How to set up GA 890XA-UD3 with the OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi and thanks again for all the excellent advice you've given!  Much appreciated!

Ok, here is my question: How do I set up the GA 890XA-UD3 with the OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2?  I am hearing conflicting reports about the ACHI [sounds like a sneeze from someone with a terrible cold].

Do I enable ACHI, disable it, etc.  What are the benefits of each way?

Are there any other things I need to know about setting up this OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2 using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Soar

[fadsarmy]

For best ssd performance enable AHCI prior to Windows installation. Can also be done after by tweaking registry. In AHCI mode you will get better read/write performance. Also you must use Microsoft AHCI drivers for trim support.

[soarwitheagles]

For best ssd performance enable AHCI prior to Windows installation. Can also be done after by tweaking registry. In AHCI mode you will get better read/write performance. Also you must use Microsoft AHCI drivers for trim support.

Fad,

Thanks for the reply.  Are the Microsoft AHCI drivers included in the Windows 7 Ultimate OS?  And have you any other suggestions for tweaking this SSD?

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Soar
Just wanted to make sure that you understood properly. You are better off using AHCI on the SSD drive but not because of TRIM, as it is supported on IDE mode also. AHCI will give you a bit more speed, not a lot, on the SD drives. It also enables the  Hot Swap ability if you require it.
Yes TRIM is supported by Windows7 natively. Beyond that I don't think there is anything else you need to do apart from buckle up and hold on tight

[absic]

Beyond that I don't think there is anything else you need to do apart from buckle up and hold on tight

Of course, if you are really concerned, you can ship it to me and I will willingly test it out for you over the next couple of years! 

[soarwitheagles]

Beyond that I don't think there is anything else you need to do apart from buckle up and hold on tight

Of course, if you are really concerned, you can ship it to me and I will willingly test it out for you over the next couple of years! 

Absic, you guys are very, very funny!  Ok, well, if I were a millionaire I would gladly give you one...but since I am a pauper and not a prince, I will have to only allow it in my dreams....

So sorry...but if things change here in bankrupt California, I will gladly let you know!

I wish I had the sense to put $1000 cash in Cisco Systems when they went public in the early 1990's.  If you left $1000 in their stock and did not take it out until 2000, you would have $37 million dollars.  Not bad.  But I did not see it.  Darn.

Ok, on to stuff us poor folk talk about...very small SSD's...

I was sent a SSD Tweak Guide from a friend at another forum.  It is a bit long and to be honest with you, it seems quite comprehensive.  I would like to submit it to you here and ask for your opinions....need I really do so much to properly tweak my new OCZ Agility 2?

Here's the guide:


1.     SSD Tweak Guide
SSD Tweaks

• Enable Write Caching
• Disable indexing
• Turn Off the Disk Defragmenter Schedule
• Disable defragmentation
• Disable Superfetch / Prefetch
• Disable the Page File
• Disable System Restore
• Disable Hibernate
• TRIM Commands
• SSD Tweak Utility

Enable Write Caching

Open the Control Panel -> System and Security -> Device Manager -> expand Disk drives -> Double click on the listed storage device that you want to enable write caching for -> Click on the Polices tab -> By default, "Enable write caching on the device" is checked under the Write-caching policy section. If not, then check it -> Select (check) the "Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device" box -> Click on OK -> Click on Yes to restart the computer to apply.

 

(Note: Turning off "Windows Write-cache Buffer Flushing on the Device" runs the risk of data loss in case of a power failure without actually shutting down the machine.)

Disable indexing

Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK
(Note: This does not disable "searching", it disables the "search indexer")

 


Go to Computer -> Right click on SSD Drive -> Properties -> Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties -> Click OK

 

Turn Off the Disk Defragmenter Schedule

Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter -> Click on the Configure schedule button -> Uncheck the Run on a Schedule box -> Click on OK -> Close the window.

 

Disable Disk Defragmenter

Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

 

Disable Superfetch / Disable Prefetch

Open regedit.exe and browse down to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Find the "EnableSuperfetch" key on the right-hand pane, rightclick it, hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK.
Find the "EnablePrefetcher" key on the right-hand pane, right click it, hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK.

 

Disable the Page File

Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> No paging file -> Set -> OK -> Restart your computer

 

(Note: If you run out of memory the program your using will crash so I setup a page file on my Data Drive.)

 

Disable System Restore

Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Click Configure -> Check Turn off system protection -> Click Delete -> OK

 

Disable Hibernate

Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Hit ENTER -> Type exit -> Hit ENTER
To enable type: powercfg -h on

 

TRIM Commands

• Enable TRIM
Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

• Disable TRIM
Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1

How do I know if TRIM is working in Windows 7?

Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)

SSD Tweak Utility

The SSD Tweak Utility is quite handy as it will quickly help you setup your SSD, but I still like to double check all the settings listed above. You can download the SSD Tweak Utility at either one of these locations.

http://members.westnet.com.au/tarcoo...SSDTweaker.zip

SSD Tweak Utility download from Guru3D.com

And you must have Microsoft .NET Framework installed.

Download details: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

There have been a few updates and bug fixes so I recommend checking for updates before you start.

 

You can choose which tweaks you want to apply or the Utility will "Auto Tweak" for you.

 

If a tweak is grayed out it does not apply to your system.

 

If you want to apply a tweak you must un-check it. Hovering your mouse over a tweak will bring up a description of the setting.

 

To use the "Auto Tweak" feature you just have to click the Auto Tweak Settings button.

 

After clicking on the Auto Tweak Settings button a few reminder boxes may pop-up.

 

Your Tweaks will not be applied until you reboot the system.

 

You may also notice the SSD Tweak Utility making a few suggestions to speed up your system. It's telling me that disabling the Themes Service will boost performance a little.

 

If you like the Utility you can always make a Donation or Buy it.

 

If you Buy the Software it will unlock a few Advanced Features. These features do not apply to your SSD, they are Windows System adjustments.

 

If you click on the RAMDISK Info button it supplies you with the url to the RAMDISK Download. RAMDISK is a utility that will use a portion of your System Memory and make it function like a Physical Disk or Hard Drive.

 

Here are a few more SSD Tweaks

Move your Temporary Internet Folder to your Data Drive

Navigate to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Internet Options
Go to the General Tab and click Settings under Browsing History.
This will bring up the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings Dialog Box.
Click on Move Folder, this brings up the Browse for Folder Dialog Box.
Select your Data Drive and click OK. Windows will create a Folder called Temporary Internet Files on your Data drive, this is a Hidden Folder so you may not see it.

 

Move Temp and Tmp files to your Data Drive

Create a Folder on your Data Drive. You can name this folder anything you want, I named it Temp.
Navigate to Control Panel > System and Security > System
Click on Advanced System Settings, this brings up the System Properties Dialog Box.
Click on Enviroment Variables, this brings up the Enviroment Variables Box.
Highlight the Temp and Tmp variables, one at a time, in both the User and System areas. Click the Edit box and change each setting to the folder you created on your Data drive.

 
Last edited by Slaymate; Yesterday at 01:26 PM. Reason: added new tweaks
 
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2.   09-27-2010 04:57 AM#2
c0rr0sive
 
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  Re: SSD Tweak Guide
You may want to note, that users should still use a page file, as some programs actually must have access to it, so they may want to make a 3-4GB partition on a classic platter drive to use as the page file.
 
If I have been helpful with this post, please give me some rep :3
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3.   09-27-2010 05:04 AM#3
Slaymate
 
             
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  Re: SSD Tweak Guide
  Originally Posted by c0rr0sive 
You may want to note, that users should still use a page file, as some programs actually must have access to it, so they may want to make a 3-4GB partition on a classic platter drive to use as the page file.
That's why I included this.
  Originally Posted by Slaymate 
(Note: If you run out of memory the program your using will crash so I setup a page file on my Data Drive.)

 GASP, ok, my dear Absic, I hope I have not overwhelmed you with this SSD Guide.

Must I really do all this to optimize the SSD?

It's me,

Winded Soar

[absic]

Hi Soar and thanks for the book, I really enjoy wading through so much technical stuff before I have my breakfast! 

I will leave a proper answer to someone else who has hands on experience of SSD's but, from what I am reading, it seems a pretty concise and helpful guide to setting an SSD to its optimum. From my research on the subject, SSD's have to be treated differently to HDD's and things that you can get away with on mechanical drives are not good for Solid State ones. Disabling the disk defragmenter, system restore, indexing etc., goes along with what I have learnt about using these drives

[jannie]

Hi Soar...wow what load of info...I will try your tweak...It will keep my Jimmy Shand tracks safe......and hey why dont we all get a kitty going so absic can buy an ssd

[absic]

hey why dont we all get a kitty going so absic can buy an ssd

There would be no objections made by me! 

[soarwitheagles]

Hi Soar...wow what load of info...I will try your tweak...It will keep my Jimmy Shand tracks safe......and hey why dont we all get a kitty going so absic can buy an ssd

Yes, when it comes to tweaking a SSD it does appear to be quite a book.  I never realized so much could/would be involved.  

In regards to a kitty for Absic, I like your idea Jannie!  May I suggest the OCZ OCZSSD2-1CLS250G 250GB SATA II Solid State Drive (SSD) Solid State Drive Retail?  It is only $700.  Ok, who will start this process and how many years will it require to achieve our goal?

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Soar

After reading your lengthy tome I need a nap. Seriously the info was all fairly good advice as far as I could see. The part about TRIM commands was a little misleading in so much as if you follow their advice all you will know is that TRIM is enabled but it doesn't prove the TRIM commands are being transferred to the drive. You would need to do some checking up on the controller to see if it passes on TRIM commands.

As far as the kitty goes let me know when to hide. Seriously though I do think that some of these hardware manufacturers could be a bit more forthcoming for people in our positions that do a lot of testing and advising people on what to buy, what works well together, etc. It is very difficult to do this from a purely theoretical standpoint. I have tried advising Gigabyte of the reasoning of this approach but so far without luck. We must save them a fortune in technical support and help sell a lot of their products because of the good backup we supply on the forum. OK rant over.

[Wonderwrench]

IMHO that SSD tweak guide is going way overboard and may very well cause problems for anyone using it.

• Enable Write Caching ( It's a good idea to make sure write caching is enabled. It should be by default. Turning off Windows write-cache buffer flushing is a bad idea unless you have an UPS or your SSD has a backup power source. If you have neither expect data loss if the power fails. In my testing turning off Windows write-cache buffer flushing does little for performance anyway. I say leave this setting be )

• Disable indexing ( Recommended, just right click on your SSD drive in my computer, choose properties and uncheck indexing there. No need to do more )

• Turn Off the Disk Defragmenter Schedule ( This is a must, this should be the first thing on the list )

• Disable defragmentation  service ( No need to do this. If your really a tweaker go to www.blackviper.com and use his guide to tweak windows services )

• Disable Superfetch / Prefetch ( Optional, not a bad idea but not mandatory when using a SSD )

• Disable the Page File ( This is a very bad idea. Some programs will not even run with the page file disabled. If you want to take the chance you should have 8 or more gigs of ram or you will likely have problems. If you are worried about it move the page file to a  secondary magnetic drive, google is your friend. Changing page file settings are not mandatory when using an SSD )
 
• Disable System Restore ( Recommended, disable if you do not mind loosing system restore. Like it works if you need it anyway. If you must have System Restore reduce the maximum size to only a few gigs )

• Disable Hibernate ( This is a very good idea as using hibernate will write a huge amount of data to the drive every time you use it. It does not really hurt much to leave it enabled if you do not use it. It will stop wear leveling from using this part of the drive in most cases though. I leave it enabled on the PC in my sig in case I have a power failure. My UPS will signal windows to hibernate saving my work for me )
  
• TRIM Commands ( Its a good idea to check to make sure its enabled but there is no reason to disable it )

• SSD Tweak Utility ( If your a tweak freak feel free but be warned you can brick your PC if you do not know what you are doing. No one really needs this utility )

Tweaks not listed in the main guide such as moving windows user/system temp locations and Temporary Internet Folder to a secondary magnetic drive should be done long before some of the tweaks in the first guide. These tweaks are by no means a must.

IMO the only things you really must disable when using an SSD is windows defragmenter schedule and turn off indexing for the SSD using the method above.

Note: many people make the mistake and partition and format the SSD incorrectly. The easiest way to get it right is to partition and format the drive while connected to a windows Vista or windows 7 PC. Only use a single partition. Using more than one partition or allowing windows setup to partition and format the drive will cause alignment problems which will seriously reduce drive performance and drive life. If you can't format the drive from within windows you can use Diskpart. See instructions below.

1 - Boot up from the Windows 7 installation disc.

2 - Choose Repair your computer.

3 - In the System Recovery Options screen, choose Use recovery tools... and click Next.

4 - Open the Command Prompt.

5 - Type diskpart and hit Enter.

6 - Type list disk . Find the disk you wish to install Windows 7 on. If you only have one disk then it will show as disk 0. If you have multiple disks find the drive you wish to install 7 on.

7 - Type select disk 0 (or use the number of the disk you wish to install Windows 7 on)(note - that is a zero)

8 - Type list partition. There shouldn't be any.

9 - Type create partition primary.

10- Type select partition 1.

11- Type active.

12- Type format quick.

13- When finished reboot and begin your installation.

Visit www.Tweakhound.com for many useful tricks and tweaks for windows. Great guy and he knows what he is talking about.

Bill

[soarwitheagles]

IMHO that SSD tweak guide is going way overboard and may very well cause problems for anyone using it.

• Enable Write Caching ( It's a good idea to make sure write caching is enabled. It should be by default. Turning off Windows write-cache buffer flushing is a bad idea unless you have an UPS or your SSD has a backup power source. If you have neither expect data loss if the power fails. In my testing turning off Windows write-cache buffer flushing does little for performance anyway. I say leave this setting be )

• Disable indexing ( Recommended, just right click on your SSD drive in my computer, choose properties and uncheck indexing there. No need to do more )

• Turn Off the Disk Defragmenter Schedule ( This is a must, this should be the first thing on the list )

• Disable defragmentation  service ( No need to do this. If your really a tweaker go to www.blackviper.com and use his guide to tweak windows services )

• Disable Superfetch / Prefetch ( Optional, not a bad idea but not mandatory when using a SSD )

• Disable the Page File ( This is a very bad idea. Some programs will not even run with the page file disabled. If you want to take the chance you should have 8 or more gigs of ram or you will likely have problems. If you are worried about it move the page file to a  secondary magnetic drive, google is your friend. Changing page file settings are not mandatory when using an SSD )
 
• Disable System Restore ( Recommended, disable if you do not mind loosing system restore. Like it works if you need it anyway. If you must have System Restore reduce the maximum size to only a few gigs )

• Disable Hibernate ( This is a very good idea as using hibernate will write a huge amount of data to the drive every time you use it. It does not really hurt much to leave it enabled if you do not use it. It will stop wear leveling from using this part of the drive in most cases though. I leave it enabled on the PC in my sig in case I have a power failure. My UPS will signal windows to hibernate saving my work for me )
  
• TRIM Commands ( Its a good idea to check to make sure its enabled but there is no reason to disable it )

• SSD Tweak Utility ( If your a tweak freak feel free but be warned you can brick your PC if you do not know what you are doing. No one really needs this utility )

Tweaks not listed in the main guide such as moving windows user/system temp locations and Temporary Internet Folder to a secondary magnetic drive should be done long before some of the tweaks in the first guide. These tweaks are by no means a must.

IMO the only things you really must disable when using an SSD is windows defragmenter schedule and turn off indexing for the SSD using the method above.

Note: many people make the mistake and partition and format the SSD incorrectly. The easiest way to get it right is to partition and format the drive while connected to a windows Vista or windows 7 PC. Only use a single partition. Using more than one partition or allowing windows setup to partition and format the drive will cause alignment problems which will seriously reduce drive performance and drive life. If you can't format the drive from within windows you can use Diskpart. See instructions below.

1 - Boot up from the Windows 7 installation disc.

2 - Choose Repair your computer.

3 - In the System Recovery Options screen, choose Use recovery tools... and click Next.

4 - Open the Command Prompt.

5 - Type diskpart and hit Enter.

6 - Type list disk . Find the disk you wish to install Windows 7 on. If you only have one disk then it will show as disk 0. If you have multiple disks find the drive you wish to install 7 on.

7 - Type select disk 0 (or use the number of the disk you wish to install Windows 7 on)(note - that is a zero)

8 - Type list partition. There shouldn't be any.

9 - Type create partition primary.

10- Type select partition 1.

11- Type active.

12- Type format quick.

13- When finished reboot and begin your installation.

Visit www.Tweakhound.com for many useful tricks and tweaks for windows. Great guy and he knows what he is talking about.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for sharing your ideas and logical explanations.  To be 100% honest with you, I have had no idea what to do before/during the SSD install.  I like your ideas and your explanations.  I believe your post will save a lot of us newbies from making unnecessary tweaks that place our systems at risk.

I appreciate you and the time you gave to help us here.  I will most definitely take your good advice as I put this new system together.

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

The only thing I would disagree with in Wonderwrench's list is the necessity the move the Windows page file from the SSD. I would definitely do this as the page file is writing to the drive constantly if it is enabled so moving it to another drive is a must. The rest of the list seems sensible.

Don't forget to vote!

[absic]

Note: many people make the mistake and partition and format the SSD incorrectly. The easiest way to get it right is to partition and format the drive while connected to a windows Vista or windows 7 PC. Only use a single partition. Using more than one partition or allowing windows setup to partition and format the drive will cause alignment problems which will seriously reduce drive performance and drive life.

OK, this raises a couple of questions.
When you install Windows 7 it wants to create a small 100Mb  partition called system reserved. Are you saying that this shouldn't be done if using an SSD?
If so, how do you stop Windows from creating this partition?