Help with my OCZ Agility 3 SSD on New build

Hi, I just built my first system and need some help. My new SSD doesn't seem to be loading up windows 7 any faster than my old system with an HDD. I have no idea what im doing or how to even figure out if my new system is working the way it should. How do i test this stuff? I would really appreciate any help..

My new build:

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Intel i5 2055k at 3.30ghz
H100 Corsair Cooling
8GB Corsair Vengance DDR3 1600 (3 more stix coming)
Radeon HD7850 HIS iceQX
SSD OCZ Agility 3 256gb
3TB HDD coming
Windows7 64bit Ulimate

Boot time is dominated by what has to load during the POST. If you have RAID and or AHCI in addition to other controllers like eSATA it will take much longer to POST. The real speed will come post POST (LOL) when all of your applications are loading up in windows.

I like using ATTO to test the drive's performance (this will produce numbers closer to what is advertised). You can also use AS SSD to test for other things like latency. Bewarned that excessive benchmarking of the SSD will degrade its performance.

Some of your performance will depend on what SATA port you are using and what controller it is on and the drivers running for that controller.

King107s said:

Boot time is dominated by what has to load during the POST. If you have RAID and or AHCI in addition to other controllers like eSATA it will take much longer to POST. The real speed will come post POST (LOL) when all of your applications are loading up in windows.

I like using ATTO to test the drive's performance (this will produce numbers closer to what is advertised). You can also use AS SSD to test for other things like latency. Bewarned that excessive benchmarking of the SSD will degrade its performance.

Some of your performance will depend on what SATA port you are using and what controller it is on and the drivers running for that controller.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your info. So, all i have is a single SSD and a dvd drive using SATA ports. You said it depends on what SATA port, can you explain further?

What do you mean by "what controller it is on and the drivers running for that controller"? I really am a NOOB.

Also, you mentioned "AHCI", i see this in my BIOS so im using it but again, i have no idea what it means?

I really appriciate your time on this. thanks for offering help to a new guy...

You have several sata ports on your motherboard. they are grouped by controller essentially. For example, 0-1 may be Intel controller, 2-5 may be marvell, and so on (see your manual for what ports go to what controller). What he is saying is, disable the ones not in use so they do not initialize upon POST(boot) to decrease boot times.

AHCI.

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

this is the guide I referenced most for my install. we need more details about the drive and your system; most important would b a link the the EXACT drive and for your motherboard. the newer agility 3 is SATAIII and you'd want to make sure you use a compatible SATAIII port to get full speeds from the drive. for most motherboards the first 2-4 SATA ports are the faster ports; so if your board supports SATAIII you'll most likely want to use port 0 or 1 (depending on how your mobo maker labels them.) do you have any other drives you're running with the install? normally you just install with the SSD/CD or DVD then add your "files drive" (like a 1tb mechanical HD) later after windows is installed. King was asking about what controller you're using; this could be the Sandforce controller on the SSD (in which your linking the model will provide us the details) or this could be asking if you're using a PCI or PCIe based SATAIII card to connect the drive (which it doesn't sound like you are.) AHCI is a more advance hard drive mode for newer drives; you normally have to set this in your bios BEFORE you install Windows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

you can also enable a "fast boot" or "fast post" feature within the bios that generally skips the initial bootup memory test and a few other small steps; this can easily take a few seconds off boot time. This sounds like a "new" windows install, so you shouldn't have a lot of startup/post items. right?