Can You Get More Space Or Speed From Your SSD?

By Doug Crowthers
published

With the market for solid-state drives continually expanding, we wanted to explore some of the most popular tweaks enthusiasts use to purportedly improve performance and free up capacity. We break out the benchmarks and put them to the test.

Start By Enabling AHCI (With TRIM)

Before we start implementing the various tweaks, we need to make sure our SATA controller is in AHCI mode and that the TRIM command is enabled in Windows 7.

You want AHCI turned on because it is the specification by which Native Command Queuing (a SATA-specific technology) is enabled. SSDs boast incredibly fast response times. So, they realize their best performance when fielding multiple commands simultaneously, consequently benefiting from the parallelism the defines most SSD architectures. This is precisely the reason we see better benchmark performance when we use queue depths of up to 32 versus a queue depth of one.

Verify the SATA controller is set to AHCI Mode:

  • During the installation process, you want to ensure your SATA controller is set to AHCI mode in the motherboard's BIOS or UEFI. AHCI is needed for native TRIM support in Windows 7, which helps maintain performance over time. 

Verify the SATA controller is set to AHCI Mode.

  • On the Start menu, select Control Panel.
  • Double-click 'System' from the Classic View (or the small or large icon view in Microsoft Windows 7).
  • Select 'Device Manager' in the left pane.
  • From the Device Manager, look for an entry named IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
  • If this entry is present, expand it and look for one of the controllers to list AHCI.
    If an AHCI controller is identified, then the system is in AHCI mode. If none of the controllers above are shown, then your system is not in AHCI mode.
  • If you already installed your operating system in legacy IDE mode, it is recommended to switch to AHCI after completing the steps listed in this Windows Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976, providing your platform supports AHCI.

Verify that TRIM is Enabled

Verifying TRIM will confirm that the TRIM commands are being sent from Windows to the SSD. How to Verify TRIM is enabled:

  • In the Start menu search box, type "cmd" without the quotes
  • Right-click the cmd program and select Run as Administrator
  • In the command line, type "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify", again without the quotes if DisableDeleteNotify = 0, then TRIM is enabled If DisableDeleteNotify = 1, then TRIM is disabled.

Per Wikipedia, TRIM is an ATA command that allows the operating system to tell an SSD what blocks of previously-saved data are no longer needed as a result of file deletions. This allows the SSD to handle garbage collection that would otherwise significantly slow down future write operations of the SSD.

With our test platform correctly configured, it's time to put these tweaks to the test.

Doug Crowthers
99 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Indexing is not used to access files more quickly. It's used to find files more quickly in search. Disabling indexing will result in slower searching.

    Hibernation: Amount of space saved by turning this off is equivalent to the amount of RAM in your system. Not limited to 2GB.

    Also, hibernation has benefits over standby where hibernation will allow your system to return to a fully working state after removing power whereas standby requires power to still be supplied to your system. Laptops for example you'll want to hibernate to avoid discharging the battery while in sleep mode.
    Reply
  • compton
    With system restore disabled, no swap file, and some of the additonal tweaks mentioned here, my two small capacity SSD's are running Win 7 effectively in a small footprint -- my 60GB Agility has 37GB free, while the X25-V in my laptop has over 20GB free. The best part is keeping lots of extra space help longevity, while the tweaks enhance performance while keeping my drives free of junk.

    Thanks for another excellent article -- I'm surprised I haven't seen an article on this subject that's as comprehensive. Toms to the rescue.
    Reply
  • anttonij
    Thanks for another great article. I would love to see a part 2 of the article where you would explore the causes of the performance drop.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    KWReidIndexing is not used to access files more quickly. It's used to find files more quickly in search. Disabling indexing will result in slower searching.Hibernation: Amount of space saved by turning this off is equivalent to the amount of RAM in your system. Not limited to 2GB.Also, hibernation has benefits over standby where hibernation will allow your system to return to a fully working state after removing power whereas standby requires power to still be supplied to your system. Laptops for example you'll want to hibernate to avoid discharging the battery while in sleep mode.
    Thanks for pointing both of these things out. You're absolutely correct about indexing.

    I've updated the story for the author to reflect hibernation as well. I added clarification re: desktops and notebooks, though I'd suggest powering down a notebook with an SSD is comparable to putting it into hibernation. I don't think anyone would recommend putting it into standby; as you mention, that continues to drain power.

    All the best!
    Chris
    Reply
  • damric
    Why are they testing last generation Sandforce and Intel SSD's?

    SSD's are changing faster than any other computer technology. The current generation SSD's are already twice as fast as the SSD's tested in this article. Tom's Hardware is being left behind in the dust with reviews like this.
    Reply
  • HalfHuman
    the article is very useful.
    disabling system rstore is usually a good idea, sometimes it's better to just limit it's size form the 10% default value.
    swap disabling is not a good idea, as you said. i'd rather have the swap on a secondary, mechanical drive.
    indexing is very useful. you can relocate the address to where indexing data is stored. i put it on a mechanical drive.
    disabling superfetch and turbo cache are really useful. ssd may be faster than hdd, but they are weak compared to ram speed. read caching really makes a difference.
    hibernation file is not really useful on a desktop but it's a matter of taste. better have it on a mechanical drive if possible
    another thing that really helps is putting firefox profiles on a ram drive. i develop on visual studio and there is a directory where lots of small files are written on build. having this temp folder on a ramdrive helps a lot regarding speed and writes as well.
    Reply
  • HalfHuman
    oops... i meant having windows superfect and turbo cache (not sure about actual names) active is really useful. the memory that is occupied by caching gets liberated quickly if it's needed by apps. in the mean time it can really help on read caching.
    Reply
  • ravewulf
    None of my controllers mention AHCI, but my motherboard is set to use AHCI. I do see "AMD SATA Controller," is that it? I also don't see any ATA Channels as in the screen shot, just two IDE channels with no devices on them. I don't have an SSD, so no need for TRIM, but I would like to verify that I'm using AHCI.
    Reply
  • nyrychvantel
    This article is excellent for those SSD users who have just installed/reinstalled their OS. I will also forward this article to all my friends using SSD.
    Reply
  • haplo602
    who came up with that idiot description of hibernation ? it was invented to:

    1. save power
    2. restore the previous work withou having to start everything

    I use hibernation a lot on my desktop just because I can leave all the network independent applications running and just power down. after power up, I am in the previous environment state and can immediately continue whatever I was doing before. No need to start applications and reopen saved files.
    Reply