New Desktop

[2005]

@ Directive

How are things going with your setup? Get everything smoothed out?

@ PB

I would just leave it on, but I've gotten very conscious of wasting electricity and pretty much
anything else now that I'm out on my own and it comes out of my pocket. Not to say that you
don't have to support yourself either, but with my student loans and such it makes me really
scrutinize things like wasting a lot more than most people I'd imagine.

I'd be interested to see just how much power my 850W PSU draws at idle, and then figure out
how much power is wasted when I'm not using it. I don't know if it's enough of a reason to buy a
Kill-A-Watt.

The SSD came in on Saturday. I have to take my computer up to my dads garage and hit it with an
air compressor... needs the ole "spring cleaning". I don't know if I'll hold off until the weekend to do
the reformat or just go for it tomorrow.

[palmboy5]

The thing about getting a new OS drive is that you don't need to reformat. You can start installing to the new drive whenever, and when you need to go back and get some work done, you just boot into the original OS drive and do stuff. Continue installation/setup later. NOTE: Due to complications with where the boot menu might be installed, do not have both OS drives connected at the same time during OS installation.

[2005]

Very true, I was thinking about that earlier this morning.

Part of me wants to not "trust" the WD Blue any more, since it's heading for five years old.
I don't know why really, one of the mybooks I have has a drive in it that's easily older.

I'll probably do the installation Thursday I'm thinking. I have everything backed up onto
external hard drive, and it's all still living on the original drive as well. I think if anything
I might unplug the platter drive and leave it for emergency purposes where I need to boot
my machine and I'm having problems with the SSD/OS.

[Directive]

Yo '05. My setup is doing rather well now. I have my 2 storage drives mirrored and I have PureSync backing up my stuff weekly.

I leave my computer on during the night for 2 reasons. 1 The AM is when I schedule all of my automated stuff and 2 quicker use in the morning. Like palm said just got to wait till the monitor turns on.
I do shut it off when I go to work. It really doesn't take too long to boot. I should time it sometime.
I have a Lenovo Yoga 2. It has a SSD and that thing boots fast. About a second and a half to password screen and a second or under for full desktop load. It's very nice.

[palmboy5]

@2005
Yeah I don't trust old drives. Half the drives from my old server (the eight 2TBs) have been spinning for so long that I'm not going to bother trying to repurpose them.

@Directive
Have you tried simulating a drive failure to see how the system behaves?

[2005]

So I installed the new SSD drive yesterday and got it mostly set up.

I was rather unimpressed at first, because it didn't seem that much faster when
installing windows 7. I think it took me around 10 min to do the install from the time
it starting "Windows is loading files" to the time I was on my desktop.

Windows updates TOOK. FOR. EVER. Easily over two hours, which I don't think it should
have.... even if there were a good 250-300 updates installed. 195 in the first batch alone.

I installed the basics after that, antivirus and the most commonly used applications.

One thing I have learned is that my BIOS is slower than dirt. It takes a good twenty seconds
from the time I push the power button on my desktop to when windows actually starts to load.


Initially I did some testing with Crystal Disk Mark to be very very disappointed. My sequential
read speeds were at like 190 MB/s and sequential write speeds were at 265 MB/s. I later loaded
up Samsung Magician software to find out that my SATAII mode was set to IDE in BIOS and after
some fiddling around with registry tweaks I was able to get the motherboard to allow me to change
the mode to AHCI. I then ran a performance benchmark on Samsung Magician and I got about
280 MB/s sequential read speed and 275 MB/s sequential write speed.

I have screen shots I can share when I get home from my first job. I didn't notice a huge difference
in performance though, but it was slightly noticeable. The difference from the HDD is noticeable, but I
guess the wow factor wasn't there for me because of how long windows updates still took and because
of how slow my BIOS is.

The machine itself is much faster, but I do attribute a lot of that to a fresh install of windows as well.

Overall it was worth the $99. Windows itself takes around 20 seconds to load to a full desktop after the
BIOS is done doing it's thing. Most applications I've tried are instant on. I've set the Samsung Magician
software to do "Maximum Reliability" OS Optimization. I took a very very tiny hit in performance for that,
but I feel it was well worth it.

[palmboy5]

I hate my BIOS too. By far the longest time during boot up is waiting for it to even begin booting Windows.

Your IDE mode in the beginning definitely would be an issue.

Applications being instant-on is the main reason why I want SSDs.

[Directive]

OK, so I guess my lappy has a better bios? What do I need to get to benchmark my SSD, or get this Crystal Disk that 05 said? Maybe I can test my SATA drives as well.

Sorry, but I don't like going into my case unless absolutely necessary. I open it about twice a year for a dusting, maybe Ill try then.

If anyone can tell me how or if I can remove this cloud from my task bar.

[palmboy5]

Modern motherboards probably have BIOSes tuned to take very little time given that's what people want now that SSDs are the norm. Didn't make much of a difference before SSDs.

You really should fake a drive failure sooner rather than later... Ideally you confirm you know how to deal with a drive failure as well as know how the system behaves when it occurs BEFORE you even put your data on the drives.

I don't recognize the cloud. Hover over it/left click it/right click it and find out what it is!

[2005]

@PB,

Yeah the BIOS sucks for sure. But applications are much faster, and the system is much faster in general. Feels much more responsive. Major facepalm moment when I realized
my SATA configuration was bottlenecking me!

@Directive

My motherboard is pretty old and in turn so is the BIOS. It's really slow. If your running a device that's made within the last 2 or 3 years then chances
are the BIOS "does it's thing" pretty fast. Mine takes 20+ seconds, I can imagine newer stuff probably averages 5 or less.

I have no idea as to what that cloud thing is, but if you can identify it then you can simply go into the msconfig and disable it from starting on system boot.

As far as bench marking your drives, you can do that with crystal disk mark. It's free.

It also might not be a bad idea to simulate a drive failure by unplugging one while the system is on. It's something that you want to know that you can handle
when crap does hit the fan. So you know what to expect.

[Directive]

The cloud is called "OneDrive". All my searches indicate it is irremovable bloatware in Windows 8.1. I have shut all the settings off but I see no way to uninstall it or stop it from loading with Windows.
My OS drive...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 149.455 MB/s
Sequential Write : 136.267 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 35.695 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 75.737 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.364 MB/s [ 88.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.129 MB/s [ 275.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.888 MB/s [ 216.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.154 MB/s [ 281.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 42.0% (379.8/905.3 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2015/03/21 11:27:37
OS : Windows 8.1 [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

My Mirrored drives...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 198.106 MB/s
Sequential Write : 192.382 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 58.102 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 88.821 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.659 MB/s [ 160.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.274 MB/s [ 311.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 3.010 MB/s [ 734.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.216 MB/s [ 297.0 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [D: 22.7% (632.8/2785.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2015/03/21 12:35:00
OS : Windows 8.1 [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

[palmboy5]

I never logged in / associated Windows with my MSN/Hotmail/Microsoft web account which is probably why I don't see the OneDrive icon. Do you make use of that account association? Because otherwise... you could disassociate and have a regular Windows user account.

Looks like your hard drive performance are pretty standard/healthy

[Directive]

I logged in using my Microsoft account. I don't use MSN or Hotmail. I disconnected my account from windows and now the cloud is gone. Thanx for the help.

[Directive]

Also, boots right to Windows desktop.

I just had to get a new router. NEVER EVER get Belkin ANYTHING. There support sucks. I got a Netgear R6300V2 Smart WiFi Router AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit.

WiFi Technology 802.11ac
WiFi Performance AC1750 WiFi (450+1300 Mbps)†
WiFi Range Large homes
WiFi Band Simultaneous dual band 2.4 & 5GHz
Beamforming Beamforming+—Smart, signal-focusing technology boosts the speed,reliability, &range of your WiFi connections
Number of Ethernet Ports Five (5) 10/100/1000 (1 WAN and 4 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology
Number of USB Ports Two (2) USB ports—one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port
Key Features AC1750 WiFi—450+1300 Mbps† speeds
Ultimate wireless coverage for large homes Ideal for homes with 12 or more WiFi devices
Dual-Core 800 MHz processor delivers high-performance connectivity
USB 3.0 port —Up to 10x faster USB hard drive access
Two USB ports—Wirelessly access and share USB hard drive and printer
Ultimate connectivity for dual band WiFi devices like iPad® /iPhone5®
Security WiFi Protected Access® (WPA/WPA2—PSK)
Double firewall protection (SPI and NAT)
Denial-of-service (DoS) attack prevention
Processor 800MHz dual-core processor
Memory 128 MB flash and 256 MB RAM
Standards
Two (2) USB ports—one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port
IEEE® 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz
IEEE® 802.11 a/n/ac 5.0GHz
Five (5) 10/100/1000 (1 WAN and 4 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology

† Maximum wireless signal rate derived from IEEE standard 802.11 specifications. Actual data throughput and wireless coverage will vary.Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate and wireless coverage. Up to 1300 Mbps wireless speeds achieved on AC1750 when connecting to other 802.11ac 1300 Mbps devices. NETGEAR makes no express or implied representations or warranties about this product’s compatibility with any future standards.
USB 3.0 and dual core 800MHz processor are features on the R6300v2 hardware only

[palmboy5]

I have the Netgear R7000 and it works rather well too. Put DD-WRT on mine though so don't know how stable the stock firmware is.