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Off-Topic => General discussions => Topic started by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 09:41:42 am

Title: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 09:41:42 am
Hi All,

I have been reading few articles about this subject and wondered what your take was on the matter. First of all I came across this article titled the optimisation guide:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives...

In here it states:

"Yes.Most pagefile operations are small random reads  or larger sequential writes, both are operations that SSD's handle well."

On read a post made by DM, I came across this:

"As long as you have over 8GB or RAM you don't need a swapfile/pagefile. If you feel that you can't live without one put it on the other drive."


Can anyone shed some light on this.

Teknology9
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 11:38:46 am
Hi there,

Yes, the first item is correct but what it doesn't state is that SSD's, in general, have a finite amount of write cycles. This varies according to the make and model of the SSD's but too many write cycles will shorten their working life.

This is why the advice is to disable or relocate the pagefile to another drive. With 8GB of RAM you can safely disable the paging file as your RAM will handle these operations without a problem.

If however, you want to keep a large paging file then you can set it onto a standard HDD within your system (if you have one) installed, rather than on the SSD.
You can do this by going to:
Control Panel/System and Security/System and then clicking on the link in the blue left hand panel of the screen named Advanced system settings.
This will bring up a dialogue box and you need to click on the button labelled "settings" under the performance heading (should be the first button in the box).
Another dialogue box will open and you need to click on the Advanced Tab and then under the Virtual Memory heading click on the button labelled "Change..." Here you can set the size of the Pagefile or set it to use a different drive in your system.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 31, 2011, 11:38:53 am
Hi

Unlike the older magnetic disk type of drive SSDs do have a limited life measured in the number of writes to a particular point on the chips. Therefore anything that is writing to the drive when it can be done away with is a good idea. The numbers are fairly substantial but even so a pagefile can make a significant number each day.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 11:52:13 am
Yes...thanks for your replies.

I am not disagreeing with what you are both stating...it's just that have done a bit of research some say leave it on the SSD...others put it on a HDD.....me....I'm ???. :D

Another suggestion was to input 0 and see what figure Win 7 shows and input that as the size of the pagefile as that figure for both minimum and maximum.

The size of the page file on my SSD is 12288mb....is that to big...just right etc?

Thanks,

Teknology9
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 11:57:55 am
If you're happy with the pagefile taking up that much space on your SSD then that's fine. Remember, the internet has good as well as bad advice, when I researched this subject I spoke to several manufacturers and they advised turning off the paging file on the SSD.

I have mine set to Off across all drives and have had no problems or loss in speed.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 12:03:49 pm
OK...I see. So even with all your programs and applications....there are no problems? Yes I really want to get some space back if possible.


@Dark Mantis - Hi, I know what you have written has got a lot of merit....so don't misunderstand as it's all good. :)

Thanks


Teknologgy9
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 12:18:34 pm
(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2953/pagefile.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/pagefile.png/)

As you can see from this image, on my system, everything to do with the pagefile has been turned off and there are no speed issue with any of the programmes that I run.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 12:22:49 pm
Hi,

Well.....I......I.....think that has answered that one!!!!! :D


Thanks absic

Cheers,

Teknology9

Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 31, 2011, 02:41:49 pm
The only downside to not having a pagefile at all is that in the event of a problem there will be no dump to check on afterwards.  ;)
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 02:48:57 pm
Problems? ??? ? What are they?  :D
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 31, 2011, 02:55:28 pm
None now that you are using a real system! ;D
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 03:02:46 pm
Touche, DM.  :D

Sadly, even having moved to the dark side, I am still encountering issues (not problems, I hasten to add) and they can't all be down to my lack of experience of Intel.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 31, 2011, 04:26:28 pm
Post them up here absic maybe we can work through them. There are a lot of experienced people on this forum! 8)
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on December 31, 2011, 04:41:23 pm
Post them up here absic maybe we can work through them. There are a lot of experienced people on this forum! 8)

Ah, I like to play with things and try to find the solutions through trial and error so that I am in a position to help others. And, as I have said, it has been a long time since I played with an Intel rig so some of the issues are probably of my own making!

Although, I have to say, that I am wondering about the F8b BIOS I am running as, although I am running everything at stock settings, I get the odd occasion when the system will reset at BOOT and tell me it has reset itself due to overclocking.  :o Very strange, especially as, when I go into BIOS and check, everything is exactly the same as before.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 31, 2011, 06:36:06 pm
Yes I have had the same error message on some of my machines and personally I reckon it's just because the stupid computer can't think of anything else to blame it on! As you say often nothing is overclocked at all even the memory.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on December 31, 2011, 09:25:27 pm
Hi Folks,

Just finished the clean install and just decided on a New Years resolution................to ensure that I get an Intel system!!! :D

This is the proposed system:

GA- Z68XP - UD3P - not sure whether PCIe 2.0 or 3.0

16GB of Vengence LP memory

2500K or wait for new Intel CPU

Any comments folks?

Cheers,

Teknology9
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: absic on January 01, 2012, 08:38:43 am
Go for it.  ;)

I know that I am very happy having switched my main system, to a 2500k Intel rig from AMD.

Personally I don't think you need to get too hung up on whether the board has PCIe 2.0 or 3.0 as early indications are that it really doesn't make that much difference. Of course, as other hardware and their drivers catch up then this could change.

If you are thinking of building in a little future proofing then go for PCIe 3.0 and wait for the new chips to come along and this might fit better with your budget and plans to put the new rig together.
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: teknology9 on January 01, 2012, 10:24:35 am
Hi absic,

Yes...I don't think the new MB's will be out until April.....but I'll have to wait until the new CPU's have been launched.


Teknology9
Title: Re: Should the Page File Be Put on a SSD?
Post by: Gloup_Gloup on January 05, 2012, 12:35:48 am
Hi Teknology9,  ;)

I am not sure, if you want oc cpu with this mobo?
But is not a best for oc. You obtain probably 4.6Ghz.. More? .... Wait and See
Source : http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z68xp-ud3p_review/11

For the price ... ok is a chepest mobo...

Technicals note:
1 x HDMI port  only.
This board are have not a DP port. Display Port.

6 x audio jacks only.

Gloup_Gloup