When to use Trim?

[lsquare]

I'm new to SSD and I read and know about Trim. However, when is it appropriate to use? Do I use it when I detect a performance decrease?

[AkG]

Trim is automatic. You need do nothing more than setup your system to USE it. This is a 3 part setup:
1) USE AHCI (and MS AHCI drivers)
2) USE a TRIM aware SSD (and firmware that enables it)
3) USE a TRIM capable OS (win 7 for example)

Do all that and you will never have an issue with your SSD going into a degraded state (as it is impossible) :)

[lsquare]

Thx for the info. I finally bought the Intel 40GB SSD. I will install Windows 7 Professional on it tomorrow. Do I need to install the MS AHCI drivers or W7 automatically installs it? How do I enable AHCI in the BIOS? My motherboard is the Gigabyte P55A-UD3.

First thing tomorrow I'll install the SSD. Assuming I can turn on AHCI in the BIOS, is it as simple as plugging the SSD to a SATA port, turn on computer, boot from W7 disc and install the OS?

[gingerbee]

yup just turn your sata controller to ahci and then do your install as per the norm. I personal still like doing tweaks that help make it faster but you don't have to do them it's just an option Windows 7 - Ultimate SSD Speed Tweaks
edit I am running intel drivers fro the storage manager right know because ia m in raid but ms/intel drivers from what i know all pass trim command on the sata controller just fine.

[AkG]

yup, the new ones do indeed pass trim....but some peeps report a performance hit by using them. Out of curiosity how are your speed with the new drivers gingerbee?

[gingerbee]

they peak higher but it jumps more so far i just change over to my s592's which have FW 1848 on them which i think has ITGC not 100% on this but will be switching back to my falcon 1 today again which are still on the fast none stuttering 1571 and then i can do some bench's to see what do you think is the best all around benchmark these days AS SSD or just setup hdtune for 4kb with 100% accurate settings. will bench mark both set ups when i decide what is the best benchmark to use?

it's easy to confirm what driver just check in intel RTS is lists drivers for which drives under > help> system report tabs.
edit thinking about grabbing those 40gb v in raid had to get some last week for a client and these puppy's fly adn there 4k random write is just wicked which is what the os does most

[AkG]

IIIRC 1848 is TRIM only (as it is equal to OCZ's 1.4 firmware). 1916 (AKA 1.5) is the one that has both ITGC and TRIM....which I dont think adata has released yet.

CDM or AS SSD. Both are very good. HDTune when setup is also a decent choice. Another good one would be IOM, but for quick n dirty testing either CDM or AS or HDTune (personal pref for CDM) would be good enough. ;)

[gingerbee]

ya i think i will do a hdtune because then i don't have to write to it burning anything up. not that i worry i just figure that i do right test when i do fw upgrades only keeps the writes at a minimum

[lsquare]

Here's something that I don't understand. How come the defrag option is not greyed out even though I install W7P on an Intel 40GB SSD? I thought it's suppose to be greyed out to prevent people from defragging the SSD.

[gingerbee]

no you have to turn it off your self. kinda dumb you also might want to turn off readyboot. not readyboost it is already gone from windows 7
to turn off readyboot right click my computer>manage>services>data collection sets>startup event trace sessions. then double click readyboot tab over to trace session and untick enable check mark box then restart. done.