Last week i picked up a Samsung 840 pro 128gb ssd and clean installed windows 7 on it. My question is about the Samsung-Magician app, is it required to be installed for the ssd to work right like trim garbage collection etc.. I just basically want to get the best performance out of it and i am not sure how to set it up. I know all the tweaks and optimizations for ssd's running in Windows 7,from my previous Corsair Force 3 120gb which now i use as a secondary drive for some games. Thanks in advance
I does not need to be installed for everything to work as long as the SSD is installed AHCI I only installed it to check and update firmware
Ok thanks. I am already running of the Samsung 840 pro, but i wasn't sure if Samsung ssd's had any specific features with it's controller that need the software to work optimally. I had it installed to check to check if it had the latest firmware (which it did). then i uninstalled it. I really haven't read that much about how ssd's work apart from optimizing them in windows for decreasing the amount of writes for increased lifespan. In the software i saw a feature that i haven't read about it yet.It was called over provisioning the drive i think.
Yes,over provisioning. Basically,it alocates a raw partition just for increasing ssd's lifespan.Also,Samsung magician allows a few tweaks,the same tweak one finds in ssd tweak guide,just you won't need to do all the steps,just select performance mode or another preset mode.
Magician does as anticupidon says about over provisioning. As well, you can actually run TRIM anytime you want with Performance Optimization and you can benchmark the drive as well. I run a 512 GB 840 in my desktop and have it provisioned to 480 and 32 GB left for the drive to use for aiding TRIM. The controller of the drive actually uses the unused partition to help keep the drive clean and in top performance. With a 128, I would give at least 10GB to OP.
I gave my 840 Pro 10% over provisioning but I'm tempted to change it to just 10GB and save the 1.+GB for something else. Space is that valuable with the small drive. The magician software pretty much takes care of everything. I deal with hibernation separately though.
Ok now i understand fully what id does. BTW the Samsung 840 pro 128gb is overall faster than the force3 120gb and write speeds with 80gb free space are 468mb/s over the advertised 390mb/s. All my apps don't use more than 64gb so 128gb as an os drive is fine,. I am using the Corsair force 3 120gb for a few demanding games, and i have a backup of my steam and origin games on my other 1tb drive,so i can move them to my ssd anytime i want.
If you open the magician,you will see the box "rapid mode". Right now it's only for the EVO,but Samsung is going to provide that to us Pro owners in the near future.
I have seen the Rapid mode, is that the ram caching that EVO uses to speed up the drive? It is nice to hear that it's coming to the 840 pro series ssd's.
Info regarding rapid mode etc. found here..http://www.maximumpc.com/samsung_840_evo_1tb_benchmarks Looks like rapid mode makes a difference.
