible System Restore configuration

- Disabled Superfetch

- Disabled Prefetch

- Disabled System indicization

- Enabled write cache (not read cache still now)

- Disabled paging file

- Enabled via Bios and via Regedit AHCI (from 3 value to 0)

- Enabled via Regedit IastorV (from 3 value to 0)

- Launched Crystalmark Bench

 

Here is my F120 bench...

let me know if I made something wrong

http://www.imgupload.org/images/709_secondo_bench.png

[wattie]

Disable of pagefile is completely pointless action, regardless if you have tons of ram or not. Simply because the page file is used only when the ram is all filled up. So leave your swap files on (yes, on the mechanical drive it is preferred guys!) and you will see no speed difference.

[Giocas]

Disable of pagefile is completely pointless action.

 

...ok...and regarding attached performance?

What do you think about?

It seems quite slow in write 4k...

[Synbios]

Use ATTO to test the drives and post in a new thread.