Some questions before installing an SSD

[lucasbuck]

I'm going to be building a new system this weekend, and got a OCZ Agility 3. I had a few questions:

1 - Setup: From what I read, I should update the firmware. Is there anything else to optimize it? I don't have sata 3 on my other computer, so I was just going to throw it on my older computer with sata 2. Anything I need to know about formatting or anything?

2 - It said to update the format I needed to enable AHCI mode. I'm assuming this is in the bios somewhere? Is that just for updating the firmware, or should I leave it in AHCI mode? (or is on already the default?)

3 - Should apps like My Movies, AnyDVD, Handbrake, etc. be installed on a separate drive? Any of the comskip stuff?

4 - I had read barnabus's post about moving the Playon and Playit stuff to another drive with links and all. Anyone else do this? Wondering how much trouble it is, or if I'll run into any issues.

Any other tips are appreciated, never setup an SSD before. Thanks!

[richard1980]

2. AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and should be enabled permanently.
3. You can store any kind of data you want on an SSD. However, high volumes of temporary data will eat away at your SSD's lifespan. So don't use the SSD for your recorded TV or a temporary destination for rips. Push stuff like that to a spinning disk.
4. Barnabas' recommendation is based on what I just stated in the answer to question 3. That's another source of huge amounts of temporary data that will drag down the lifespan of your SSD.

[lucasbuck]

Thanks for the reply. I understand about the temporary files. I wasn't sure if people went through the trouble with the Playon temp files though. It just concerned me with all the admin linking and such, didn't know if anyone ran into problems.

But with programs like anydvd, or even my movies which would be ripping to another drive, I didn't know if it was better to have them on the ssd, or just install them elsewhere. I was guessing just Win 7, Mediabrowser, and my plugins would go on the SSD.

[newfiend]

#1 Read Here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agilit ... 5-ssd.html click the Specifications tab and scroll down to resources.
Make sure you read on http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... -ABC-Guide especially.. You should learn as much as possible before installing it.
Follow the directions exactly as described on the Mfg.'s site for updating to the latest firmware. You will want to do this before installing Windows 7. (from what I read on the Mfg's site your SSD is the type that can NOT have firmware written to it if it is a system drive already.) so update before installing Windows.

#2 You will want to have your BIOS set to AHCI mode. (Advanced Host Controller Interface) Your drives may be set up as IDE. Change them to AHCI before installing Windows leave it at that after install.

#3 You will want to change anything that does heavy writing to a standard HDD. Such As Recorded TV.. Reading from the drive doesn't wear on it like Writing to it.. I have Handbrake on my SSD as well as Media Browser, since it's reading more than writing it doesn't wear on the drive, if you are concerned about wear using Handbrake set the output file for handbrake to a regular HDD. since it will be writing a new file. AnyDVD souldn't be a problem on the SSD as well.

#4 Same as above.. Anything that does heavy writing to the SSD off load to a HDD... I would leave Windows pagefile on the SSD though.

They are pretty easy to install once updated. There is additional info here as well http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssdzone/tu ... ows_7.html
newfiend~

[barnabas1969]

I agree with everything above.

The PlayOn thing is simple... they have a little program that will do it for you. If you're going to have PlayOn installed on this machine, I definitely recommend running the program from PlayOn to move the temporary folders. The program does everything for you.

The PlayIt thing is not so simple. If you're not comfortable manually creating the junctions for PlayIt, then you're probably better off not messing with them. If you get the file/directory permissions wrong on the target directories, PlayIt will not work correctly. This may especially be a problem if you're using the Home Premium edition of Windows... I don't think that edition lets you mess with file/directory permissions.

[lucasbuck]

Thanks for all the info. I'm using Home Premium. That Playon one I understand, the Playit I was going to work through your guide. But if it won't work with Home, I guess I don't have to worry about it! I've never had an SSD, and until reading here didn't know they could wear out so easily. With the Playon temp moved, will not being able to move Playit cause much wear? Is it mainly the play later stuff?

[barnabas1969]

PlayIt buffers everything you watch via PlayIt (including things you "add to queue"). The amount of wear depends on how much you use PlayIt. SSD's don't wear out as fast as you might think... I'm sure you'll be OK.

[newfiend]

PlayIt buffers everything you watch via PlayIt (including things you "add to queue"). The amount of wear depends on how much you use PlayIt. SSD's don't wear out as fast as you might think... I'm sure you'll be OK.

Agree, They do wear down over time but it won't happen overnight. It's best to offload what you can to a standard HDD.. but we make these suggestions based on the fact that you will get a longer life span out of the dive by doing this. I have had my SSD for 2 years and it's still really snappy. It's not going to have a noticeable speed difference in 3 months or 6 months.. but over a period of time (years) you will notice speed drops. I figure I will probably use a PC roughly 3 years max before I want to upgrade to something newer/faster/better. I don't want to hang on to old tech too long as I can't recoup some of my money by selling it off before it gets too outdated. My current system is really past where I normally start a new build but it's working fine so I'll probably keep it another year and then start a new HTPC build.
The SSD would last longer than that even if you did nothing to off set the wear. So it's not a huge deal but just a good Idea to off load heavy writing as much as possible to avoid premature wearing.

[barnabas1969]

I'm just the opposite of newfiend. I build a machine with high quality components and I expect it to last at least 5 years. In the case of my HTPC... since it's only job is playing recorded TV, movies, BluRays, DVD's, etc... I expect it to still be running in 10 years. As drives wear out, I'll just replace them. I'll do just about anything to avoid having to re-install everything. I backup my data, so that if the SSD fails, I can plug in a new one and restore.

I upgraded my desktop PC last year by basically replacing everything but the case. I built that machine in 2003. It was fine for 8 years. The only reason I needed to upgrade it was for transcoding HD videos. I don't do any gaming, and it worked fine for browsing the web and doing stuff with Word/Excel and other things like that. But I wanted to experiment with re-encoding BluRay's and stuff like that... and I didn't want to wait 24+ hours for each test.

With both machines, I didn't hold back on the cost. I wanted top-quality components that will keep running for years to come.

[newfiend]

I usually try and get good parts (Quality, I don't think my parts were too cheap when I got them).. but technology moves really fast. If I sit on parts too long they loose their value and it's harder to re-sell old tech no one wants. Everyone wants the newest, fastest thing out there usually (not always) but I have found that If I sell off say a MB/Processor/Ram combo I can upgrade to the next best thing w/o spending a lot of cash. I would much rather upgrade for a few hundred bux versus building a whole new system for @ $1000.
It's just how I do things..Everyones needs and outlook will vary. I just try and recoup while I still can.
newfiend~

[barnabas1969]

I usually try and get good parts (Quality, I don't think my parts were too cheap when I got them).. but technology moves really fast. If I sit on parts too long they loose their value and it's harder to re-sell old tech no one wants. Everyone wants the newest, fastest thing out there usually (not always) but I have found that If I sell off say a MB/Processor/Ram combo I can upgrade to the next best thing w/o spending a lot of cash. I would much rather upgrade for a few hundred bux versus building a whole new system for @ $1000.
It's just how I do things..Everyones needs and outlook will vary. I just try and recoup while I still can.
newfiend~

My time to do all that re-building, re-installing, re-configuring is worth more to me than the money I can get by selling my old stuff. I have some old hardware laying around that I could probably sell on e-bay for a couple hundred bucks, but that takes time.