SSD Intel X25-V 40GB

In this weekend added a SSD to one of my PCs.
I never used one.
My choice is Intel x25-V 40 GB. 100 Euro. Bought in local retailer.
Performance improvements are really good for WoW.

Generally this Pc manages 4 WoW instances.

PC host specs:
It s Dell XPS 420, upgraded in many components, Quad Core - 8GB Ram DDR2 - Video Card ATI 5770 1GB. Monitor 24" 1920x1080

followed suggestions, copied wow folder in SSD.

Great!
Input lag looks better, Game(s) faster.

Thinking to use one for OS, when in future build my new PC

Thanks for sharing. I am not sure about the OS on the SSD. WoW for sure. I got a 64gb Kingston for the new built.

Check this link out, 2 of those X25-V's in RAID-0:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3618/i...25m-g2-for-250

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Check this link out, 2 of those X25-V's in RAID-0:

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benchmarks are impressive

I bought one of these and will get a 2nd down the road for raid 0 ... It's yummy

I'd be curious to see 2x X25-M in Raid0.
Really tempted to go that route, in the summer when my seasonal work starts.

SSD in Raid 0.... so now, instead of almost instant loading times, I could get half almost instant loading times!

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

I'd be curious to see 2x X25-M in Raid0.
Really tempted to go that route, in the summer when my seasonal work starts.

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I just ordered my 2nd I'll let you know next week :) couldn't wait

Might want to read over that Anandtech review before you initialize them for RAID-0. Seems there's a substantial benefit to only allocating 60GB out of the total 80GB.

The last two pics where they only used 60gb out of the 80 were broken links. Interesting.

In a nutshell, at full 80GB allocated they had perodic "valleys" in the performance graph. Almost predicitable even.

At 60GB, the performance was near constant. They attributed this to each drive's onboard controller using the unallocated space essentially as a buffer.

Raising this thread from the dead...

I've just come into possession of two of these little guys - any good guides on setting them up as raid 0? Or is the process really straightforward for someone who is not terribly skilled/knowledgeable about hardware?

To put it in perspective, I know how to do stuff like update my drivers and install an OS, etc., and I can crack a case and put in more memory or a video card, but adding a new HDD is something I haven't done. I just want to add these both to an existing system as another HDD, not a boot drive or anything like that.

Things I have seen.

OS's Vista and Win 7 get upset when you go from non-raid to raid. I didn't have any problem with XP when it did it like 4 times.

BIOS probably needs to be told you are using them in Raid form or it will just try to use them in normal form. No biggie, but it changes depending on which BIOS you use. Read manual in back (appendix) for a guide. Should step you through what you need to do.

OS's need drivers to really use the RAID as a raid and not just a un-drivered raid. It may actually let you use it as an un-drivered raid, but you won't get the full benefit from it. The crappy thing is drivers need to be installed during an install. For XP, just do a reinstall overtop of what you have, then patch SP3 and you are pretty much good. I haven't had any good luck with Vista or Win 7 reinstalling over top of itself.

I haven't used SSDs enough, but I heard raid negates trim. Think of trim as a way to defrag (not actually correct, but same result, it works faster). That might make things go slower than you might expect. Not a crazy lot, but still.

I would back the hell up of everything before you try to install it. If it eats your files, no one to blame but yourself. Also, it is probably how you will get the files onto the raided drives.

Make sure you back up imporant files (config files----WTF folder, key broadcasting configs, etc) so if the raid goes kaput, you can still get things back. You are using 2 devices, and all it takes is one to fail and bam, 100% data loss. In other words, backup more than you did in the past.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by kate

Raising this thread from the dead...

I've just come into possession of two of these little guys - any good guides on setting them up as raid 0? Or is the process really straightforward for someone who is not terribly skilled/knowledgeable about hardware?

To put it in perspective, I know how to do stuff like update my drivers and install an OS, etc., and I can crack a case and put in more memory or a video card, but adding a new HDD is something I haven't done. I just want to add these both to an existing system as another HDD, not a boot drive or anything like that.

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Those drives work great in raid0. I have a similar setup with two X25-E's.

1) Use the Intel ICH10 onboard raid controller, unless you have a decent ($250+) hardware raid card.

2) Setup in the bios a 60GB partition, with 64kb stripe size. This is done because it gives the drive a larger "scratch" area to organize and manipulate data as it is written. Bottom line, the performance will stay within advertised specifications for much longer than if you used the entire space. An even smaller stripe size could theoretically improve performance when reading smaller files, but it is at the cost of more processor cycles.

3) These configs are bootable, so you can run both your OS and WoW off of the same raid0 if you would like. For me. Win7 (with hibernation off and pagefile reduced to 2GB) + WoW works out to about 25-27GB used after installed so there should be enough space for you.

4) If you use an older OS like XP, then be sure to NOT defrag the SSD's. This is not necessary and will actually degrade the drive's performance. Don't worry about TRIM - it is not supported on raid arrays and is not needed when partitioning like outlined above. Win7 is recommended if you have it or can afford it.

I'm using Windows 7 home pro 64 bit - and really just want to use these as like, an E: drive or whatever, and don't necessarily need them to be bootable.

Will I need to reinstall Windows 7 on my main (non-SSD) HDD in order to get the drivers for an SSD installed if I don't want Win7 to be on the SSD raid? Or was that advice predicated on the idea that I would want to use them as a boot drive?

If I *did* want to run that as a boot drive, can I have it be bootable but ALSO still visible as an E: drive or whatever when I boot from my usual Windows installation? Would that be a more performance improving way to do things?

Thanks for the help!!!

If they are in raid DO NOT make them your boot drive; if either one goes down you are shot.

I would keep the system as is and raid0 them as another drive and toss all of wow into it. You also could possibly put your swap file (pagefile) there also not sure if thats best or not, probably is though.

I think all you need do is set up the raid0 in the bios (read bios instructions or motherboard instructions) and it should be "plug and play" after that. Win7 should have the proper drivers I would guess. But Im not 100percent sure. The you can search for updated drivers.

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Originally Posted by Sam DeathWalker

If they are in raid DO NOT make them your boot drive; if either one goes down you are shot.

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this holds true for any raid or normal drive, if you don't have a backup of the drive then you are stuffed when it fails

Thanks for the help, all! It's been extremely informative!

Unfortunately for me, it turns out my bios does not by default support RAID configurations, so I need to get a card for it anyway - well, I guess for now I'll just run the drives as individual drives.

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Originally Posted by mikekim

this holds true for any raid or normal drive, if you don't have a backup of the drive then you are stuffed when it fails

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Yeah, I just had a raid 1 (disk mirror) fail - both drives were lost. Make sure you backup your drives, even if they are mirrored.

I just installed one of them, and it was really, really easy. My system has these kinda open gate things that let me just push in a drive. Turned it on, BIOS picked it up without me doing anything, Win 7 automagically installed the drivers, formatted it, copied stuff over and boom, it's up and running.

I'm not sure how much of a difference I notice yet, but it seems like things are faster. Thanks for the help, all!

I just bought the same intel X25-V 40GB SSD.

I've heard they "burn up".. ive been playing wow intensively for a few hours now.. and very cool to the touch. I wonder why people say they "burn up" when I haven't even felt any heat from top or bottom of the SSD?

Beyond that question.. SSD rocks! I thought I needed 2 copies of WoW folder into my SSD, but found I could just get away with copying my accont folders from both world of warcraft directories from my Hard drive to my SSD wow folder. Now I can use 2 accounts on one folder, instead of me thinking I was going to have to find a way to crame 17gigs times 2 (34 gigs) into 38 gigs of the SSD. It can be done, but ive read also that the more the SSD holds the slower it gets.

So, now my system really rocks!

For dual boxing... maybe even more?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer INTEL_
System Model DX58SO__
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz, 2661 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. SOX5810J.86A.4196.2009.0715.1958, 7/15/2009
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (2 of these in SLI)
Antec nine hundred two tower case w/ extra fans
Logitech G5 mouse
Surround sound (logitech X-540)
(2) Flatron LG W2361VG gloss black monitors (23")
Intel X25-V SATA SSD 40g <---(world of warcraft only)

With my system, the wait time for load up is non-existant.. I don't see any reason to use SSD for a windows 7 boot drive. I mean, the wait time of 15 seconds is non-existant for boot up.. But for the game 15 seconds is everything! So SSD being Instant is awesome! And if it fails.. I go buy another.. no worries.

I do other things with this machine.. Make Music (Sonar Producer 8.5), Make Videos (Studio Pinnacle Ultimate collection 14) .. thinking of getting Adobe After effects CS5.. but not sure yet. Among other things.. So the power is not just for Gaming :O.... and I'm sure there is even more power than just my little system out there. My system just touches the surface of what is really out there... I really need more ram for video editing.. probally around 16gb would be nice..

Anyhow.. So.. Can I Five box on 1 SSD on my system? Or should I try to get more SSDs?

suggestions?

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Originally Posted by Eniledahs

I just bought the same intel X25-V 40GB SSD.

I've heard they "burn up".. ive been playing wow intensively for a few hours now.. and very cool to the touch. I wonder why people say they "burn up" when I haven't even felt any heat from top or bottom of the SSD?

Beyond that question.. SSD rocks! I thought I needed 2 copies of WoW folder into my SSD, but found I could just get away with copying my accont folders from both world of warcraft directories from my Hard drive to my SSD wow folder. Now I can use 2 accounts on one folder, instead of me thinking I was going to have to find a way to crame 17gigs times 2 (34 gigs) into 38 gigs of the SSD. It can be done, but ive read also that the more the SSD holds the slower it gets.

So, now my system really rocks!

For dual boxing... maybe even more?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer INTEL_
System Model DX58SO__
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz, 2661 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. SOX5810J.86A.4196.2009.0715.1958, 7/15/2009
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (2 of these in SLI)
Antec nine hundred two tower case w/ extra fans
Logitech G5 mouse
Surround sound (logitech X-540)
(2) Flatron LG W2361VG gloss black monitors (23")
Intel X25-V SATA SSD 40g <---(world of warcraft only)

With my system, the wait time for load up is non-existant.. I don't see any reason to use SSD for a windows 7 boot drive. I mean, the wait time of 15 seconds is non-existant for boot up.. But for the game 15 seconds is everything! So SSD being Instant is awesome! And if it fails.. I go buy another.. no worries.

I do other things with this machine.. Make Music (Sonar Producer 8.5), Make Videos (Studio Pinnacle Ultimate collection 14) .. thinking of getting Adobe After effects CS5.. but not sure yet. Among other things.. So the power is not just for Gaming :O.... and I'm sure there is even more power than just my little system out there. My system just touches the surface of what is really out there... I really need more ram for video editing.. probally around 16gb would be nice..

Anyhow.. So.. Can I Five box on 1 SSD on my system? Or should I try to get more SSDs?

suggestions?

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More SSDs for what? You can 5 box off of one install of wow, that's what I do. If you were to upgrade, I'd suggest a better (single, maybe) video card. Our systems are very close, spec-wise, except I have 2gb more RAM and an ATI 5850 video card. I have have 5 instances running and get a steady 60fps (45-50 in Dalaran) with High graphics settings (as long as I turn shadows all the way down - that KILLS performance).

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Originally Posted by kate

More SSDs for what? You can 5 box off of one install of wow, that's what I do. If you were to upgrade, I'd suggest a better (single, maybe) video card. Our systems are very close, spec-wise, except I have 2gb more RAM and an ATI 5850 video card. I have have 5 instances running and get a steady 60fps (45-50 in Dalaran) with High graphics settings (as long as I turn shadows all the way down - that KILLS performance).

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So, the ATI 5850 video card supports 2 displays and would out perform the 9800 GT nividas (dual SLI card setup) ?

Although going to a single card has been on my mind... Cause I would believe it would not create so much heat as 2 cards.

Does your ATI ever cause crashes? my Nvidia 9800gt cards caused all kinds of crashing in SLI mode. Not lately, but if they get really hot.. crash ccrash cccccrash..

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Originally Posted by Eniledahs

So, the ATI 5850 video card supports 2 displays and would out perform the 9800 GT nividas (dual SLI card setup) ?

Although going to a single card has been on my mind... Cause I would believe it would not create so much heat as 2 cards.

Does your ATI ever cause crashes? my Nvidia 9800gt cards caused all kinds of crashing in SLI mode. Not lately, but if they get really hot.. crash ccrash cccccrash..

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It's no problem if you use an ATI card on an Nvidia (chipset) motherboard. While I don't have an AMD 5850 (I have a 4890), I use the newest drivers and they have been very solid for me.

Any time a video card starts to overheat it will cause issues within your software. That's why when people overclock their stuff they know they've gone too far when it causes lockups, hangs, or blue screens of death.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eniledahs

So, the ATI 5850 video card supports 2 displays and would out perform the 9800 GT nividas (dual SLI card setup) ?

Although going to a single card has been on my mind... Cause I would believe it would not create so much heat as 2 cards.

Does your ATI ever cause crashes? my Nvidia 9800gt cards caused all kinds of crashing in SLI mode. Not lately, but if they get really hot.. crash ccrash cccccrash..

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The ATI supports 2 - I've got 2 monitors running at different resolutions (1920x1200 and 1280x1024) and I haven't had a crash yet. Not sure about more powerful - I don't know much about what the benchmarks mean, but with my system that is otherwise fairly similar to yours I'm able to run 5 instances, get 60fps (except in Dal sometimes when it's a bit crowded) on the primary, and run them at High quality with shadows turned down and it's smooth as silk.

If you're concerned about switching to ATI, you should be able to find a pretty decent single NVIDIA card that will outperform the 9800GT, and I imagine that improvements to manufacturing will allow you to draw down less power to get higher performance and less heat. I am *not* a good hardware person though, so I might be missing something :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eniledahs

I just bought the same intel X25-V 40GB SSD.

I've heard they "burn up".. ive been playing wow intensively for a few hours now.. and very cool to the touch. I wonder why people say they "burn up" when I haven't even felt any heat from top or bottom of the SSD?

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I bet "burn up" was meant more along the lines of "wear out" and not really as in heat (unless they had a bad one) :). SSD's have limited # of writes on each cell before they fail compared to hard drive magnetic surface wearing out.

I just got an OCZ Agility 2 SSD this past weekend and installed w7 and Wow with about 16g left which I'm going to keep open so windows can shift writes across it. With only having 4gb of system memory now (had 8gb before) five wow's run better than they ever have on the SSD. Once in a while there's a little stutter in Dal but it's very short and /follow out in Northrend is a hell of a lot better than before.

I added the ocz agility 2 60GB a few weeks ago along with a q9300. This is an upgrade from an e7200 and a traditional 7200rpm drive. I only 3 box and I was averaging 30-50 fps (15 in dal). Now i'm getting 100-150 fps. I run one 32" lcd at 1080p and have two slave PiPs in the top corner (all running max settings). I have to say the ssd was the best purchase I've made in a long time and I highly recommend this drive.

Anyone try putting their wow folder and OS on 1 ssd, versus wow by itself on it? Wondering if the performance hit is slight, or very noticable.

I've been trying to decide on whether to go for 1 or 2 of the X25-V 40GB. Reading the linked anandtech piece about RAIDing them only the big sequential reads show the speed benefit, the random read tests barely show any improvement over a single drive. I'm struggling to imagine 5 WoW clients giving the drive a chance to do many big sequential reads (except maybe on actual load screens) - I would think the read pattern is going to be pretty random, so I'm not convinced how much improvement RAIDing would be for multiboxing.