Installing a SSD (Give me a Checklist!)

Solution
Hi IamSp00ky!
you can turn on AHCI Through bios before installing windows or if you already installed the windows you can do it Through windows!

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.

2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.

4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci

5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor and restart the PC!

And about trim:

In the Elevated command Prompt windows, type the following...

armand_h

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Hi IamSp00ky!
you can turn on AHCI Through bios before installing windows or if you already installed the windows you can do it Through windows!

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.

2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.

4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci

5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor and restart the PC!

And about trim:

In the Elevated command Prompt windows, type the following:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

how to check if TRIM in win 7 is working:

In the Elevated command Prompt windows, type the following:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

Results explained below:
DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)
 
Solution

IamSp00ky

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You guys are great. I will do both of these things. Are there any other steps I should take?

In the USEFUL SSD ARTICLES #2 post at the top of these forums there are links to a whole bunch of actions like turning off page files, disabling system restore, disabling drive indexing, disabling disk defrag and other tweaks. Are these still necessary and recommended?
 

IamSp00ky

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i7-2600k processor (3.4ghz)
16gigs of RAM
Asus P8P67 Pro (LGA 1155) motherboard
Radeon 6970 Graphics card.

Any tweaks would be greatly appreciated.

Do I need to get any drivers before or after I install? Update bios?
 

armand_h

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it will be beter if you get the latest drivers!
just checked your mobo and it's better to update bios because in the latest update (BIOS 2103) you will get :
1. Improve memory compatibility
2. Improve system stability
3. Enable support for Next Gen 22nm Processor.
4. 2,2TB or larger HDD can be supported under RAID mode.
(Need to install IRST 10.5 version driver first, you can find it under "SATA" catalogue)

i will write some tweaks for you!
 

armand_h

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Turn Off Disk Defragmenter Schedule

Click on the Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter -> Click on the Configure schedule button -> Uncheck the Run on a Schedule box -> Click OK -> Close the window.

Disable Drive Indexing

With super fast read times, indexing the drive is almost unnecessary and can cause multiple needless writes to your SSD.
Click on Start Menu ->Computer -> Right click on your SSD-> Properties -> Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties -> Click OK.

Disabling Pagefile or Reducing Size:

Disabling Pagefile can benefit you (decreasing writes to the SSD) if there’s plenty of RAM running in your system.
Click on Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings ->Advanced Tab-> Performance Settings -> Advance Tab -> Click Change under Virtual Memory -> Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives -> Click on No paging file -> Click Set -> OK -> Restart your computer.

Enable Write Caching

This will show you how to enable write caching to have better performance for a storage device.
Open the Control Panel -> System and Security -> Device Manager -> expand Disk drives -> Double click on the listed storage device that you want to enable write caching for -> Click on the Polices tab -> By default, "Enable write caching on the device" is checked under the Write-caching policy section. If not, then check it -> Select (check) the "Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device" box -> Click on OK -> Click on Yes to restart the computer to apply.
Turning off "Windows Write-cache Buffer Flushing on the Device" runs the risk of data loss in case of a power failure without actually shutting down the machine.

Disable Superfetch

Open regedit.exe and browse down to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Find the "EnableSuperfetch" key on the right-hand pane, rightclick it, hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK.

Disable Prefetch

Frees up RAM by not preloading program files.
Open regedit.exe and browse down to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Find the "EnablePrefetcher" key on the right-hand pane, right click it, hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK.


Disable Hibernate

You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns. in your case you will free 16GB of space on your SSD

Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Hit ENTER -> Type exit -> Hit ENTER
To enable type: powercfg -h on


Change the Power Plan To Maximum Performance

The Power settings in Windows 7 is not automatically set for maximum performance. By default the power plan in Windows 7 is set for a balanced performance with energy consumption on hardware. So you may not get the optimal performance from windows 7 if this is the case. So we need to change the power plan to High Performance Mode.

Double click the Power Options in the Control panel.
Click the down arrow showing Show Additional Plans to see the High Performance power plan
Now just activate the High Performance plan and that's it.
Go for the advanced power settings.
Go to Hard disk, then to Turn off hard disk after and set it to Never. This enables the GC to do its job while logged off.


and at last i recommend you to download powerpack 2011! it's a free program that do lots of stuff like registry cleaning, optimizing win settings ,...
http://www.tweaknow.com/powerPack.php