IvyBridge motherboard’s system preparation and SSD caching

[Lennon Norris]

I am planning to buy a new IvyBridge motherboard for my system. I am looking for a high-end system required for gaming. For now, I will be choosing the motherboard and other peripherals based on SSD memory. So should I just buy a high end SSD memory and install OS and games on it or continue with existing 640 GB Caviar Black for OS and buy a SSD drive with small SSD memory? I am aware of the high failure rate of SSD memory. So I researched and found out that Intel’s SSD has the lowest failure rate. So can anyone suggest me a god motherboard which support high-end gaming peripherals of high SSD memory and low rate of failure?

[Gimbya]

If you want to buy an SSD and use it, I recommend that you use it as main drive in your system. SSD caching works good in SSD drives with low memory space. But for SSD drives above 64+ memory cache, it is useless to have a spinner as a main drive. If you are using RAM of more than 8 GB, then you will need to disable page files on all drives. This will save a lot of load that your system will have to bear and will decrease the size of the hard disk space required for installation of an operating system. You can use SSD as a data storage drive but never install a game like Battlefield 3 on it. It tends to reduce its functionality by great amount. Also you will need to restrict the page file size on your drive as the game will keep expanding without limits. Also avoid hibernating your system in this case, the RAM tends to utilize ample amount f page file when in hibernation mode.

[raghini]

As you are saying that you are so paranoid about SSD failures, let me tell you that they are caused by bad sectors on the drive. The bad sectors are present or get created in almost every drive and you can’t avoid it. Research has shown that SSD caching of hybrid drives boosts the performance of your read and write process from the storage device more than it does in normal hard drives. In some drives the sequential read and writes are much faster and better in SSDs. I recommend that you get a 120 GB SSD for storage of data and keep your existing 640 GB Caviar Black for installation of OS, softwares and games.

[sushantbankar]

I think that you should disable the page file. You shouldn’t about memory rather you should care about performance. If you restrict the page size, then it will affect the performance of games requiring heavy resources. The temp and the junk files created by games can later be cleaned using CCleaner or other similar softwares and utilities. I use the min/max method to set the page size. I set the minimum page file that the OS allows for softwares requiring them to run on low settings and set the maximum page file for games and softwares requiring high settings. The minimum page file size for Windows is around 400 MB.

[Cain]

It is best to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on the SSD. You can install it on it then use the SSD in any system you need. The new system will detect the hard drive and then you can use it. You will need to modify some drivers according to the requirements of peripherals of that system.

[Leslie f]

The one great advantage of SSD caching is that it increases the reliability factor of the SSD with a great amount. If anything happens to SSD then all the data remains safe on mechanical drive. Even when the SD is being fully utilized, the chances of data loss would be minimized. So using this logic, the low-end SSD will be a great choice for storing data and can be used as secondary drive instead of Primary drive. To enhance its performance more, you can just swap SSD by disabling and then again enabling the acceleration.

[Skullnit]

The sandforce enabled SSDs have the highest rate of CPU utilization. This is because it provides function of real time compression and decompression. It provides higher transfer speed for higher CPU usage. This function is designed for future hardware when the processors will exceed current number of 4 to 6 per system. The sand force enabled SSDs are 5 times faster than the normal SSDs. The benchmarking tests show that these SSDs are more efficient than normal SSDs. They are more expensive than the SSD which you are looking for. But if you want a hardware that will be useful in future than you should go for the sandforce enabled SSD.

[Arun K]

I recently bought an OCZ Vertex SSD just 2 days after its release. It had a major BSOD panic lock bug on the initial firmware revision. I contacted the manufacturer and they had it replaced. So, if you are buying sandforce enabled SSD, check for its firmware.

[Munishi3]

The compression done in SSD is an on-board process which is invisible to OS. OS doesn’t know what this process is but tends to ignore it. But as we know that the compression process is large for the large CPU speeds. If it exceeds the CPU usage above normal, the OS may detect it as threat and terminate the process. So in these devices, you will need to keep a look on resources consumption so that it does not crash. I suggest that you don’t buy sandforce enabled SSDs as the OS have not adopted themselves for this hardware and might give you functional and compatibility errors often.