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Blog: Hardware Windows 7 RC on SSD Rocks
Paul Mah - June 25, 2009 8:05 AM

22 comment(s) - last by Baov.. on Jul 2 at 3:45 AM

Paul Mah installed Windows 7 RC on a Samsung Solid State Disk and was blown away by the experience

A review unit of the Samsung PB22-J 256GB Solid State Disk (SSD) arrived on my desk a month back. When the release candidate of Windows 7 came out, I decided to install the 64-bit version of the OS on the whopping 256GB SSD to see how it would fare. Windows 7 is of particular interest here due to a number of tweaks that Microsoft incorporated to benefit the unique way SSDs work.

Anyway, I finally found some time last weekend to get Windows 7 and various software applications that I use installed on my Sony Z laptop. Despite my heightened expectations, the experience blew me away.

My laptop has a 2.4GHz (P8600) Centrino 2 processor, and I loaded it up with my full complement of productivity software - which includes Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007. Used to grabbing a cup of coffee while waiting for computers to boot up, I was surprised that the boot-up time in this instance averaged just 15 seconds upon leaving the BIOS screen. Going into hibernation with 4GB of RAM took between 15 to 20 seconds; my fastest boot-time on a clean installation clocked in at 11 seconds.

Overall performance was snappy too - it was as though I changed to a new laptop rather than did a swap of the OS and storage device. Battery life took a dip, but that's probably because I wasn't able to install the optimized device drivers from Sony.

With Windows 7 due out by October 22, it is clear that the only real option for performance freaks who demand the absolute best would be to go for a kit fitted with Windows 7 and a fast SSD. Of course, the Samsung PB22-J 256GB is considered one of the fastest SSDs around at the moment. Samsung's Jim Elliott, who is the VP of memory marketing, in an earlier report by DailyTech compared the Samsung PB22-J to "having a 15,000rpm drive, without all of its size, noise, power and heating drawbacks."

Samsung told us that it has no plans to sell the drive directly through retail, though the identical drive is already available through its partners in the form of OCZ's Summit, Corsair's P256 - which was launched last month, and SuperTalent's MasterDrive SX. The Summit and P256 are available at Newegg and are priced at $729 and $659 respectively.

In addition, the drive is available as a storage option on the Dell Precision M6400. The SSD is also currently shipping in a number of OEM laptops as listed here. If you are getting it as part of a PC or laptop, make sure you switch to Windows 7 when it becomes generally available.

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try a OCZ vertex

By kattanna on 6/25/2009 9:56:58 AM , Rating: 2

i got windows 7 64bit installed on an OCZ vertex drive and its simply smooth running and oh so fast.

when you start up apps they simply pop up and run smoothly.

i got another vertex drive i use for games.

while SSD's are a bit pricey right now, its amazing how much performance boost they give. and real noticeable increases in all things.

RE: try a OCZ vertex

By smackababy on 6/25/2009 10:21:15 AM , Rating: 2

I've got two 60GB vertex drives as well and I love how fast Windows 7 is on them, not to mention the games I've got installed.

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RE: try a OCZ vertex

By callmeroy on 6/25/2009 2:05:40 PM , Rating: 2

New egg has the Vertex SSD 30 Gig version for $140 right now....I'm in the midst of upgrading my computer (mostly for gaming needs) since I can't drop 2k for a new one right now....I'm running XP Pro still --- but I have no hands on experience with SSD's yet.....my idea is get one of these drives for the OS and run my games off the current 250 GB Sata (conventional drive) that I have....would that be a good idea? And would I see performance gains worthy of dropping $140?

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RE: try a OCZ vertex

By smackababy on 6/25/2009 2:52:21 PM , Rating: 2

As I see it, my computer runs much faster on my SSD than it did on a reasonably fast WD Black 640GB I used as an OS. I would look for a better deal on that SSD though. I got my 60GB for $150 after discounts on my most recent purchase of one. It will be the easist justifiable upgrade for everyday computer. For gaming, my WoW loads much faster than before. That is the only game I have in comparisson to my other HDD.

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RE: try a OCZ vertex

By monomer on 6/25/2009 5:57:45 PM , Rating: 2

Neat! Newegg Canada has the 30GB Vertex going for $149, before the $20 Manufacturer's Rebate.

Interestingly, the 30GB Vertex Mac Edition is going for $144 before the $20 rebate.

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RE: try a OCZ vertex

By kattanna on 6/26/2009 10:51:31 AM , Rating: 2

i got myself 2 vertex 30GB drives after much research as they are the fastest drives after the MUCH more expensive intel ones.

you can get cheaper ones, but they perform on par with a WD raptor drive. the vertex drives outperform raptors even in RAID 0. so take that for what you will.

anyways i got 2 of them with the intention of slapping them in my new quad core machine in a RAID 0 format. i got them before i had all the other pieces of the new machine so i put one of them in my aging 2.3Ghz dual core opteron system running xp 2GB ram and a 9600GT OC with 73GB raptor HD's

one of the main games i play with my fiance is EQ2. A somewhat heavy graphical online roleplaying game.

on the old system when entering the game and doing heavy battles i would often experience texture load lags and therefore slow down the smoothness to choppy levels.

i put in 1 of the vertex drives and copied the install folder over to it. then.. i launched the game.

i damn near cried. loading became as fast as snapping your fingers. upon entering the world i could immediately start spinning with out any texture load lags or in the middle of very graphic battles i could spin freely and it was smooth as silk. NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE.

not knowing what game it is your playing, i cant say what you will experience, but if it is any sort of graphical game that loads levels and textures often.. it will appear like you got a whole new machine.

to me.. its THE best upgrade any gamer can make to their system that will have immediate and noticeable results.

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RE: try a OCZ vertex

By Rocket321 on 6/26/2009 2:04:56 PM , Rating: 2

Only bad thing is 30GB will not be enough room for a Windows 7 install. If you enable hibernation and have the XP virtual machine installed you are probably going to exceed 30GB.

I'm not going to consider anything less that a 120GB SSD because whats the point if there's not enough room for the OS plus a few games and apps?

Still looks like a year or two before we hit a reasonable price/size ratio for desktop use IMO.

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not the drive

By Screwballl on 6/25/2009 11:04:52 AM , Rating: 3

I thinks its W7 itself (mostly, not the drive.
I have a 5400RPM drive in my refurb Compaq CQ60-211DX laptop (Celeron585 2.16GHz, 2GB DDR, 250GB 5400RPM drive, Intel 4500M video) and with W7 32 bit, I am at the login screen at 16 seconds and at a usable state within 25 seconds. A complete restart of the system back to a usable state takes 38 seconds including time to type in my password (I used a timing application for the restart).

So I really believe that most of the increased performance benefits is Windows 7 itself, not a faster hard drive. When it comes to starting up new applications and such (after W7 has loaded), that is when I found the faster hard drive has a greater benefit to the user.

RE: not the drive

By leexgx on 6/27/2009 9:31:00 AM , Rating: 2

it will slow down at somepoint (if you know what you are doing you can keep an HDD speedy to an Point)

i can reboot from desktop and get back to desktop and open programs in under 1 min (40-50 secs), if it was not Due to my Bios it would take 17 secs to boot to desktop

load times you cant beat an SSD

once you used SSD (with cache not JMicron) you never want to use an HDD agane (for boot, apps and games), you can open 4 programs at the same time (no superfetch) and thay load mostly strate away as there is basicly no seek times on SSDs (1<ms)

with laptops its like you just got an New laptop when you use SSD

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Centrino is not a processor

By RubberJohnny on 6/25/2009 11:35:33 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
My laptop has a 2.4GHz (P8600) Centrino 2 processor

Centrino is a platform not a processor, your processor is a core 2 duo.

I'm having a hard time taking this article seriously with its 'inaccuracies'. I agree with the other poster, those boot times don't sound much better than a fast 7200rpm desktop drive IMHO.

RE: Centrino is not a processor

By leexgx on 6/27/2009 9:23:27 AM , Rating: 2

you cant compare HDDs to SSDs,
the SSD always wins on boot time and Desktop load times and soon as you can see desktop with SSD you can Run any program soon as you even if stuff is still loading at the same time on HDDs the start menu may not even work at desktop load due to programs loading up (windows 7 is different as they have made it so once you see it you can click on it and it will open)

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RE: Centrino is not a processor

By leexgx on 6/27/2009 9:35:30 AM , Rating: 2

until you used SSD you cant really comment on this topic

i have an Corsair S128 Slow in data rate compared to other SSDs but its all about the access times that makes SSDs respond fast not Data rate as a lot get to interested in the data rate of SSDs and Vertex based SSDs you need to run an wiper tool to fix Writing speeds

all my games just simply Load not stuttering just load

i am all samsung based SSDs for the time been

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SSDs are just plain fast!

By therealnickdanger on 6/25/2009 10:55:41 AM , Rating: 2

I've been using the same 64GB G.Skill SSD (JMicron 602B controller) on my Vista Ultimate 32-bit install and it hasn't let me down yet. Total system boot time of ~15s, shutdown in ~10s. Apps start instantly. No stuttering. It's such a huge leap over the 7200RPM drive it replaced. Obviously, it's a lot smaller than the 250GB, but I keep all my data on the array.

RE: SSDs are just plain fast!

By therealnickdanger on 6/25/2009 10:57:06 AM , Rating: 2

I meant to say I've been using it for almost 6 months and it's about 70% full now. I haven't noticed any slowdown, but even at the worst-case 10% reduction Anand noticed, it's still light-years faster than my HDD ever was. The instant seek time is the real win.

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"Secure" State Disk????

By mattclary on 6/25/2009 2:10:51 PM , Rating: 4

quote:
A review unit of the Samsung PB22-J 256GB Secure State Disk (SSD)

Shouldn't that be "Solid" State Disk?

Bad benchmark

By inigoml on 6/29/2009 12:44:19 PM , Rating: 2

You cannot compare a used hard disk with a clean installed one. First one will be fragmented, specially the MFT.

Although you have cloned the traditional hard disk in the SSD in order to have same files in both disks, MFT will be fragmented in first one and perfect ordered in second one. So boot times will be shorter in second one ALWAYS.

You should have tested both disk with a clean install or both cloned.
Of course, SSD boot times will be better, but not 11 seconds in SSD and several minutes on second one. Perhaps 20 seconds, 25. Not more.

worthless

By Baov on 7/2/2009 3:45:01 AM , Rating: 2

This is worthless observation without a point of comparison of the same drive with another OS.

Holy tpyos, Batman!

By Anonymous Freak on 6/25/2009 2:20:25 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
A review unit of the Samsung PB22-J 256GB Secure State Disk (SSD) arrived on my desk a month back.

Um, "Solid State Drive" is the usual term.

quote:
I decided to install the 64-bit version of the OS on the whooping 256GB SSD to see how it would fare.

Do you, per chance, mean "whopping"? I'm not sure I want an SSD that makes funny sounds. (Whether it be a crane, a cough, or an exclamation often made by Portland's former mayor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Clark )

AKA

By icanhascpu on 6/26/09, Rating: -1

RE: AKA

By leexgx on 6/27/2009 9:18:24 AM , Rating: 2

it is old news but you do not need to put it out that way (need an second account to rate users down)

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More MS bloat is coming

By ggordonliddy on 6/25/09, Rating: -1

RE: More MS bloat is coming

By leexgx on 6/27/2009 9:16:15 AM , Rating: 2

SSD is Nothing like an HDD its access times are so low, SSDs love random IO, Quite hard to slow the responsiveness of an SSD down, unless you use it in an server environment

windows Vista Needs RAID HDDs or 1 SSD
when buying SSD drives Buy 1 SSD be it 64gb or 128gb and make sure it has cache not the crapy JMicron SSD
if you use RAID when TRIM support comes out you not be able to use it untill driver makers update the support for it

with windows 7 have vastly improved a lot of the random stuff that happens when device drivers and programs are installed (trustedinstaller and system restore/Shadow copy service)

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