That is odd then! Not sure what happened, or why that would be like it is if you are not accelerating it? A normal windows install only has two partitions if you let windows do the setup and partition alignment. It would be the 100MB reserved hidden system partition, and then C drive the main partition.
The accelerated RAID array may be the reason there is that third partition then, as the acceleration program creates a fake RAID array combining the accelerated drives and the drive you cache onto. Although, that still sounds odd as it shouldn't involve the main windows SSD at all. Maybe that already had a partition on it when you setup windows, and it just left it there? Hard to say since I didn't set it up - ya know what I mean haha!
1. No, normal hard drives do not usually need aligned at all.
Windows experience is not a benchmark you should rely on for any gauge of performance, it's only meant to let you know what software Microsoft thinks you can buy or download from them based on their scores. You need to use a real HDD or SSD benchmark to gauge performance, and then compare that to others with similar hardware.
Yes, I would personally reinstall the windows drive, just to get rid of the odd partition. And since I'm talking personally, I also align my own partition, thus not allowing windows to create the hidden system partition, but that's up to you. Yes, if you use my method above you will have only a single aligned partition for windows, with no system reserved partition. The system reserved partition is only needed to boot from if you have issues, such as needing to run startup repair, or other system repair tools, all of which you can run easily from the windows install DVD. That is what I always do, when and if needed, which is rare.
See, here is my current SSD, you can also see my Vista setup is the same single partition, and Drive E is also a secondary windows 7 setup, all of those use only single partitions
I am not familiar with your SSD's, so I'm not sure if it's common practice still to have to leave extra space for GC or not, many older SSD's yes this was needed, but many of the more recent generations do not need this. I only use Crucial drives, which are not Sandforce based, so I don't really have any experience with your type of drives, sorry about that. You'll have to look around at their forum, or ask in a new thread, and if you do just browse around be sure you are looking at more current threads not older ones. I do know there is already hidden space on the drives you cannot access, that is used for wear leveling and GC, so you shouldn't have to reserve more, so any answer you find will probably just be users own personal preferences.
Here is some info on what I mentioned about the drives already having space set aside for various duties, it's a little old, but you'll see what I mean about it already having reserved area for GC , wear leveling,ect.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3690/the-impact-of-spare-area-on-sandforce-more-capacity-at-no-performance-lossYou should look at several reviews of your exact model of SSD and see what they mention regarding this. If you cannot find several reviews on your exact size of drive then look at the next size up, just make sure it's the same model/family. If you do decide to leave some spare area, I'd say 7-10GB should be more than plenty.
Also, in case you are not aware and are new to SSD's, do not defrag your SSD, this is not needed and can slow them down and shorten their lifespan
Thanks for your kind words, they are most appreciated! I believe the applaud link under my user name here gives me thanks or kudos, I'm not super familiar with this forum setup here either but I think that's what you are looking for
I do not work for Gigabyte, but I am directly in close contact with them, so I guess you could say I work with them but not for them. I'm just a regular end user like yourself, I just like to help my fellow Gigabyte users the best I can - when I can!
