GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

[Rock714]

I need a little direction. I am just done building a new rig basics as follows:

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 (no mSATA installed) Rev 1.3 Bios F9
Gigabyte N56GOC-1GI GTX560 Video Card
8GB G.Skill Memory
120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Drive (SATA III)
2GB Western Digital SATA III Hard Drive
ASUS BlueRay Disk Drive

I want to configure my OS (Win7-64Bit) to run from the SSD with most data on the HD. My question, how do I optimally configure my SSD and HD's?

1. Physical connections - Do I use the primary SATA connections (SATA3_0 / SATA3_1) to connect the SSD and HD or should I use the Marvell connections (GSATA3_6 / GSATA3_7).
2. BIOS Set up - Do I want or need to use a RAID configuration? AHCI?
3. Installation - Is their a simple way to install Win7-64 on the SSD and change the default data location to the HD? I have read a bunch of posts but they all look overly complicated.
4. Do I want the pagefile and the OS on the SSD? Should I partition the SSD any particular way?

Side thoughts, is Intel Smart Response going to play any role here?

My installation sits at this point so any input would be appreciated.

Thanks; Rock</SPAN>

[wazza300]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

i think your best bet is to install win7 in ahci mode on the sata3 port0 and your wd hdd's in raid? or two non raid drives on the intel sata2 ports,you might run into problems running on the marvell sata3 ports i dont know,you can try it tho first,then any big files or unimportant programs can be installed on your hdd's and keep all the important and programs you want fast start ups with on your ssd

intel smart response will improve your hdd's speeds

[Rock714]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

Wazza,

Thanks for the response. I only have 1 SSD drive and 1 HD so you still think a RAID configuration for the two drives? Also any ideas on how to make the default prompts go to D: (Harddrive) instead of C: (OS drive - SSD)?

Thanks; Rock

[Chike]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

To change command prompr default drive right-click command prompt and change the "Start in" field.

RAID mode includes AHCI you can switch to it in the future if you need to, AHCI mode should boot few secconds faster.

[wazza300]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

ahh sorry,then no,you will be fine using both the sata3 ports,plug ssd into sata3 port 0 and hdd into sata3 port 1,intel smart response should still help your mechanical hdd performance,default prompts? you mean when programs ask you where you want to install too? you should be able to click custom and point it to your hdd instead of ssd,if you meant you want the pc to boot up from your ssd instead of your hdd,then set first boot device as your ssd followed by your hdd then your optical dvd drive then floppy if you have one in the bios

yes ahci will vastly improve ssd read/write figures

[DerekGCWhite]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

It appears to me your options may come down to:
1) Use whole of SSD to host Win7
2) Use SSD to Cache the whole of your system

1) Pros - very fast access for Win7
Cons - reasonable (SATA-600) for everything else
2) Pros - very fast access for everything
Cons - can't see anything

Having said that there are 2 things to point out:
1) Cache only works with max 64GB SSD
2) If you have the pagefile on any other drive than the system drive Windows will never create a dump file (brilliant eh?)

You might consider partitioning the SSD and using 1 partition as Cache and the other as a disc
(I am not sure if you could RAID0 part 2 of SSD with SATA-600 HDD, probably but may only get speeds averaging between SSD & HDD)

RAID works best with multiple discs because:
1) RAID1/5 allows redundancy i.e. immediate recovery in the event of a single drive failure
1) RAID0 stripes the data across all drives and therefore the channels to access the data are increased hence in a well configured RAID0 on SATA-600 it is possible to achieve nearly same data transfer rates as pure SSD and in the large configs (e.g. 4 disc RAID0) would definitely rival SATA-300 SSD and come very close to SATA-600 SSD

I hope that helps

[DerekGCWhite]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

One other important thing I have found to my detriment

When you have RAID0 accelerated (Intels term for cached) the BIOS/Win7 cannot boot into the drive being cached as it is not visible

To BOOT into the accelerated device, assuming the system has been running and is accelerated, the following has to be performed:
1) During boot <Ctl-I> to acces the Intel RAID menu
2) Save the cached data to the discs (I think it is option r but it is clear when you get there) which takes some time
3) Remove the acceleration from the RAID drive
4) Hey Presto, the system drive is now available

On the PageFile front, it is only used when all of the main memory is being utilised. I have up to 12 differnet applications open at a time and 8GB is mostly 50% available so since I went to 8GB memory the PageFile has not been used
That said I understand from those that use some of the graphics engines there is an internal PageFile the engines use and would definitely be good to put on a speedy SSD (that is not from experience though)

[Josefine]

Re: SSD / mSATA for GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3

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[profJim]

Re: GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3 Optimized configuration SSD / SATA

I've had good results with my 60GB Agility 2 ssd boot drive and a WD640 hard drive in my P35 system.
Check out http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...-capacity.html to see the folders and programs that I've moved to and installed on my hard drive to save ssd space and reduce ssd write/erase cycles.
The OCZ ssd forum is a goldmine of information for your ssd.

With 8GB of ram, I use a 1GB swapfile on the first partition on my hard drive.
My bsod minidumps are located in the C:\Window\Minidumps folder, even with my small swapfile located on my hard drive.
I have also moved the windows TEMP and TMP folders to hard drive's first partition, along with the cache folders for FireFox and Internet Explorer.

Set Windows 7 Memory Dump File Location has instructions for moving the Minidumps folder to a different location.

Definitely use the native Intel sata3 ports for you ssd and hard drive.

[Josefine]

Re: SSD / mSATA for GIgabyte z68XPP-UD3

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