Posted: 4/2/2013 12:06:40 PM EDT
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OK so I should have all my parts ready for the major build by this weekend. I am looking for some insight on Bios config and a couple other options I have been reading about.
I'm only slightly above the plug and play level. But trying to learn some more. I've been reading about setting up my 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD for better performance and such. But I am having a little trouble figuring out the linear progression of the install. Basically I plug in the SSD and install Win7. Then set Bios to AHCI. I think this is when I can change a couple other things as well(like disabling floppy, etc). I also think this is when I should update firmware of the SSD if needed; from what I read I can update firmware after win7 install with most SSDs? I also read a tweak that allows proper alignment without the windows auto partition, but I am unsure if I can do this from the scratch install or install OS and then go back and do the tweak that re-installs the OS again? After the above is set I can plug in the HDD and then I would also like to do the tweak that places the "users", "program files" and "pagefile" on the HDD. Does this sound correct? I plan on running OS, GIMP, Open Office and firefox(maybe) off of the SSD. Games and personal files on the HDD... Most likely using Steam Mover program to swap favorite games to the SSD(if I start to feel the need). Also I am not sure if I should bother putting a partition in the HDD for this setup? If links to the tweaks are need just say so. |
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yup pretty much. set bios to AHCI, install ssd, pop in windows disk and install. after windows boots, install all updates for windows. then add the second drive. format that drive, give it a drive letter, and you're good there. if i were you, i would install ALL programs on the SSD. i dont think you need to set your pagefile onto the second hard drive anymore....if anything, i think you turn it off completely with a ssd on the OS host disk. the most tweaking you can do to the ssd is merely install the latest firmware. |
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How much RAM you putting in it? If it's under 8GB I'd say move the pagefile to the other drive. If your putting in 16GB or something you can probably just disable it. It really depends on how much RAM you will be using and everyone's preferences are different. 16gb RAM Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. |
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How much RAM you putting in it? If it's under 8GB I'd say move the pagefile to the other drive. If your putting in 16GB or something you can probably just disable it. It really depends on how much RAM you will be using and everyone's preferences are different. 16gb RAM Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. I honestly don't know of many people that have a blu-ray drive in a PC. I rarely use optical drives anymore. Really just when we rent a movie from Redbox or something and I've got a blu-ray player for that. |
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How much RAM you putting in it? If it's under 8GB I'd say move the pagefile to the other drive. If your putting in 16GB or something you can probably just disable it. It really depends on how much RAM you will be using and everyone's preferences are different. 16gb RAM Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. I honestly don't know of many people that have a blu-ray drive in a PC. I rarely use optical drives anymore. Really just when we rent a movie from Redbox or something and I've got a blu-ray player for that. LOL, yeah is sort of what I was trying to avoid. Don't want to get the new gen consoles, so I decide to go back to PC. But then I figure; since I do rent from redbox as well, it might be nice to have a BD. So instead of buying a stand alone unit, I add it to my build. Bought the OEM version for price, thinking there has to be a decent priced codec or player around... NOPE! Even Windows media player needs payed for codecs to play blue ray.... So other than turning pagefile off... my original idea was to set up files that tend to write often; like update temp files, program files x86 and such, on the HDD. Then regedit so that the OS runs off SSD but looks to the HDD for temp files and such. From what I read it tends to ease some burden on the SSD and lengthen lifespan. This is the part that is a little beyond my skill sets. |
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How much RAM you putting in it? If it's under 8GB I'd say move the pagefile to the other drive. If your putting in 16GB or something you can probably just disable it. It really depends on how much RAM you will be using and everyone's preferences are different. 16gb RAM Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. I honestly don't know of many people that have a blu-ray drive in a PC. I rarely use optical drives anymore. Really just when we rent a movie from Redbox or something and I've got a blu-ray player for that. LOL, yeah is sort of what I was trying to avoid. Don't want to get the new gen consoles, so I decide to go back to PC. But then I figure; since I do rent from redbox as well, it might be nice to have a BD. So instead of buying a stand alone unit, I add it to my build. Bought the OEM version for price, thinking there has to be a decent priced codec or player around... NOPE! Even Windows media player needs payed for codecs to play blue ray.... So other than turning pagefile off... my original idea was to set up files that tend to write often; like update temp files, program files x86 and such, on the HDD. Then regedit so that the OS runs off SSD but looks to the HDD for temp files and such. From what I read it tends to ease some burden on the SSD and lengthen lifespan. This is the part that is a little beyond my skill sets. Don't bother with all that shit. SSDs have come a long way since they first came out. IMO that isn't needed. I've been running mine for 8 months or so with zero problems. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: How much RAM you putting in it? If it's under 8GB I'd say move the pagefile to the other drive. If your putting in 16GB or something you can probably just disable it. It really depends on how much RAM you will be using and everyone's preferences are different. 16gb RAM Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. I honestly don't know of many people that have a blu-ray drive in a PC. I rarely use optical drives anymore. Really just when we rent a movie from Redbox or something and I've got a blu-ray player for that. LOL, yeah is sort of what I was trying to avoid. Don't want to get the new gen consoles, so I decide to go back to PC. But then I figure; since I do rent from redbox as well, it might be nice to have a BD. So instead of buying a stand alone unit, I add it to my build. Bought the OEM version for price, thinking there has to be a decent priced codec or player around... NOPE! Even Windows media player needs payed for codecs to play blue ray.... So other than turning pagefile off... my original idea was to set up files that tend to write often; like update temp files, program files x86 and such, on the HDD. Then regedit so that the OS runs off SSD but looks to the HDD for temp files and such. From what I read it tends to ease some burden on the SSD and lengthen lifespan. This is the part that is a little beyond my skill sets. this was only an issue with SSD's when they first came out. TRIM as well as other features have since been incorporated to alleviate these issues. I would highly suggest the Samsung 840 pro series MLC SSD's. The ONLY thing you need to look out for when getting a SSD, is to make sure it is MLC and not TLC. TLC is far inferior to it's MLC counter-part, and can produce some of the problems you listed regardless of any firmware update or anything you do to it. TLC has a very limited lifespan. So buy MLC SSD only, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a system failure. Another good fact to know about SSD's...the larger the capacity, the faster they are. A 64gb SSD doesn't compare speed wise to a 500gb+ SSD. Just a little somethign to keep in mind. |
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Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. If you want Blu-Ray playback, you will have to pay for it. I have CyberLink PowerDVD 12 and it seems to work well. |
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snip/ So other than turning pagefile off... my original idea was to set up files that tend to write often; like update temp files, program files x86 and such, on the HDD. Then regedit so that the OS runs off SSD but looks to the HDD for temp files and such. From what I read it tends to ease some burden on the SSD and lengthen lifespan. This is the part that is a little beyond my skill sets. this was only an issue with SSD's when they first came out. TRIM as well as other features have since been incorporated to alleviate these issues. I would highly suggest the Samsung 840 pro series MLC SSD's. The ONLY thing you need to look out for when getting a SSD, is to make sure it is MLC and not TLC. TLC is far inferior to it's MLC counter-part, and can produce some of the problems you listed regardless of any firmware update or anything you do to it. TLC has a very limited lifespan. So buy MLC SSD only, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a system failure. Another good fact to know about SSD's...the larger the capacity, the faster they are. A 64gb SSD doesn't compare speed wise to a 500gb+ SSD. Just a little somethign to keep in mind. Thanks for the good info Shock. I've already purchased a 120gb Gskill Phoenix 3 in MLC, hopefully this will be big enough. Quoted:
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Anyone have any good experience with Blue Ray software? Seems the OEM drive I picked up doesn't support playback without software. I'd hate to pay a lot for just BD playback. Considering the freeware DVD/CD read/write software around if I need that sort of thing. If you want Blu-Ray playback, you will have to pay for it. I have CyberLink PowerDVD 12 and it seems to work well. Yeah I was looking at that one, but for the price there seems to be some scathing reviews of it not working; or at least being very hit and miss. |
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Here's the guide I used to optimize my media PC build. There's a Windows 7 guide too which I used for my gaming rig. http://www.overclock.net/t/1240779/seans-windows-8-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds The Win7 one was the one, I was looking at and refering to in the OP. But the way they quote in the thread makes it hard to follow. Maybe its just the way I was reading it. I was trying to find one that has easier bullet points to follow... |
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Got everything up and running... Don't think I followed the steps in the tweaking correctly though. Everything is running fine, but I couldn't get the folders that do a lot of writing(especially the ~temp file) in the right place. So they will shorten the life on the SSD a little. Maybe I will give it another shot if I add/replace the SSD in the future.
I did set a junction in the C:\ program files that points game installs to a partition on the HDD... if that works correctly at least that is one check in the win column. My hats off to those of you that do this sort of thing for a living. |
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Quoted: Got everything up and running... Don't think I followed the steps in the tweaking correctly though. Everything is running fine, but I couldn't get the folders that do a lot of writing(especially the ~temp file) in the right place. So they will shorten the life on the SSD a little. Maybe I will give it another shot if I add/replace the SSD in the future. I did set a junction in the C:\ program files that points game installs to a partition on the HDD... if that works correctly at least that is one check in the win column. My hats off to those of you that do this sort of thing for a living. 1. Right click my computer on desktop 2. click properties 3. click advanced system settings 4. Under Advanced tab, in the Performance section, click Settings 5. Change to Advanced tab 6. Under virtual memory click Change 7. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives 8. Click on C: drive in the box 9. Select option "No Paging File" below 10. Click Set 11. Choose drive you want to put paging file on in the box (or you can skip the following steps if you want since you have enough RAM) 12. Select "System managed size" 13. Click set 14. Click ok 15. It will tell you to restart, click ok, ok, ok, restart now |