SSD settings for Win7 & FSX Install

[RickB1293 9]

I am installing Win7 and FSX on an OCZ 120 Gb SSD and would like to know if I should move pagefile.sys to another drive (WD Black 1Tb). The default page file size is about 8Gb which is how much RAM there is in the system.I have already moved FSX and the performance is amazingly better. Will moving Win7 have enough of an impact to warrant the change to the SSD?Thanks for your help--

[dazz 69]

Personally, I think having the OS in an SSD is a massive waste. There's very little disk activity in the system partition and at very low queue depths. Most of the .dll's, .exe's, .db's ... are cached in no time, or at boot time with Superfetch enabled. I would install Win 7 in a short stroke to minimize boot times and leave the SSD for FSX (and web browser maybe), at least you'll save time when you start FSX

[RickB1293 9]

Thanks Dazz, it's true that there is little HD activity after Win loads and stabilizes. I goes days without rebooting ( Can you say VISTA). I will forego the OS move and save the space for FSX, COD and other games.Have you heard of any results using the SSD as a HD cache in RAID(0) with normal 7200rpm HDs?Regards,

[dazz 69]

Have you heard of any results using the SSD as a HD cache in RAID(0) with normal 7200rpm HDs?

Nope, sorry, no idea

[kjng 0]

Make sure you activate ahci for the sata controller within the bios or trim won't work

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

KjngI don't think that this is correct:

Make sure you activate ahci for the sata controller within the bios or trim won't work

AFAIK TRIM acts irrespectively of IDE and/or AHCI. http://benchmarkrevi...1&limitstart=12IMHO if you do not install AHCI with the Windows install and instead apply the registry hack and BIOS setting you will not get the full effect of AHCI.There's no real evidence that FSX is influenced by either AHCI or IDE and the latter can be "faster" in certain conditions.I agree with the above that it is a waste to have the OS on an SSD and I wouldn't put the paging file on an SSD as it does not confer any benefit over a conventional HDD.RegardsPeterH

[dazz 69]

KjngI don't think that this is correct:AFAIK TRIM acts irrespectively of IDE and/or AHCI. http://benchmarkrevi...1&limitstart=12IMHO if you do not install AHCI with the Windows install and instead apply the registry hack and BIOS setting you will not get the full effect of AHCI.There's no real evidence that FSX is influenced by either AHCI or IDE and the latter can be "faster" in certain conditions.I agree with the above that it is a waste to have the OS on an SSD and I wouldn't put the paging file on an SSD as it does not confer any benefit over a conventional HDD.RegardsPeterH

Are you sure about this Peter? I benched a Vertex 2 after the registry "hack" and it looked to be in perfect shapeIt's true that you get TRIM in IDE, but you need AHCI for NCQ (Native Command Queing) or the SSD will underperform at queue depths >1

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

DazzI've seen a couple of posts now where it was stated that the best way to set up ACHI was via the Windows install. I don't have the weblinks to hand but will do some research and report back. I'm not saying that anything adverse will happen if you do it via the registry hack (although with an SSD on an esata connection on my pc with this BIOS change and reg hack it stopped Windows loading totally - probably idiosyncratic), but like all things it may be better to do it the way that it was intended. I have never seen any evidence that FSX on a SSD performs faster or better or anything in ACHI mode as opposed to IDE mode. In fact some SSD's may perform better in IDE mode. I'm not sure about NCQ there are divided opinions about as you would expect, wrt FSX.The data transfer is so blisteringly fast (compared to a conventional HDD) on a properly installed SSD that I don't see that ACHI, NCQ, IDE would significantly affect performance. My opinion only.My own OCZ Colossus is on IDE (recommended by OCZ - it doesn't have TRIM but a built in OCZ proprietary GC) works really well with good load times and no apparent stutter loading lag in FSX. I do also run, for my AVSIM reviews, another (registered) FSX install on a Momentus XT via USB 2.0 and it is slower loading than my SSD and texture loading is sometimes laggy, but I can still fly the aircraft or review the scenery with very little issues. Of course I don't use that setup as my prime FSX set up, I use it just for testing/review purposes only.Another opinion: http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/ide-sata-and-ahci-all-you-need-to-knowRegardsPeterH

Edited January 27, 2012 by peterhayes

[thefsxflyer 1]

Personally, I think having the OS in an SSD is a massive waste. There's very little disk activity in the system partition and at very low queue depths. Most of the .dll's, .exe's, .db's ... are cached in no time, or at boot time with Superfetch enabled. I would install Win 7 in a short stroke to minimize boot times and leave the SSD for FSX (and web browser maybe), at least you'll save time when you start FSX

I respectfully disagree to your opinion (LOL) but then again I do have windows 7 and fsx installed on my 240gb ssd. SSDs make windows overall so much snappier. Things like searching on the start bar is almost instant, loading up thumbnails of pictures in a folder is faster. Even things like jumping around in a video is faster. Even when you are doing an anti virus scan the over all experience doesn't slow down. I dare to say that you could actually play a game and do a antivirus scan at the same time and the game running very nicely.In my personal opinion getting an ssd for 1 game/application is wasting money. The overall benefit to cost ratio in my opinion isn't worth it. Then again, this is my opinion and yours is yours.

[kjng 0]

KjngI don't think that this is correct:AFAIK TRIM acts irrespectively of IDE and/or AHCI. http://benchmarkrevi...1&limitstart=12IMHO if you do not install AHCI with the Windows install and instead apply the registry hack and BIOS setting you will not get the full effect of AHCI.There's no real evidence that FSX is influenced by either AHCI or IDE and the latter can be "faster" in certain conditions.I agree with the above that it is a waste to have the OS on an SSD and I wouldn't put the paging file on an SSD as it does not confer any benefit over a conventional HDD.RegardsPeterH

There's evidence that if you run an SSD without ahci you will lose one of its biggest advantages (4K threaded performance), but it seems you're right about trim.

[dazz 69]

I respectfully disagree to your opinion (LOL) but then again I do have windows 7 and fsx installed on my 240gb ssd. SSDs make windows overall so much snappier. Things like searching on the start bar is almost instant, loading up thumbnails of pictures in a folder is faster. Even things like jumping around in a video is faster. Even when you are doing an anti virus scan the over all experience doesn't slow down. I dare to say that you could actually play a game and do a antivirus scan at the same time and the game running very nicely.In my personal opinion getting an ssd for 1 game/application is wasting money. The overall benefit to cost ratio in my opinion isn't worth it.Then again, this is my opinion and yours is yours.

But searches on the start bar will access the disk where the results of the search sit, more than the OS disk Taylor. If you start clicking on all of the "All Programs" entries for instance, the disk accessed more will be the one with those programs installed. I just opened ALL of them (with no visible lag) and Process Explorer registered a wopping 16.5MB of disk reads :D. Procmon says 75% were in the C: drive, but I've got FSX, firefox, PE, Procmon, Acronis, Partition Master, MS Office, Dropbox and some other programs installed in C: If you only have the OS, more of that % will be acceses to mech drivesPersonally I have Superfetch enabled. It caches all those thumbnails, dll's and whatnot upon startup. Your SSD will still be faster with all this stuff, but a few ms here and there don't justify an SSD for my useTo each their own. Obviously with 240GB, why not have the OS there too? Edited January 27, 2012 by dazz