Ordered Crucial C300 64GB and got a few Q

[CERO]

I just decided to walk into a new era of storage, the SSD. This is the first time I purchase a SSD. So it is a really unknown area for me. So I got a couple of questions.

I heared that u need some headroom left in order to prevent slowdowns in performance of the drive, so what is the recommended headroom? Some say I need to leave some space unformatted, and some say it is not required to leave some space unformatted but I just need to make sure I leave some space unfilled ( 20%?)
In case for example; If I just partition 56 GB and leave 8GB unpartitioned, and if the drive is for 53GB full would it slowdown the performance of the drive?

About the TRIM, I understand a little now what it does, but since I ordered just 1 drive, because thats my butget, would TRIM support 1 drive under windows 7, or only in a RAID0 configuration. Do I need to defrag like the traditional HDD drives for maintenance or it is already covered by this TRIM feature?

Are there any drivers I need to install after installing windows 7. And in a case like when I want to re-install/reformat Windows 7, are there special tools that I need to use for maintenace before I reformat/reinstall the OS?

Thank you

[Anvil]

All drives are already set up with "some headroom", spare area is the correct naming btw.

In most cases the spare area is ~7% (or more) of the drives capacity.

What you are talking about is over provisioning. (extra spare area)
One could argue about the default spare area being sufficient, I'd say it is, as long as it's a single drive running on a TRIM capable OS.
In special cases one can increase the spare area to get more consistent performance but for most users I'd say, leave it as it is.
(just don't fill the drive to the brim)

Currently TRIM is supported only for single drives, TRIM support for raid will be available at some point in time.

Do not defrag the SSD, it leads to more wear, unlike HDDs the accesstime is the same all over the drive and so you won't benefit that much, if anything at all.

Select AHCI or RAID mode in the BIOS. (IDE mode is just slower)
I prefer the Intel RST 9.6 driver to the default W7 drivers. (it won't work unless you've got the Intel chipset of course)
(TRIM works using both the default W7 drivers and the RST 9.6)

[CERO]

Hey anvil once again thanks for your contribution. So I basicly leave 7% of the drive unformatted +/- 4.5 , lets say 5GB. And try to leave 20% of the formatted space ( 59GB) free, 12GB for consistent performance.

[Computurd]

it is already done for you you cannot even access the area of the disk that is over-provisioned, it is built in. but you can add more is basically what anvil is saying. you only do the free space thing if you want to add more of your own. for normal operation there is a pre-determined amount that is inaccessible to you, already on there.

[Lu(ky]

All drives are already set up with "some headroom", spare area is the correct naming btw.

In most cases the spare area is ~7% (or more) of the drives capacity.

What you are talking about is over provisioning. (extra spare area)
One could argue about the default spare area being sufficient, I'd say it is, as long as it's a single drive running on a TRIM capable OS.
In special cases one can increase the spare area to get more consistent performance but for most users I'd say, leave it as it is.
(just don't fill the drive to the brim)

Currently TRIM is supported only for single drives, TRIM support for raid will be available at some point in time.

Do not defrag the SSD, it leads to more wear, unlike HDDs the accesstime is the same all over the drive and so you won't benefit that much, if anything at all.

Select AHCI or RAID mode in the BIOS. (IDE mode is just slower)
I prefer the Intel RST 9.6 driver to the default W7 drivers. (it won't work unless you've got the Intel chipset of course)
(TRIM works using both the default W7 drivers and the RST 9.6)

Anvil I just installed a Intel 80GB G2 fresh install W7 64bit how do I know what driver I am using? Intel or W7 version
Also I need to install a new OCZ Vertex 2 60gb W7 64bit as well. Do I install the Intel RST 9.6 driver during install or after?

[Razmatazz]

Ditto the question. I wasn't even aware of Intel RST 9.6. Also why is this the preferred method?

[Anvil]

Anvil I just installed a Intel 80GB G2 fresh install W7 64bit how do I know what driver I am using? Intel or W7 version
Also I need to install a new OCZ Vertex 2 60gb W7 64bit as well. Do I install the Intel RST 9.6 driver during install or after?

Download AS SSD and start the application, it will show which driver is active.
(post a screenshot of AS SSDS if your'e in doubt)

I always load the driver while installing the OS.
There is an option to Load Driver when selecting which partition to install to.
Unpack the "F6" files from the Intel website to an USB stick.

You can always install RST at a later point but it won't be the same as loading the driver while installing. (not much of a difference but there is)

In order to get the RST GUI (for raid management) you have to install the full RST after installing the OS.