SSD & Sata 3

[ricoman]

These are the specs on my motherboard. What do I need to install an SSD? Will it handle a Sata 3 card or do I even need one?

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2

CPU Socket Type
LGA 1366

Core i7 (LGA1366)

QPI 6.4GT/S

North Bridge
Intel X58

South Bridge
Intel ICH10R

Number of Memory Slots
6×240pin

Memory Standard
DDR3 2000(O.C)/1866(O.C)/1800(O.C)/1600(O.C)/1333

Maximum Memory Supported
24GB

Channel Supported
Triple Channel

Expansion Slots

PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8 mode)

PCI Express x1
1

PCI Slots
2

Storage Devices

PATA
1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max

SATA 3Gb/s
6

SATA RAID
0/1/5/10

Onboard Video

Onboard Video Chipset
None

Onboard Audio

Audio Chipset
ADI AD2000B

Audio Channels
8 Channels

Onboard LAN

LAN Chipset
Marvell 88E8056

Second LAN Chipset
Marvell 88E8056

Max LAN Speed
Dual 10/100/1000Mbps

Rear Panel Ports

PS/2
1

USB 1.1/2.0
8 x USB 2.0

IEEE 1394
1 x IEEE 1394a

eSATA
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s


Internal I/O Connectors

Onboard USB
3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports

Onboard 1394
1 x 1394a

Physical Spec
Form Factor
ATX

Dimensions
12.0" x 9.6"

Power Pin
24 Pin

[jagabo]

SATA 2 is fast enough for most SSDs. In real world performance you'll only get a little more speed out of SATA 3.

[fritzi93]

Yeah, I have SSDs in two computers with SATA 2. Benchmarks from running AS_SSD are respectable, from what I've been able to gather on Tom's Hardware.

[jman98]

Your PC specs say you are running Win 7. This is good. After you install the SSD, double check and be absolutely sure that disk defragmentation is turned OFF on the SSD. It is absolutely critical that you do this or you will shorten the lifespan of the drive. If you have a mechanical drive (hard disk - SSDs are not hard disks as "hard disks" have moving parts and SSDs do not) of some type in your setup, also be sure to put the paging file on the hard drive and not on the SSD. If you are only using an SSD then you have no choice about the paging file.

[ricoman]

Not familiar with the "paging file." What's that about and where do I find it. Thanks.

[jagabo]

Or get 16 GB of DRAM and don't use a page file at all. From Control Panel select System -> Advanced System Settings (left pane) -> Advanced (tab) -> Performance (box) -> Settings (button) -> Advanced (tab) -> Virtual Memory (box) -> Change...

[jman98]

Not familiar with the "paging file." What's that about and where do I find it. Thanks.

Google is your friend, man.

Paging files are when Windows runs out of memory and needs to get more memory to run a program. I forgot that at high amounts of memory the likelihood of this happening to Windows is very small.

[jagabo]

On a 16 GB machine with the swap file disabled, even with 4 GB dedicated to a RAM drive, I've never run out of memory.

[jagabo]

By the way, the PCI bus is slower than SATA 2. You'll need a PCIe x4 or better card to get SATA 3 speeds.

[hello_hello]

Personally I think disabling the paging file is a bad idea. It's based on my understanding of how Windows memory management works, which I believe to be correct.

Windows assigns a certain percentage of memory to each running process, possibly based on how much memory the process requests. For instance a program such as Firefox will request a different amount of memory for it's own use based on total available memory. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Memory_Leak

However while Windows will try to use all of your RAM when it can, it also tries not to waste it. If a program requests "x" amount of memory, it assigns the memory actually being used to RAM and the memory not being used to the paging file. The program doesn't know the difference..... it's oblivious to whether memory is assigned to RAM or the paging file as Windows takes care of that. The upshot of it is though, just because a program has virtual memory assigned to it, it doesn't mean that virtual memory (paging file) is actually being used, so without a paging file to assign unused memory, you're wasting RAM instead.

As an example, I'm running XP, and Task Manager currently reports a total of around 1GB of virtual memory usage. According to the Windows system monitor however, my actual page file usage is only 85MB, and I suspect that's Windows using the paging file itself, not running programs. The WinXP-2K_Pagefile utility on this page confirms that. It works for XP but I'm not sure about later versions of Windows. http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

[jagabo]

As an example, I'm running XP, and Task Manager currently reports a total of around 1GB of virtual memory usage.

If you have 16 GB of DRAM who cares if Windows is "wasting" 1 GB? On the 16 GB computer I'm running right now, even with 4 GB assigned to a RAM disk, I have 10 GB free.

[hello_hello]

As an example, I'm running XP, and Task Manager currently reports a total of around 1GB of virtual memory usage.

If you have 16 GB of DRAM who cares if Windows is "wasting" 1 GB? On the 16 GB computer I'm running right now, even with 4 GB assigned to a RAM disk, I have 10 GB free.

Well I haven't conducted a survey, but "caring" is one thing, doing something which actually effects performance is another. As is advising others to do something which could have a negative impact on performance. The internet is littered with Windows tweaks, many involving the paging file, which don't provide any performance improvements aside from a placebo effect.
If wasting RAM when you have a lot of it really does improve performance then I'd be all for wasting it. If it has no effect on performance then logically there's no reason to do so.