Revisit SSD optimization.

[kol12]

Hi, I've decided to check over some of my settings related to SSD/Windows optimization. I originally followed a guide but upon checking my settings recently I've realised I may not have followed it to a tee.

I just want some opinions on a few things like the hibernation file (keep? Change size?), Pagefile (keep? Change size?)

write back caching and write-caching buffer flushing. The guide recommends enabling write back caching and disabling write-caching buffer flushing..

I have the Samsung Magician software (I have a Samsung 850 EVO) Samsung Magician's optimization is set on a custom/advanced setting, I'm guessing this is mirroring what settings have been applied in Windows..
I'm guessing any settings applied in Samsung Magician directly change the Windows settings?

I've read through the guide I have multiple times but it doesn't seem to mention Prefetch/superfetch. Any opinions on enabling/disabling this?

The guide I've followed is this: http://www.overclock.net/t/1240779/seans-windows-8-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

Screenshot below shows my current "Samsung Magician" settings.

 

[TbsToy]

Good settings. Let Windows determine virtual memory. Disable hibernation if you don't use it as it eats up a lot of memory on the SSD.
W.P.

 

[basroil]

1) Enable search even on an SSD. Even 100k IOPS is no match for indexing. On Win10, you must have indexing for Cortana to even work.

2) Enable write cache and flushing. Again, RAM is much faster than an SSD. You can disable flushing if your system uses a battery backup, but if not keep it on. A small penalty to performance is better than data corruption.

3) Enable superfetch/prefetch. Even if the SSDs don't benefit as much, they still benefit, and prefetch is global. If you have an SSD+HDD, disabling prefetch slows down your HDD considerably! (many people including myself use an HDD for most games on top of an SSD for critical programs and OS)

4) Hibernate is up to you, though if you have haswell or newer then sleep mode and hybernate are almost identical in terms of power consumption (except laptops, where every milliwatt counts)

5) Never fully disable virtual memory. You can set it to 1GB fixed or float from 512mb to 4gb, but if you disable it you will screw with the OS and make your system slower.

 

[kol12]

1) Enable search even on an SSD. Even 100k IOPS is no match for indexing. On Win10, you must have indexing for Cortana to even work.

2) Enable write cache and flushing. Again, RAM is much faster than an SSD. You can disable flushing if your system uses a battery backup, but if not keep it on. A small penalty to performance is better than data corruption.

3) Enable superfetch/prefetch. Even if the SSDs don't benefit as much, they still benefit, and prefetch is global. If you have an SSD+HDD, disabling prefetch slows down your HDD considerably! (many people including myself use an HDD for most games on top of an SSD for critical programs and OS)

4) Hibernate is up to you, though if you have haswell or newer then sleep mode and hybernate are almost identical in terms of power consumption (except laptops, where every milliwatt counts)

5) Never fully disable virtual memory. You can set it to 1GB fixed or float from 512mb to 4gb, but if you disable it you will screw with the OS and make your system slower.

Thanks, great answers. Hibernate is interesting as in my power plan it is set to never hibernate yet I have a 6.5GB hibernation file. Does that sound right? I have sleep enabled though. I have a Haswell Cpu as well.

Is Samsung Magician/disk optimization programs reliable to change the above settings? Should Samsung Magician show the same settings I've applied in Windows?

 

[basroil]

Thanks, great answers. Hibernate is interesting as in my power plan it is set to never hibernate yet I have a 6.5GB hibernation file. Does that sound right? I have sleep enabled though. I have a Haswell Cpu as well.

Is Samsung Magician/disk optimization programs reliable to change the above settings? Should Samsung Magician show the same settings I've applied in Windows?

You have to manually disable hibernation using command prompt or powershell, otherwise the hibernation file will remain.

As for magician, it works just fine, but make sure to end it and remove all automatic startup entries in the registry and task scheduler. There's a bug in that software that makes it so your computer can never go to sleep!

 

[kol12]

Thanks, great answers. Hibernate is interesting as in my power plan it is set to never hibernate yet I have a 6.5GB hibernation file. Does that sound right? I have sleep enabled though. I have a Haswell Cpu as well.

Is Samsung Magician/disk optimization programs reliable to change the above settings? Should Samsung Magician show the same settings I've applied in Windows?

You have to manually disable hibernation using command prompt or powershell, otherwise the hibernation file will remain.

As for magician, it works just fine, but make sure to end it and remove all automatic startup entries in the registry and task scheduler. There's a bug in that software that makes it so your computer can never go to sleep!

Would the hibernation file of been created when I first installed Windows before I disabled it? Would you have a reliable link for disable instructions?

What do you mean by removing all startup entries? Does the sleep bug only happen when Samsung Magician is still running in the system tray? I haven't had any trouble with the machine going to sleep but I don't usually have Samsung Magician running in the background. I do have an issue with my PSU not waking from sleep but that's probably a separate issue..

 

[basroil]

Would the hibernation file of been created when I first installed Windows before I disabled it? Would you have a reliable link for disable instructions?

What do you mean by removing all startup entries? Does the sleep bug only happen when Samsung Magician is still running in the system tray? I haven't had any trouble with the machine going to sleep but I don't usually have Samsung Magician running in the background. I do have an issue with my PSU not waking from sleep but that's probably a separate issue..

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/920730 <-- follow the instructions and the hibernate specific files should be gone.

As for the software, it tries to run at startup, which can be an issue. If you manually close it and make sure it's not showing up in the processes, then it should be fine

 

[kol12]

Should I have a paging file on my storage drive (hdd)? I store and run all of my games from here.

 

[basroil]

Should I have a paging file on my storage drive (hdd)? I store and run all of my games from here.

No need, keep a small page file on the SSD and remove it from the HDD. All page data goes through the CPU and RAM once so no need for one on a slow drive.

 

[kol12]

Should I have a paging file on my storage drive (hdd)? I store and run all of my games from here.

No need, keep a small page file on the SSD and remove it from the HDD. All page data goes through the CPU and RAM once so no need for one on a slow drive.

Ok. Do you have any opinion or are familiar with the Rapid Mode feature in Samsung Magician? From what I understand it is an alternative to superfetch? Out of curiosity I enabled it but found it consumes a lot of system ram which I didn't think was ideal..

 

[basroil]

ture in Samsung Magician? From what I understand it is an alternative to superfetch? Out of curiosity I enabled it but found it consumes a lot of system ram which I didn't think was ideal..

It is actually NOT an alternative to superfetch, and is actually closer to a ramdrive for a pagefile. I find it useless since it's too small for most things and takes up too much memory (when a useful size) for anything less than 32gb installed. Just keep it disabled and you won't tell the difference (except in benchmarking software, but why would you ever care about benchmarks that don't translate to real world performance?)

 

[kol12]

ture in Samsung Magician? From what I understand it is an alternative to superfetch? Out of curiosity I enabled it but found it consumes a lot of system ram which I didn't think was ideal..

It is actually NOT an alternative to superfetch, and is actually closer to a ramdrive for a pagefile. I find it useless since it's too small for most things and takes up too much memory (when a useful size) for anything less than 32gb installed. Just keep it disabled and you won't tell the difference (except in benchmarking software, but why would you ever care about benchmarks that don't translate to real world performance?)

Ok. Would you be able to explain what cached is in task manager and what the difference is between committed and in use?

 

[basroil]

Ok. Would you be able to explain what cached is in task manager and what the difference is between committed and in use?

Cached is superfetch+disk buffers+other system buffers that can be reduced or eliminated as necessary. Don't worry too much about it, the only real issue is "in use", which is the amount of memory used by the OS and applications that can't be reused.

 

[kol12]

Ok. Would you be able to explain what cached is in task manager and what the difference is between committed and in use?

Cached is superfetch+disk buffers+other system buffers that can be reduced or eliminated as necessary. Don't worry too much about it, the only real issue is "in use", which is the amount of memory used by the OS and applications that can't be reused.

So cached is the superfetch we have enabled? Is cached in the ram or on disk? Sorry I need to read up on superfetch!

 

[basroil]

So cached is the superfetch we have enabled? Is cached in the ram or on disk? Sorry I need to read up on superfetch!

That cache is on memory, but it's low priority and will be deleted if anything needs that memory. In Vista there was a slight performance loss in some use cases, but in 8/10 there is no reason to ever turn off superfetch.

 

[kol12]

So cached is the superfetch we have enabled? Is cached in the ram or on disk? Sorry I need to read up on superfetch!

That cache is on memory, but it's low priority and will be deleted if anything needs that memory. In Vista there was a slight performance loss in some use cases, but in 8/10 there is no reason to ever turn off superfetch.

Right, thanks for all of your help. I'll do some more reading up on the workings of superfetch to get a better understanding of it.

Just to recap, there's really no reason not to disable the hiber file if I'm not using hibernation and it can be easily re-enabled if I decide to?

 

[basroil]

Just to recap, there's really no reason not to disable the hiber file if I'm not using hibernation and it can be easily re-enabled if I decide to?

Yup, just follow the instructions in the link I gave you above. Very easy and only requires one restart (and nothing fancy)

 

[kol12]

Just to recap, there's really no reason not to disable the hiber file if I'm not using hibernation and it can be easily re-enabled if I decide to?

Yup, just follow the instructions in the link I gave you above. Very easy and only requires one restart (and nothing fancy)

Thanks.

 

[kol12]

If I disable hibernation do I lose the ability to have hybrid sleep? Is hybrid sleep worth having on/keeping?

 

[basroil]

If I disable hibernation do I lose the ability to have hybrid sleep? Is hybrid sleep worth having on/keeping?

Yes, you lose hybrid sleep, but it's not that useful unless you have frequent blackouts or want to save tiny bits of electricity here and there. Haswell+ chips don't really benefit from hybrid sleep unless you're talking about laptops anyway,

 

[kol12]

If I disable hibernation do I lose the ability to have hybrid sleep? Is hybrid sleep worth having on/keeping?

Yes, you lose hybrid sleep, but it's not that useful unless you have frequent blackouts or want to save tiny bits of electricity here and there. Haswell+ chips don't really benefit from hybrid sleep unless you're talking about laptops anyway,

Ok, so you would recommend ditching it?

 

[basroil]

Ok, so you would recommend ditching it?

Doesn't really matter too much, really up to you either way.

 

[kol12]

Ok, so you would recommend ditching it?

Doesn't really matter too much, really up to you either way.

Why is it that Haswell chips don't really benefit from it?

 

[basroil]

Why is it that Haswell chips don't really benefit from it?

The entire platform is made to idle/sleep at such a low power that sleep is pretty much identical to hibernation in most cases (no additional power during startup offsets the tiny additional power from sleep over hibernate)

 

[kol12]

Why is it that Haswell chips don't really benefit from it?

The entire platform is made to idle/sleep at such a low power that sleep is pretty much identical to hibernation in most cases (no additional power during startup offsets the tiny additional power from sleep over hibernate)

Ok, except hibernation stores to disk rather than ram or disk and ram (hybrid).. I think I need to read up and get a better understanding of hibernation and sleep..