I just installed an SSD and...

[acraigl]

Holy fark, is this thing fast. Boot to WMC in 8 seconds? Check. Zero lag everywhere (scheduled programs, guide, etc). Just wow. I seriously recommend this for anyone considering the upgrade. Best thing to happen to my HTPC since the InfiniTV4.

[assassin]

Yep.

[STC]

Check!

[Scallica]

Are you referring to the drive listed in your profile? SanDisk SDSSDX-120G-G25....$124.99 @ Newegg

[acraigl]

Are you referring to the drive listed in your profile? SanDisk SDSSDX-120G-G25

That's the one. I actually had a 100GB windows partition on a standard 640GB drive. I was able to restore the partition to the SSD (using Acronis True Image) and got back to windows immediately. No issues to report whatsoever. Easiest upgrade ever.

$119 on Amazon

[newfiend]

Been there ... done that! Gotta love an SSD!!! I just put a couple Corsair Force GT's in RAID 0 in my new desktop PC.. good gawd this thing is wicked fast.. its just too much fun!

[itznfb]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

[acraigl]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

My recorded TV storage has been a separate drive all along... is this another specific setting within WMC?

[itznfb]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

My recorded TV storage has been a separate drive all along... is this another specific setting within WMC?

By default your primary storage location will also house your live TV buffer. You can see that in the recorder settings where it has a line graph of remaining storage. There should be a little blip at the beginning of the line showing how much space your live TV buffer is allocated. So you should be good

[STC]

I would also check to see if your SSD's partition is using 4k clusters, and that the correct windows settings have been applied for an SSD (these would be automatically applied if you were to install Windows fresh onto the SSD). I'm out right now, so can't reference them for you, sorry.
Also, run WEI again.

[acraigl]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

My recorded TV storage has been a separate drive all along... is this another specific setting within WMC?

By default your primary storage location will also house your live TV buffer. You can see that in the recorder settings where it has a line graph of remaining storage. There should be a little blip at the beginning of the line showing how much space your live TV buffer is allocated. So you should be good

That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming!

[acraigl]

I would also check to see if your SSD's partition is using 4k clusters, and that the correct windows settings have been applied for an SSD (these would be automatically applied if you were to install Windows fresh onto the SSD). I'm out right now, so can't reference them for you, sorry.
Also, run WEI again.

I did some research on this prior to purchasing. I aligned the drive based on a guide I found online: http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-m ... ate-drive/
Trim is enabled, and I kept it IDE (not ACHI) as everything I read supported the fact that this only helped in RAID configurations. Forgot to run WEI. Will do that tonight.

Anything else?

[newfiend]

I would also check to see if your SSD's partition is using 4k clusters, and that the correct windows settings have been applied for an SSD (these would be automatically applied if you were to install Windows fresh onto the SSD). I'm out right now, so can't reference them for you, sorry.
Also, run WEI again.

I did some research on this prior to purchasing. I aligned the drive based on a guide I found online: http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-m ... ate-drive/
Trim is enabled, and I kept it IDE (not ACHI) as everything I read supported the fact that this only helped in RAID configurations. Forgot to run WEI. Will do that tonight.

Anything else?

While keeping IDE mode is ok, There are some enhancements and arguements that you will get better performance out of AHCI mode. Is there any other reason you decided to keep an older protocol?
From what I read, and everyones suggestions on WEC I used AHCI when installing my SSD. TRIM should work in either mode so that is not an issue but you will loose NCQ if you stay with IDE mode. If you decide you want to try AHCI you can switch to AHCI w/o having to reinstall Windows. You can read here on how to do it and the benefits of NCQ.
http://tweaks.com/windows/44119/improve ... e-to-ahci/
newfiend~

[Jim_IT]

Has anyone posted a how to, on how to migrate your existing singular HD and convert to O/S on SSD and retaining existing recordings on existing HD?
I have a 30GB SSD, I haven't put into play.

Jim

[richard1980]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

I don't mean to go off topic, but do you have the details of the testing posted anywhere? I'd be interested to see how it compares to the link assassin posted here.

[assassin]

Just make sure you aren't buffering live TV to the SSD. We've done a lot of endurance testing and most drives crap out within 8-9mo when used as a buffer.

I don't mean to go off topic, but do you have the details of the testing posted anywhere? I'd be interested to see how it compares to the link assassin posted here.

I'd be interested in seeing that endurance testing as well.

[acraigl]

I would also check to see if your SSD's partition is using 4k clusters, and that the correct windows settings have been applied for an SSD (these would be automatically applied if you were to install Windows fresh onto the SSD). I'm out right now, so can't reference them for you, sorry.
Also, run WEI again.

Good call on 4K clusters. I aligned the drive prior to restoring the parition, but the restore did a sector-by-sector copy, so it dis-aligned(?) the drive. I did a little GParted magic and now I'm at 4k clusters. WEI is rated a 7 for my primary drive. My SATA ports are only SATA II, though the drive is a III. Room for another upgrade

Regarding ACHI vs. IDE, I found this article, specifically researching my motherboard, and why I'm chosing to keep it IDE (for now):

http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/ide ... ed-to-know

AHCI and SSDs
Typically, many hardware review sites, as well as SSD manufacturers are recommending that AHCI mode is used with SSD drives. However, we have run our own tests here in the forum, and we believe this is misleading, only where SSD drives are used independently (ie not in a RAID array).

AHCI mode as previously explained enables NCQ (native command queuing) which is really not required for SSDs as they do not need optimising in this way as there is no physical movement of heads or platters. In many cases, it can actually hinder SSD performance, and even reduce the lifetime of your SSD.

SSDs and the TRIM command
The TRIM command is dependent on the SSD itself, and the operating system supporting it. It is not dependent on the host controller, and AHCI is not a requirement. TRIM is natively supported in Windows 7, as well as Linux since kernel 2.6.33.

[assassin]

I would also check to see if your SSD's partition is using 4k clusters, and that the correct windows settings have been applied for an SSD (these would be automatically applied if you were to install Windows fresh onto the SSD). I'm out right now, so can't reference them for you, sorry.
Also, run WEI again.

Good call on 4K clusters. I aligned the drive prior to restoring the parition, but the restore did a sector-by-sector copy, so it dis-aligned(?) the drive. I did a little GParted magic and now I'm at 4k clusters. WEI is rated a 7 for my primary drive. My SATA ports are only SATA II, though the drive is a III. Room for another upgrade

Regarding ACHI vs. IDE, I found this article, specifically researching my motherboard, and why I'm chosing to keep it IDE (for now):

http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/ide ... ed-to-know

AHCI and SSDs
Typically, many hardware review sites, as well as SSD manufacturers are recommending that AHCI mode is used with SSD drives. However, we have run our own tests here in the forum, and we believe this is misleading, only where SSD drives are used independently (ie not in a RAID array).

AHCI mode as previously explained enables NCQ (native command queuing) which is really not required for SSDs as they do not need optimising in this way as there is no physical movement of heads or platters. In many cases, it can actually hinder SSD performance, and even reduce the lifetime of your SSD.

SSDs and the TRIM command
The TRIM command is dependent on the SSD itself, and the operating system supporting it. It is not dependent on the host controller, and AHCI is not a requirement. TRIM is natively supported in Windows 7, as well as Linux since kernel 2.6.33.

I wouldn't do that.

What tests? They don't give any information at all.

[acraigl]

I wouldn't do that.

What tests? They don't give any information at all.

Wouldn't do what?
They don't specifically detail their tests, but I've read lots and at least half of the articles I've read state IDE is better for single drives. Of course that means the other half is in support of ACHI. I would gladly just run the tests myself to see, but I'm not 100% sure how/where to enable this in my BIOS (only RAID setting reference ACHI, so I don't think that's it), and why I'm sticking with IDE for now.

[assassin]

I wouldn't do that.

What tests? They don't give any information at all.

Wouldn't do what?
They don't specifically detail their tests, but I've read lots and at least half of the articles I've read state IDE is better for single drives. Of course that means the other half is in support of ACHI. I would gladly just run the tests myself to see, but I'm not 100% sure how/where to enable this in my BIOS (only RAID setting reference ACHI, so I don't think that's it), and why I'm sticking with IDE for now.

I wouldn't use IDE.

I have seen performance issues go away when switching from IDE to AHCI but never the other way around.

Do what you like though.