Productive SSD -drives have flooded the computer components market, but due to their high cost, they have not yet been able to completely displace HDD . Most users can afford to purchase SSD only with basic volumes on 60-120 GB for Windows installation. Universal availability of fast SSDs specialists IT- The market is prophesying the future.

In the meantime, these devices need to be protected, properly handled in order to delay as much as possible the moment of their time between failures associated with a limited number of data rewriting cycles.

What actions to squeeze the maximum of opportunities SSD and saving its resource are required directly from the user?

1. Lean use of SSD

Try to limit overwriting data on the partition SSD -disk:

Do not use the device for a media library, soft database and storage of other personal files;

Reassign the default download folder in browsers, torrent clients and other Internet programs;

Do not store databases and project files of individual programs in their default folder "The documents" or other directory on disk FROM ;

Try to avoid filling SSD more than three quarters. The operation of writing new data to partially filled cells of the drive involves first unloading the existing data into the cache, and then overwriting both old and new information;

Do not use the functions of programs that independently download distributions from the Internet Windows, Live Disk, others OS, and then, in a single process, writing them to an optical disc or USB flash drive. Such programs usually download distributions to the system cache. Better to download separately ISO-images, saving them along the chosen path, and separately recording to external media;

Without special need, do not resort to the function of resetting the computer or reinstalling Windows saving the profile and its data. If the problem cannot be solved by digging into the settings, then it is better to reinstall the system "clean", with system partition formatting. In this case, the disk FROM at least it will not be littered with unnecessary data - in particular, the folder "windows.old" and the image of a fresh distribution (when using the Start Over feature in Windows 10 Creators Update) ;

Do not use Windows cleaners that automate disk cleanup processes. The cache of the system, browsers and other programs that was cleaned today will be filled with deleted data again tomorrow if you use the computer for the usual purposes.

There are also controversial methods of delaying MTBF. SSD , such as moving folders for storing temporary system files and browser cache to a partition HDD or installation on latest programs and games. With weighty games, everything is clear, in a situation where the drive is used only for the system partition, the user simply has no other choice. As for small games and programs, if you do not work with them, taking into account the advantages SSD What's the point of buying it then? If the program interacts with databases or project files located on HDD , we get the total performance of both types hard drives.

Transferring temporary storage Windows files, browser cache and other specific programs on HDD will extend the service life SSD , but will make its purchase absolutely meaningless. After all fast speed reading and writing small files of these data types, many times exceeding the capabilities of a turtle HDD – main reason purchasing a drive for installation Windows.

2. Defrag

Defrag operation increases read speed HDD by rewriting randomly scattered parts of files over the entire surface of the disk into a serial chain of clusters. In this situation, it is not necessary to move the magnetic head to another area of ​​the disk, and data reading, accordingly, is faster. A solid state drive has a different device principle that does not depend on the sequence in which information is written to the cells. The speed of access to all cells is the same.

In defrag SSD makes no sense, and modern Windows knows about it. Versions 10 , 8.1 And 7 different types of hard drives. In the latter, disk defragmentation is part of the automatic maintenance process, and it is carried out only for partitions HDD . Versions 8.1 And 10 there is no longer the concept of defragmentation, there is the concept disk optimization . This procedure is carried out for HDD , and for SSD . For the former, the usual defragmentation is launched, for the latter, the same operation is applied, but using other algorithms and under certain conditions - when disk fragmentation is reached by more than 10% and using system functions based on the shadow copy service.

Regular disk optimization in Windows 8.1 And 10 for SSD can be disabled.

Also avoid defragmentation. SSD third party software. Ideally, the defragmenter should determine the type hard drive and allow the launch of operations only in relation to partitions HDD . If the program does not have such a mechanism, the demand is only from the user.

You should not resort to the functions of programs that offer as part of the optimization procedure Windows Registry its defragmentation. This is the same operation as that performed by defragmenter programs, only optimizers use it to apply to files. system registry on disk FROM .

3. Windows optimization

Windows 10 , 8.1 And 7 By default, they are sharpened to work with a solid state drive. But in versions Vista and older no function support trim, which ensures the cleaning of the drive cells from deleted information and, accordingly, prevents the decrease in the write speed as the disk space fills up. In older versions of the system, programmatically deleted data does not physically disappear anywhere, they remain in the cells of the drive. Physical deletion occurs when overwriting, and an additional operation reduces the overall data write speed. However, some manufacturers SSD can supply for old Windows own software that implements the function trim.

Various optimizer programs often offer tweaks to adapt the system to work with a solid state drive. There is even a highly specialized utility SSD Mini Tweaker, which contains a huge selection of settings. For modern Windows versions Tweakers won't offer something significant that they don't know about Microsoft. If you resort to the help of such programs, then only after a preliminary study of each of the proposed settings. Tweaks usually have side effects.

4. Hardware optimization

On the Internet, one may come across the opinion that the purchase SSD would be meaningless if motherboard do not support SATA 3. The bandwidth of this media connection interface can be up to 6 Gbps. Whereas its predecessor SATA 2 limited 3 Gbps. However, this indicator is more than enough to justify the investment. Yes, when reading and writing large files, the drive will not reveal its full potential, but when working with small files that make up the system cache and software, the difference with the capabilities HDD will be tangible. The screenshot below shows the speed SSD connected via SATA 2 , And HDD .

As you can see, the sequential read and write speed of the drive leaves much to be desired, however, the issue of replacing the motherboard with a more modern one can be shelved.

For squeezing maximum performance SSD must be connected to SATA via controller mode AHCI, the successor to the obsolete IDE. Which of the controller modes is currently selected can be checked in BIOS computer or Windows Device Manager.

If the mode is selected IDE, it must be changed to BIOS on the AHCI. This is best done at the time of reinstalling Windows. Switch to AHCI without reinstalling the system, you can by editing its registry. There are a lot of instructions on this issue on the Internet, but the success of the operation is not guaranteed in every case.

5. Separate Windows bootloader for SSD

When connected SSD to build a computer BIOS UEFI , on the section HDD which already costs Windows, it is worth considering one point. Two hard drives (or more) UEFI usually defines as a whole space and forms for two (or several) operating systems single boot partition and single partition EFI. And they are located on the hard drive on which the first Windows is installed. Accordingly, connected later SSD will be listed as a regular data partition. In the event of failure or disconnection HDD a system on a solid state drive without a bootloader will not start.

If Windows is not cloned, but installed on SSD from scratch, at the time of its installation HDD need to disable (or programmatically in BIOS settings, or hardware by disconnecting the SATA cable) . This simplest way correct layout of the new drive: when installing Windows on unallocated space, the necessary partitions will be formed automatically. The system will boot from SSD , and even without the additional step of choosing other systems. If necessary, the second OS can be launched by setting the priority of loading it HDD in BIOS .

Hard drives still play a key role and are one of the main components of modern computers. It is considered normal if you buy/replace an HDD every few years. But the world of home computing is already moving sideways. solid state drives (SSD), and maybe this time you will go for buying an SSD instead of an HDD. Do you need one? Let's try to find out in this article.

A few years ago, most users turned away from SSDs due to their high price, limited storage options, and potential compatibility issues. Most of these problems have recently been solved, so the answer is - Yes, you need such a drive. You will be convinced of this by reading the article to the end.

As they say, there are a few points to be aware of before diving into this topic. Don't blindly do this. Be informed to make the best decision when buying an SSD.

Prices

The prices of solid state drives have dropped a lot over the past few years. In 2010, the average price for them hovered around $3 per GB of memory, while in 2015 you can find SSDs for 34 cents (20-30 rubles) for 1 GB of memory, for example, the Crucial BX100 500 GB costs from 169 dollars (from 11 thousand rubles).

Speaking of which, SSDs are still more expensive than traditional hard drives, and this price difference not is insignificant. For instance, western digital Blue in 1 TB can be bought for 3600 rubles. Comparing with Samsung 850 EVO, WD Blue price three times lower despite the fact that the places on it twice as much.

So in terms of savings, HHD beats SSD without question. If your budget is tight, go for HHD. That said, SSDs have never been as cheap as they are now, and they're reasonably affordable, so don't be afraid to splurge. They are worth it.

If you decide that you need an SSD, buying a larger capacity drive will be 2 times more profitable. For example, Samsung 850 EVO 120 GB costs about 5000 rubles (50 rubles per GB). Paying 2500 rubles more, you can get up to 250 GB capacity (30 rubles per GB). But the most profitable is an SSD with a capacity of 500 GB for 12.5 tr. with a price of 25 rubles for 1 GB of memory. So, buying such a drive, you pay half the price for 1GB!

physical characteristics

Whenever you buy equipment, you always need to find out the possibility of possible incompatibility. The world's best SSD will be completely useless if you can't use it in your system, right? Fortunately, SSDs are (mostly) pretty much standardized, so you'll be fine as long as you feign even the semblance of attention to this detail.

Form factor: Most modern SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor, which is exactly the same size as a laptop hard drive. Such a device is inconvenient to use for desktops that require a 3.5-inch form factor, but you can fix this by using an adapter such as the $7 SABRENT 2.5″-3.5″ Mounting Kit.

It should be noted that a new form factor is now gaining popularity: M.2 standard(formerly known as NGFF). Designed for ultra-thin laptops and mini PCs, these SSDs are very thin and tiny.

Thickness: Just because an SSD has a 2.5-inch form factor doesn't mean it will fit your laptop. Also you should make sure that its thickness is small enough for your laptop.

Typically, the thickness of an SSD fluctuates somewhere between 7 and 9.5 mm, modern drives often tend to the smaller side, to 7 mm. Check your laptop manual to find out which thickness is right for you.

Interface: the bulk of consumer grade SSDs are SATA, although whether you get 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s SATA depends on the capabilities of your computer. Now, 6 Gb / s devices are mostly produced, but if you can find 3 Gb / s, they will most likely be cheaper.

Noise: One of the advantages of SSDs over HDDs is that SSDs are quieter due to the absence of mechanical components. If you want to get away from HHD whirring due to disk rotation and crackling while searching for files, then an SSD is the way to go.

Performance

The main advantage of SSDs over HHDs - and also the reason people stay with SSDs after switching to them from HHDs - is the fact that SSDs are faster. With an SSD, your computer boots in seconds, programs launch almost instantly, and files move up to 10 times faster.

It is worth noting that in terms of performance, even the worst of the SSDs are still head and shoulders ahead of the HHD. If all you're looking for is speed, then there's no question - an SSD is built just for you.

As already mentioned, not all SSDs are the same. Just look at the following options:

• SanDisk Internal 120 GB ($52) has sequential read speed 520 Mbps 180 Mbps;
• Silicon Power Velox V70 120GB ($140) Has Sequential Read Speed 557 Mbps and sequential write speed 507 Mbps.

Maybe the difference of 37 Mb/s for reading and 327 Mb/s for writing is not important to you, then you can just choose a cheaper option. But if every bit of speed is really important to you, then you should be aware of how much it will cost you (an additional $88 in the example above).

Drive capacity

There is an important difference in how HDDs and SSDs work. While HDDs often have to deal with disk fragmentation, SSDs have their own reason to worry - garbage collection.

When data is written to an SSD, it is written into chunks called pages. The page group is called block. At any given time The pages in a block can be all filled, all empty, or partially filled.

Due to the way they are designed, overwriting existing data on an SSD will not work (unlike an HHD). Instead, in order to write new data to a filled block, the entire block must be overwritten.

Moreover, to prevent data loss, any information present in the block must first be moved somewhere else before erasing the block. Once data has been moved and a block is freed, only then can new data be written to that block.

This process, called garbage collection, requires free space to function properly. If you don't have enough free space, then the garbage collection process loses efficiency and slows down. This is one of the reasons why SSD performance drops over time: it is overused.

In order to keep garbage collection at its peak, the traditional advice would be keeping 20-30 percent of disk space empty. For a 250 GB drive, this means you can only use 200 GB maximum.

Durability

The last detail to think about is how long the SSD will last you. Only 74% of hard drives survive beyond the fourth year of life. How do SSDs compare to these results?

Unlike HDDs, SDDs have no moving parts - which is great for quiet operation and also means there is nothing to wear out. Therefore, mechanical damage should not worry you.

The bad news, on the other hand, is that SSDs are more prone to failure due to power surges. Loss of power while the device is running can result in data corruption or even total device failure.

In addition, memory blocks on an SSD have a limited number of possible write sessions. If you are constantly writing data to the SSD (about 1 GB per day), then the device may lose the ability to write data (although reading will still be possible).

The life expectancy of a solid drive is 5-7 years. Every year after the expiration of this period, the probability of a device failure increases.

Is an SSD right for you?

If you're on a budget, don't care about speed, or are concerned about data safety above all else, then a traditional hard drive is the way to go. For everyone else, it's time to move to an SSD if you haven't already.

Until recently, data storage media were used, operating on the principle of magnetic recording. In the 70s and 80s of the past century, they were floppy disks, which then gave way to more reliable and capacious hard drives. This state of affairs was observed until the end of the last decade, until SSDs appeared on the market - solid-state electronic media, devoid of moving mechanical parts and characterized by high speed.

At first, they were distinguished by small capacity and high price. The service life of these devices also left much to be desired. Therefore, there was no clear answer to the question of why an SSD drive is needed. At 32 or 64 GB and costing several hundred dollars, these media seemed like an expensive toy to most. And a slight advantage in write / read speed (up to 1.5-2 times) made SSD interesting only for "geeks" who want to squeeze the maximum performance out of their PC.

But progress does not stand still, and soon more capacious and affordable solid state drives went on sale, which attracted the attention of a wide audience. The question of why you need an SSD hard drive has become more relevant than ever.

Design features, advantages of SSD drives

To understand why installing an SSD drive, you need to understand the main advantages of such drives. It does not hurt to know the main disadvantages of these gadgets.

HDD and SSD drive design

The most important difference between SSD and traditional hard drives is a different principle of construction and operation. Unlike a hard drive, there are no mechanical components in the design of solid state media. Data is recorded using arrays of high-speed flash memory, access to which is provided by an internal controller. This design gives the SSD a number of advantages that are not available with a classic HDD.

• Noiselessness. Due to the absence of moving parts, the SSD does not make sounds during operation.
• Shake resistance. Unlike HDDs, where the magnetic head can scratch the surface of the disk (thus damaging it and the stored data) in the process of moving the device or dropping it, the SSD is less vulnerable. Of course, due to a blow to the case, contact between the components may be broken, but the drive hidden inside a computer or laptop is sufficiently protected from this.
• Low power consumption. The main consumer of energy in a railway is the motor that drives the disks. It rotates at a speed of 5, 7 or 10 thousand revolutions per minute and consumes up to 95% of all electricity supplied to the drive. Thus, the SSD is up to 10 times more economical, which is especially true for thin laptops.
• High read/write speed. The magnetic data recording method has reached the limit of perfection. More than 100-200 Mb / s in sequential write mode, without reducing the service life, increasing the size, increasing power consumption and increasing the price, it is impossible to get from a hard disk. SSD flash memory does not have this disadvantage and is up to 10 times faster.
• Stable working speed. If information on a traditional hard drive is written to physically different disks (their HDD designs are 2 or more) or their sections, there is a delay caused by the need to move the reading head. Because of this, the speed of work is significantly reduced. A similar latency when reading cells in an SSD flash array is millionths of a second and does not significantly affect overall performance.

Disadvantages of SSD

With all the advantages, it's too early to talk about the perfection of SSD technology. The disadvantages of such drives are insufficiently low cost (3-10 times more expensive than HDD in terms of 1 GB of memory) and limited service life (from 10 thousand to 1 million rewrite cycles per cell). This indicator for HDD is theoretically unlimited, but in practice it reaches tens of millions of cycles.

Another disadvantage of solid state drives is electrical vulnerability: when applying high voltage caused by a power supply failure, both the controller and the flash drive burn out.

SSD drives - why are they needed

Knowing the main advantages of solid state drives, answer the question "Why do I need an SSD drive in a computer?" much easier. The purchase of this gadget will allow, first of all, to increase the comfort of using the gadget and extend its time. battery life(if it is a portable PC). The high speed of work will positively affect the boot time of the OS, opening documents and performance in games.

Why is an SSD drive needed in a laptop

If it comes to a laptop, then here the question “why do we need an SSD” can generally not be discussed. In any case, it will not get worse from buying a solid-state drive. Energy-efficient technology will allow you to achieve more time from a single charge, the absence of high voltage in the supply circuits minimizes the risk of permanent drive failure in the event of a power supply failure, and the amount of memory in a portable PC does not play such an important role as in a desktop one.

As for the smaller resource of work, experience service centers shows: a laptop hard drive fails and undergoes premature wear several times more often and faster than in a desktop computer. This is due, first of all, to a significantly large number of dynamic loads that the device is subjected to during transportation and operation. If you accidentally drop a laptop from your knees at the moment when data is being written to the HDD, there is a high risk of damaging the drive, even if the computer is not visually damaged. Therefore, it is highly likely that an SSD will last even longer than a hard drive.

Why an SSD drive in a gaming PC

Gamers are the main, at the moment, part of SSD buyers. The use of a solid state drive allows them to achieve better performance in 3D games by reducing their startup time. Loading levels, inventory, surrounding objects and other elements game world from files stored on disk is also significantly (up to 10 times) faster.

There is a noticeable difference in "seamless" games such as Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto or Fallout. The inner world in them is located on one huge map, and to reduce the load on iron in random access memory only part of it is kept. This can be a situation, for example, within a radius of 200 meters around the character. As you move through the terrain, moving away objects from the RAM are removed, and in their place are recorded the objects towards which the player is approaching. Thus, reading from the hard disk occurs constantly and it is easy to guess that SSD will allow data to be fed to the processor much faster and more efficiently than hard disk drives.

For gamers, the high cost of a gigabyte in a solid state drive is not critical, since games take up relatively little space. If a collection of 100 films in FullHD quality weighs about 1 TB, the same Fallout 4 requires less than 50 GB of free space.

Why you need an SSD hard drive in a multimedia computer

In a home PC used for web surfing and multimedia tasks (watching movies, listening to music), an SSD drive is the least needed. Only connoisseurs of content in Blue-Ray quality can feel the need for such a disc. Wait for a 40 GB movie to be written to the PC's memory for a long time (about 10 minutes). But to store a selection of your favorite movies in FullHD, QHD or 4K UHD, you need a capacious SSD of 500, 1000 or 2000 GB. The cost of such drives exceeds a thousand dollars, and not everyone can afford such an acquisition.

For undemanding PC users, a large SSD in a multimedia computer without much need. The capabilities of classic (magnetic) hard drives are enough to meet the needs of 99% of users. However, a small (64 - 128 GB) solid state drive used as system media (for installing Windows) will not be superfluous. It will significantly improve the overall performance of the PC, reduce the noise level system block and save energy.

A big fan of high-quality Chinese technology, a lover of clear screens. A supporter of healthy competition between manufacturers. He closely follows the news in the world of smartphones, processors, video cards and other hardware.

When the entire Internet is full of holivars on the topic "SSDs are unreliable" and "SSDs are so fast that I will never work with HDDs again", I think it's time to bring some clarity to that sea of ​​conflicting information about the SSDs themselves and about Windows setup to work with them.

Who is interested, please under the cat.

So I became the happy owner of this miracle of modern technology: OCZ Vertex 3 120 Gb. I first booted into the old system and updated the SSD firmware as The OCZ firmware program does not allow you to update the firmware when the drive is a system drive. I think updating the firmware is the first thing to do after purchasing an SSD, because. as practice shows, there are plenty of errors in microprograms, especially in new SSD models (compared to which Vertex 3 is no longer the newest :)).
Next, I decided to put a clean system on the SSD. Windows installation 7 from a flash drive (USB 2.0) took about 10 minutes. Wow, I thought, it used to take much longer to install some heavy programs, not to mention the operating system!

From that moment on, you could just start using super fast drive and enjoy life, but I had a paranoid feeling that my SSD would quickly break down due to frequent overwrites. Indeed, the limited number of SSD write cycles is not yet a myth. But everyone already knows that even a resource of 10,000 overwrites is a very, very much with a disk size of 120 Gb. Depending on the controller, the SSD can also use various internal wear leveling technologies, data relocation from one place to another, compression of written data (relevant for SandForce controllers) - the disk tries its best to work fast and for a long time :) How to influence this internal logic is almost impossible (except perhaps by updating the firmware), so when choosing an SSD for some special tasks, you need to look for information on the logic of its controller.

For those who take special care of the disk and protect it, there are a lot of tips on the Internet on how to reduce the write load on the disk from operating system. These tips can be divided into useful, harmful and controversial.

1) Transferring the directory for temporary files to a regular (HDD) disk

The paths to the TEMP directories are here:
Computer - Properties - Advanced system settings - Advanced tab - Environment variables - TMP and TEMP (for the current user and general).

Someone advises moving Temp to RAMDisk, but this is rather bad advice. This is due to the fact that some programs (including updates) write data to a temporary directory, then send the computer to reboot, and then expect that the data has not gone away during this time. And RAMDisk is cleared on reboot by default. But even if your RAMDisk supports saving data to an image and restoring after a reboot, this is also not a panacea, because. a situation is possible in which the RAMDisk service simply does not have time to start and initialize by the time programs start accessing the temporary directory.

2) Disable hibernation

This is pretty strange advice. On the one hand, disabling hibernation allows you to get rid of the hiberfil.sys file, the size of which is equal to the amount of RAM, and SSD space is especially expensive for us. Also, with each hibernation, a relatively large amount of data is written to the SSD, which “leads to wear and tear and blah blah blah blah” ... The apologists of this advice say “why do you need hibernation, because with an SSD the system already starts in a few seconds.” But personally, I don’t need hibernation for the sake of quick start, but in order not to close (and not reopen later) a damn bunch of applications that I use all the time, so the expediency of disabling hibernation is a big question.
I would love to move the hiberfil.sys file to another drive (on the HDD), but due to system limitations, this is not possible.

3) Disable system protection.

Computer - Properties - System protection - System protection tab - Configure - Disable system protection.
You can do this if you use at least some other means. Reserve copy systems. Otherwise, there is a big risk of getting a non-working system in case of some failures.

4) Disabling the paging file.

This advice causes the most heated debate, and even from Microsoft it was not possible to achieve intelligible explanations.
I consider this advice harmful and recommend moving the paging file to a regular (HDD) disk (but in no case to a RAMDisk :), I won’t even explain why - this information is easy to find on the net).
Disabling the paging file completely is harmful from the following point of view. Some "very smart" programs (for example, MS SQL Server) reserve virtual address space for themselves in very large quantities (in reserve). Reserved memory is not shown in the task manager, it can be seen, for example, in Process Explorer by turning on the display of the "Process Memory - Virtual Size" column. If there is a swap file, the system reserves memory in it (that is, a certain range is declared unavailable for use by other applications). In the absence of a paging file, the backup occurs directly in RAM. If someone can clarify in the comments (with links to reliable sources) exactly how this affects the operation of other programs and performance, I will be very grateful.

5) Disable Prefetch, ReadyBoot, and Superfetch.

5.1. Prefetch is a technology to speed up system and application loading by proactively reading data from disk. It is relevant only for slow media. Since the SSD is fine with Random reads, Prefetch can be safely disabled.
Service data Prefetcher stores in C:\Windows\Prefetch.
To disable Prefetch, change the value of the Enable Prefetcher parameter in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters registry key to 0.

5.2 ReadyBoot (not to be confused with ReadyBoost) is an add-on to Prefetch that logs the boot process to determine the order and composition of the data required during boot and, based on these logs, prepares the required data to speed up the boot process.
The logs themselves are in C:\Windows\Prefetch\ReadyBoot. Disabling Prefetcher does not stop recording these logs. To stop logging, set the Start parameter of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot key to 0
Disabling ReadyBoot in general is a relatively useless piece of advice. this will not give any increase in speed, except slightly reduce the writes to the disk, tk. download logs (which are quite small, on the order of a few megabytes) will not be kept.

5.3 Superfetch is a technology for preloading frequently executed programs into RAM. Disabling it does not make sense, because. Superfetch does not write to disk.

6) Disabling indexing

In the properties of the disk, you can uncheck the box "Allow the contents of files on this disk to be indexed in addition to file properties." This can reduce the size of the indexes that the Windows indexer builds, i.e. reduce the write load on the SSD.
The indexes themselves are in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search
You can also disable the indexer entirely by disabling Windows service search.

7) Transferring application caches to RAMDisk.

By applications, here we mean mainly browsers, because they are the ones who actively use the cache of visited pages. Moving this cache to the HDD would be pretty stupid, because. we need to speed up! Therefore, it is quite a good solution to put these caches on a small (for example, 1 GB) RAMDisk (I personally use AMD Radeon RAMDisk, however, despite the loud name, this is a product of Dataram).
Each browser has its own way of specifying the location of the cache, this information is easy to find on the web.

8) Disable usn NTFS journal.

One of the controversial and controversial advice. On the one hand, I could not disable the usn journal for the system partition. The usn log is also used by some programs (eg Everything) to keep track of changed files. If someone can comment on the usefulness of disabling usn, I would be very grateful.

UPD 9) Disable disk defragmentation

Windows 7 should itself disable defragmentation for SSD drives, so you don't need to manually configure anything.

Conclusions:
1. Even if you do not resort to any advice on configuring the system to work with an SSD, Windows 7 will work on an SSD a little less than excellent.
2. Some tips will allow you to reduce the number of writes to the SSD drive, which can extend its already relatively long life.
3. Many tips will allow you to change some parameters without killing the system performance, but without giving any practical benefit :)

Other ideas and advice are highly welcome! I hope that together we will be able to distinguish between useful and harmful :)

Hard Drives vs. SSDs

The choice is obvious. Computer enthusiasts who have already tried SSD drives in their work have felt the difference and do not want to go back to using a mechanical drive as a system drive. Cons SSD - a significantly higher price, small capacity - as technology develops, gradually disappear.

The benefits of flash storage cannot be ignored: fast access times, high data transfer rates, and superior I/O performance. We also note the mechanical reliability, low power consumption and silent operation.

With so many manufacturers offering SSDs at the moment, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you go directly to the test graphs page, you can see how SSDs outperform hard drives. Even if you do not look for the fastest solid state drive, but take the performance of the most inexpensive model as a starting point, even such a drive will be many times faster than any hard drive!

Pros and cons of SSD

It is difficult to assess the benefits of an SSD based on tests that are designed to compare different drives with each other, relative to other upgrade methods (new processor, graphics card).

As a result, ordinary users seeking to build a modern high-performance PC can be advised to buy a small SSD drive and store most of the files on the hard drive, spending the bulk of the funds on updating other PC components.

If you ask a few ordinary users what kind of computer they would like to have, then the answers are likely to be similar. Sandy Bridge processor, at least 4 GB of RAM, good graphics card. The default set includes HDD, but SSD drives are usually out of the question. It is not right.

It would be appropriate to sacrifice a couple of hundred gigahertz clock frequency processor, supplementing the hard drive with a system SSD-drive with a capacity of about 60 GB. So you can get almost all the benefits of SSD technology without going broke on a large-capacity solid-state drive.

The Superficial Look Isn't Always Right

Our opinion is generally based on real, comparable data. The 2TB 7200RPM drive looks no doubt more attractive than the old 120GB 5400RPM model. If earlier the throughput of the SATA interface was 300 MB / s, now it has reached 600 MB / s. As you can see, the evolution is obvious, but for many such figures mean more than real results.

In this case, we have two problems at once. First, too few users know that using a solid state drive can really speed up applications significantly. The second problem is the small volume and high cost of SSDs.

But it’s worth repeating again: any modern SSD, regardless of model, is an order of magnitude faster than any hard drive. Let's illustrate this fact by comparing a simple SSD with one of the most powerful magnetic platter drives.

Samsung 470 Series vs. Seagate Barracuda XT

HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT, 3TB

We opted for a hi-end hard drive that combines high performance for an HDD with a large capacity. The Seagate drive is quite capable of representing the HDD as a class in this comparison. This is a modern hard drive with a capacity of 3 TB - not the maximum today, but this volume is enough for almost any PC.

Spindle speed - 7200 rpm. As the latest generation drive, Seagate Barracuda XT combines high sequential read and write speeds, decent - for a hard drive - response time, relatively high I / O performance. The drive is equipped with the latest SATA 6Gb/s interface. However, given the real peak performance of 160 MB / s, this is clearly just an advertising ploy: it was enough to limit ourselves to the previous version of the SATA interface.

Seagate XT belongs to the upper price bracket (about $250). It will appeal to those users who prefer modern hardware, but so far are cautiously looking towards the SSD. The drive is backed by a five-year Seagate warranty.

As an alternative, there are Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 and 7K3000 hard drives (both 3 TB), Western Digital Black Edition 2 TB. You can learn more about modern "heavyweights" from the world of HDD in the material on our website. "Four 3TB HDDs" .

SSD: Samsung 470 Series, 128 GB

Representatives of this Samsung line have previously been repeatedly used by us as reference drives in various tests, but today these drives are no longer the newest and best (see our material Samsung SSD 830 series dedicated to the new line of Korean solid-state drives).

The 470th series is represented by 64, 128 and 256 GB drives equipped with a morally obsolete SATA 3 Gb / s interface. If we compare the Samsung 470 series drive with latest models Crucial, Intel and numerous drives based on the second generation SandForce controller, it does not look so modern.

Ultimately, the Samsung 470 Series SSD delivers data transfer speeds of up to 260 MB/s. Some of the latest SATA 6 Gb / s SSD models are capable of going over 500 MB / s in serial data transfer operations. The difference is significant. Our position in this case is that even the previous generation of solid state drives is far ahead of any hard drives, including the most modern models.

Samsung, Intel, and Toshiba design and manufacture SSD components in-house (the only exception is the Intel SSD 510 series, which uses a Marvell controller). All three vendors have released enough firmware to fix firmware issues, so none of them are perfect. The bottom line is that even if the Samsung 470-series drive is not exactly what computer enthusiasts dream of, this drive is quite consistent in terms of characteristics with a standard "middle class" SSD, and in this sense its choice is justified taking into account the purpose of this review. If you are interested in the question of comparing the performance of more recent SSD models, you can familiarize yourself with the results of the corresponding tests on the pages of our website.

Feature Comparison

Performance

As you can see in the video at the end of this article, an SSD can significantly speed up a modern computer - whether it's the speed of launching applications, loading levels in games, or importing a large amount of data. Why it happens?

First of all, the success of SSDs is due to significantly higher data transfer rates. 2.5" hard drives reach 60-100 MB/s, 3.5" - 100-150 MB/s. Moreover, these figures reflect the performance of the HDD in the most favorable conditions for them. Characteristics that vendors like to give in specifications for a particular HDD model relate to sequential data read / write operations - here the hard drive lag is manifested to the least extent. When the hard disk head moves to another partition / sector of the disk, the speed of operations is rapidly reduced.

Disk usage modes that prioritize I/O performance are not HDD-friendly. An example is Windows boot, which involves reading a huge amount of small blocks of data. Here, when comparing a hard drive with an SSD, the picture is even more sad.

The data transfer rate in such modes drops to a few MB/s. This applies even to the newest and most productive HDD models. Thus, hard drives do a good job of sequentially copying large files, but their use as a system drive is not optimal.

An SSD uses flash memory to store data. Such drives consist of many memory cells that are used in parallel to each other and interact with the controller through several data transmission channels. Such an architecture is capable of providing sequential read speeds from a couple of hundred MB / s to record values ​​- more than 550 MB / s. However, as we have already noted, hard drives also perform well in serial data transfer.

The critical mode for SSDs is data write operations, since only blocks of data of a certain size can be written. If you need to write only a few bits to the disk, you will need a whole series of operations - reading, erasing and finally overwriting one or two blocks.

Thus, it is not uncommon for hundreds of MB / s to turn into only a few tens in practice. But while we are talking about blocks of about 4 kbytes in size, which are used by modern file systems, SSDs still remain 10-20 times faster than HDDs, providing performance at the level of tens of MB / s, while in the case of hard drives it drops to KB / s due to delays in head positioning. IN real work such a difference is not only noticeable, but striking.

Energy consumption and heating

SSDs consume, at most, a few watts. Hard drives can use up to 10 watts per hour or more if files are actively copied. Modern SSDs don't get hot at all. Hard drives, on the other hand, often need cooling. The usual air circulation inside your computer case is most likely enough, but the issue of proper cooling of the disk system is still worth considering when self assembly PC.

Design features and reliability

SSDs have no moving parts, which makes them very reliable. Theoretically, there is a possibility that you will subject the SSD to extremely high vibration or shock, so that the chip soldering is broken. In practice, this situation is unlikely.

The exact same tiny chance of soldering failure exists with hard drives, but the real danger lies in the presence of moving elements - magnetic platters that rotate at high speed, and read / write heads. The principle of operation of a modern HDD resembles an old-fashioned gramophone.

Mechanical parts have a certain resource and, in general, the reliability of a hard drive is lower. Any strong shake can turn a working hard drive into a piece of useless hardware. Modern HDDs have a certain "margin of safety" in relation to shock loads (which is especially true for 2.5 ”drives for laptops), but in terms of mechanical reliability, they are still significantly inferior to SSDs.

Whether an SSD drive will outlive a hard drive is impossible to say with accuracy. It is known that HDDs are more prone to failure, as their design combines electronics and mechanical elements. On the other hand, SSDs are more sensitive to firmware and we know of cases where a solid state drive has become unusable due to firmware failure. Potential reliability issues for SSDs and HDDs are different, but exist in both cases. You can learn more about the issue of comparing the reliability of SSD and magnetic platter drives in the article. "Which is more reliable: SSD or HDD?" .

Test stand configuration

Performance Test Bench
CPU	Intel Core i7-2500K (Sandy Bridge): LGA 1155, 32 nm process technology, D2 stepping, 4 cores/4 threads, 3.3 GHz, 6 MB shared L3 cache, HD Graphics 3000, TDP 95 W, in turbo boost Max. frequency 3.7 GHz
Motherboard (LGA 1155)	Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, rev. 0.2, Intel Z68 Express chipset, BIOS version F3
RAM	2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333, Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
System SSD	Intel X25-M G1 80GB Firmware 0701 SATA 3Gb/s
SATA controller	Intel PCH Z68 SATA 6Gb/s
Power Supply
Benchmarks
Performance measurements	h2benchw 3.16 PC Mark 7 1.0.4
	Iometer 2006.07.27 File Server Benchmark Web Server Benchmark Database Benchmark Workstation Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes 4K Random Reads 4K Random Writes
System software and drivers
Operating system	Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Inf Driver	9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage Driver	10.5.0.1026

SSD Power Consumption Test Bench
CPU	Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 (Merom), 65 nm, E1 stepping, 2 cores/2 threads, 2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 44 W TDP
Motherboard (Socket 478)	MSI Fuzzy GM965, revision 1.0, Intel GM965 chipset, BIOS version A9803IMS.220
RAM	2 x 1 GB DDR2-666, Crucial BallistiX CM128M6416U27AD2F-3VX
System HDD	Western Digital WD3200BEVT 320GB SATA 3Gb/s 5400rpm
SATA controller	Intel ICH8-ME
Power Supply	Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmarks
Video playback	VLC 1.1.1 Big_Buck_Bunny_1080p
I/O performance	Iometer 2006.07.27 Database Benchmark Streaming Writes
System software and drivers
Operating system	Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Inf Driver	9.2.0.1021
Intel Rapid Storage Driver	15.12.75.4.64

Benchmark for evaluating performance in real applications
CPU	Intel Core i3-530 (Clarkdale) 32 nm, C2 stepping, 2 cores/4 threads, 2.93 GHz, 256 KB L2 cache, 4 MB L3 cache, HD Graphics, TDP 73 W
Motherboard (LGA 1155)	MSI H57M-ED65, revision 1.0, Intel H57 chipset, BIOS version 1.5
RAM	2 x 4 GB DDR3-1333, Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX
Controller	Intel PCH H57 SATA 3Gb/s
Power Supply	Seasonic X-760 760W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Test software
Performance Measurements	SYSmark 2012
Operating system and drivers
Operating system	Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1 (updated on 2011-08-10)
Intel Inf Driver	9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage Driver	10.6.0.1002

The results of these tests are indicative for most models of SSDs and hard drives. The components under test are selected to provide the best comparison for both configuration options. The drives are tested on very similar systems. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the benefits of using an SSD as a system drive. We do not seek to prove that SSDs have advantages in all forms (in fact, we do not recommend using them for data storage).

Test results

Sequential Read/Write

CrystalDiskMark and Iometer clearly show significantly higher data transfer rates compared to a high-end hard drive. If you regularly read reviews, this fact is unlikely to be news to you.

Random Read/Write

The following results are very indicative in terms of operating room load. Windows systems. When it comes to the real difference in everyday use, the gap between SSD and HDD may not be that significant, but in a synthetic test, the difference is striking.

According to CrystalDiskMark, the hard drive runs at 4K blocks in random read mode at 1.6MB/s and writes at 0.7MB/s. Similar indicators for SSDs are an order of magnitude higher: 19.7 MB / s for write operations, 70.6 MB / s for reading.

As the queue depth increases, the performance of the SSD increases even more, which is explained by the fuller use of its multi-channel architecture: 129.4 MB / s for write operations and 70.5 for reading. For the HDD, we also see a 3x increase in random write speed (up to 2.1 MB/s) thanks to NCQ support. However, the gap to the solid state drive is further widening.

In the case of larger blocks (in this test, 512 KB), the hard disk can provide much better speed than we just saw. However, the SSD still holds the lead here. A modern 6 Gb/s solid state drive would provide a more serious break from the HDD.

The alignment of forces is obvious: in a random search test using blocks of 4 KB, the HDD provided a result of about 700 KB / s, SSD - 18.4 MB / s.

At a high queue depth (64 commands), the SSD outperforms the hard drive in the random search test by 40-50 times.

In the Iometer read performance test, the Samsung 470 128 GB achieves a performance of 28,000 IOPS. The hard drive shows a result of 102 operations per second.

When writing, the SSD operates on blocks of data: writing even just a few bytes requires a full cycle of rewriting the entire block. Therefore, in write operations, the SSD gap is not so blatant, but we are still talking about an order of magnitude difference. Iometer shows a result of 1343.5 I / O operations for SSD and 132.5 for HDD.

I/O performance and access time

The "Database" boot script paints a clear picture: SSDs are 12 times faster than HDDs.

In the "Web Server" scenario, the SSD's superiority is even more significant, since read operations in this test account for the bulk of the load.

In the workstation performance test, the alignment of forces does not change.

Access time

Unlike a hard drive, access time on an SSD is hardly measurable.

PC Mark 7

Futuremark PCMark 7 simulates a typical PC experience. With rare exceptions, an SSD outperforms a hard drive by 2-4 times. Note that in these tests the overall performance of the system changes, taking into account the influence of the CPU and video card. Thus, here we see a picture close to that which takes place in everyday use of a PC.

Exceptions include video processing in Windows Movie Maker, as well as script Windows boot media center. In these tests, SSD and hard drive provide close results.

Energy consumption

The smallest difference between an SSD and a hard drive in terms of power consumption is seen in the streaming write stress test. But even in this test, one hard drive consumes about the same amount of power as three SSDs.

Energy efficiency: performance per watt

In database applications Samsung data The 470 outperforms the Seagate hard drive by 476 times (in terms of I/O operations per watt).

In the test for streaming efficiency, the SSD outperformed the hard drive by 7 times.

Here it is necessary to briefly highlight the issue of measuring "capacity per watt", since SSDs are inferior to hard drives in this indicator. To provide the amount of disk space corresponding to the Seagate Barracuda XT 3 TB, you will need to build an array of fifteen SSDs. In this context, discussing "capacity per watt" is only theoretical. If you need a lot of storage space, HDDs currently have no alternative.

SYSmark 2012

The benchmark developed by BARCo is not often used in tests. The fact is that some companies, including AMD and nVidia, do not trust this test package, which is explained by the specific composition of the package: it focuses on boot scenarios that have little to do with everyday PC use. A significant percentage of the overall performance rating is given to OCR or archiving operations. It is worth noting that AMD indicates the presence in SYSMark of some optimizations for the Intel architecture.

Please note that in the tests from the SYSMark package, the SSD is very slightly ahead of the hard drive. We can say that the results are the same. The reason is that in this case it is not possible to isolate the impact of other computer subsystems on the final result.

Windows boot speed

A computer with a system SSD is also turned off faster - in five seconds instead of eight in the case of an HDD.

Application launch

We use a script that opens four applications at the same time. As in the case of OS boot, the speed advantage of launching applications on a system with an SSD drive is quite significant. How it looks in practice, you can see in the video.

Run applications on SSD and hard drive

So, we used a script that opens several applications at the same time and captures the difference in the form of a short video. The script runs immediately after Windows boots, after which it waits 30 seconds for all processes to complete. Script starts Internet Explorer 9 (offline version of the THG site), Microsoft Outlook (same set of custom folders as in SYSmark 2012), a "heavy" PowerPoint presentation and a large image in Adobe Photoshop.

We missed this test four times in a row. File caching slightly reduces the load time for the fourth "run", but this can only be noticed in relation to the HDD. Let's watch a video:

Run multiple applications on hard drive and SSD

Our test simulates the scenario when you turn on your computer and open several applications at once - for example, an office program, a web browser, a messenger, an image editor. As long as the system has enough RAM (that is, at least 4 GB at the moment), CPU performance is in second place after the disk subsystem. In other words, plus or minus 500 MHz of the processor frequency is not so significant, but replacing the hard drive with an SSD, on the contrary, fundamentally affects the result.

Here the question arises - is the choice of a specific SSD model important? In our opinion, this issue is not so fundamental. Even if you choose the latest drive with the SandForce SF-2200 controller, which exceeds the 500 MB / s line when sequential reading, then the difference compared to not the most new model The SSD we used in this test won't be too noticeable. If this is your first time trying to use an SSD as a system drive, then you will definitely not want to go back to hard drives.

Any modern SSD improves system responsiveness

For those computer enthusiasts who have not yet tried using an SSD, we can safely advise this upgrade option. Undoubtedly, the game is worth the candle. Although not every benchmark reflects the benefits of using an SSD as a system drive (in particular, in SYSMark we do not see a significant gap), the real difference in performance is striking.

We compared one of the largest, fastest and most expensive hard drives on the market - Seagate Barracuda XT - with a modest, not the newest Samsung 470 solid state drive. Of course, you can opt for a more "advanced" model, but even if you choose relatively budget model, you can get all the benefits of SSD.

At the same time, we are not at all trying to retire hard drives. When it comes to file storage, this type There are no storage alternatives. SSD should be used to install the operating system, place on it executable files programs, application caches.

For most cases, the ideal configuration of a modern PC includes a system SSD drive and a large hard drive that stores movies, music, images, documents. Non-SSD systems are budget options, and SSD-only computers are almost never found in nature.