About Windows, SSDs and Skyrim

[torminater]

Hey guys,

 

if you bought a SSD to enjoy the highspeed data access they provide, you might have come too soon to the point, where your SSD cripples under the load of files you filled it up with.

 

Now, there is a simple solution. Just deinstall/reinstall loads of programs from your SSD to your HDD, and move all files which are not required to your HDD as well.

 

This is the only solution to your problem, unless... you run Windows from this SSD.

 

Now there are two extra options for you:

- deactivate standby mode: open up cmd.exe with Admin rights and

powercfg /h off

(for Win 7) should do the trick.

 

- move your pagefile: https://ask-leo.com/what_is_pagefilesys_and_can_i_move_it.html

 

This should free up about 15 GB on your SSD. Congratulations, you can further add tons of textures and mods to your Skyrim install!

[MontyMM]

Disabling hibernation is a good tip IMO, since it wastes a lot of space, and isn't very useful. This still allows the PC to enter very low power standby mode.

 

The pagefile is a bit more debatable. It gets used more than you'd hope, and by putting it on an HDD, you're reducing paging back to mechanical speeds. If you're very tight for space to get a larger Skyrim installation on your SSD, this is probably a worthwhile trade-off. But for general system performance, I wouldn't do it. Some people also choose to do this to reduce wear on the SSD, but with modern SSDs I don't see this as too much of a concern.

[torminater]

How much free space would you say does a SSD require to run smoothly? I currently have 90/120 GB filled up, but I'm only halfway through Skyrim Revisited...

[MontyMM]

It's quite dependent on make and model, as designs are improving and this should become less of a factor. Of the serious test reports I've seen, most current drives perform best with between 15 - 25% free space. Mind you, this is relative to their maximum potential - even a very full drive will far outperform an HDD. I also believe that it is write rather than read performance that suffers under a full SSD, and I doubt this would make much impact on Skyrim itself.

[z929669]

I have my SSDs under RAID0 and try to keep them under 75% capacity

[phazer11]

Personally I don't think you'll really see much difference performance wise and even then it'll be negligible. As Monty said it''ll still be faster than a platter drive. I'm currently using a Corsair GTX Neutron 240GB and have it about 50% full with my Skyrim Revisited Install + Windows 8 and my other Programs, etc. If you want some reliable tips on installing your OS on a SSD or maintenance I highly recommend the ones on overclock.net

 

I haven't followed the one for Windows 7 but here it is

https://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

 

They have a sticky for the subject here.

https://www.overclock.net/t/1227308/storage-essentials-thread

 

Hope it helps

[stoppingby4now]

This is a great post that gives an overview on what really causes slow downs. The general user will hardly, if ever, notice any difference, and as has already been stated, it's still going to be significantly faster than platters. Striving for keeping below a certain percentage on today's SSD's is mostly irrelevant.

[Ganda]

Hey guys, a question from a newbie here :p

 

I currently have my Win 7 installed in a HDD and I'm going to buy a 120GB SSD. Should I install the OS there or keep it in the HDD?

 

Thanks :b

[MontyMM]

Windows on the SSD. Also, as many of your often-used applications and games as possible, including Skyrim. The big old HDDs are generally fine for static data like movies, music and other assets, but for anything that needs to respond rapidly, like the OS, a game, or large files you're actually working on - it's what the SSD is for. ;)

[phazer11]

Depends. Do you have extra licenses? Also I just purchased SSD's and I'd wait fr a sale if I were you; the best price per dollar is for 240-256GB drive atm it seems (last I checked). I grabbed 2 240GB Corsair Neutron's for a cool $340 ($170 each) from Newegg about a month and a half ago.

 

You can check this thread for deals

[Neovalen]

Just as a general note - found out the hard way - that you should disable hibernate (if on a desktop) and lower your pagefile to a fixed 1GB (assuming you have a high amount of RAM) to save a huge ton of space on your SSD. Those two items saved me ~30GB of space.

[MontyMM]

I agree. There is no formula or correct size for a page file - you must work it out for yourself based upon your own workload, and what it will demand beyond your available RAM. If you have such RAM that you would hope to never touch a pagefile, then 1GB is a sensible size. Windows expects it to be present, but that should be enough for its purposes if it generally doesn't have to rely on it.

[phazer11]

I have mine set to 512MB (8GB of RAM) if you're using close to your RAM limit and you're not doing serious 3D/Video/Photo Rendering and Editing then you likely have a problem and if you are you probably need to bite the bullet and buy more RAM. The link I posted to the sticky really is like a SSD Bible. Buying Guide, Setup, General Usage, etc.

[WilliamImm]

Thanks for the link, phazer. When I reinstall Windows, I'll be sure to follow your advice.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[torminater]

Just as a general note - found out the hard way - that you should disable hibernate (if on a desktop) and lower your pagefile to a fixed 1GB (assuming you have a high amount of RAM) to save a huge ton of space on your SSD. Those two items saved me ~30GB of space.

Wasn't that more or less exactly what I suggested in the opening thread? ;-)

I found it out the same way as you ;D