SSD: Poor Boot Times and Low WEI

[idata]

I just got an Intel X-25V and I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it. It's currently taking up about 8GB. I've hardly installed any software other than the drivers and firefox.

When I ran that Windows performance test, my score came out to be 5.9, which is due to the SSD. I don't remember the numbers exactly, but I'll try to remember them:

• RAM random access memory - 7.5

• CPU central processing unit - 7.5

• Hard disk - 5.9

• General graphics performance on the desktop 7.4

• 3D graphics capability - 7.4

I haven't run any benchmarks. I have done everything on this page except for RAMDisk. I tried that, but it caused too many problems so I installed it. Even though, I got the info from OCZ forum, it still applies to SSDs:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-amp-Utiliti...*

So, I:

installed the latest firmware

bios and OS set to AHCI

SSD is connected through SATA Port 1

and lots of other tweaks that are found on the page above

I used this software to determine my restart/boot time:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/720-restart-time.html

When I used it, the result was 48 seconds. That number represents the restart time, which includes shutting down and starting up. It took my computer 7 seconds to shutdown, which means it took about 41 seconds, give or take, to boot up. I read about other people who said that it only takes their computer 12 seconds to boot up. Others have said about 17, and a few even said 6 seconds. One of the main purposes for me getting the SSD was so that I'd be able to boot up my computer within 15 seconds, like everyone else with SSDs.

As for the WEI, I thought that was low because the Intel's SSD X-25V had low read and write speeds. But others with the same SSD have reported getting scores around 7.7 and 7.8.

Someone mentioned changing the driver to RST (post # 9 and # 10 on this page):

http://communities.intel.com/thread/11286?tstart=0

So, do you people have any suggestions as to how I can improve my SSD to be like yours, faster, speedier, more impressive, and hopefully, so I can get my money's worth. So far, I fee like I got a "slightly" faster hard drive.

This is my current setup:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate CPU: Intel Core i7 860 MB: MSI P55 GD80 RAM: Gskill 4 GB

PSU: Corsair 650TX

Case: Antec Sonata Elite

Video: XFX 5770 Sound: integrated HD: Samsung F2 500GB (storage) Samsung F3 1 TB (storage) Intel SSD X-25V (OS installed on SSD)

Update: This one applies to Windows Vista, but he says that when he disabled his 7200 RPM drives and only used his SSD, that cut his boot time by 10 seconds. Does the same apply to Windows 7?

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaperformance/thread/ea530723-c3fe-4817-9de1-68c...

Update 2: Well, by upgrading the RST driver, I managed to increase the WEI of the hard drive (SSD) from 5.9 to 7.7. Now my WEI score is 7.4. But I'm still not satisfied with the boot time.

[idata]

The boot IS highly dependent on your hardware, their drivers, other software you have installed, the network and probably some other things.

In my case, I just timed about 8s to shutdown, and once the Windows boot logo appeared, about 26s to the login screen, mid 30s to explorer probably working and about 51s until the network was working, as noted by the various gadgets that need network data updating.

I have every chipset SATA port in use, the JMicron SATA controller active, a USB hub in my monitor, a GTX260, a network port with two switches between this machine and the router, nine gadgets, mouse software, printer SW, MS Essential anti-virus. This all needs to be initialized.

As for the disk thing, I'm not sure, but I expect that Windows has to enumerate every disk attached to the system before it continues from that particular phase. It doesn't know which storage driver instance is going to come up with the boot drive, and there may be necessary things like paging files on other drives.

If you want to find your lowest boot time, install Windows fresh with only your SSD, as much HW as possible disabled in the BIOS, only a mouse and keyboard attached via USB and see what you get.

[idata]

Thanks for the info. You're last suggestion about unplugging everything sounds tempting, but I just spent a couple of days getting everything in order, and that's after I installed the WIndows 7 three times due to prior problems.

Damn, all those people/customer reviews misled me. They all said that it took 17 seconds or so to boot up their computer, but they weren't talking about the moment you push the power button to the moment Windows 7 finishes loading all the programs and settles down. Still, I guess it's partially my fault. I knew that the those first screens that appear had nothing to do with SSD, but I guess I just didn't want to admit it. Just the thought of being able to boot up my computer from beginning (hit power button) to the very end (CPU settles down) within 17 seconds -sounded so tempting. But there are other advantages to the SSD, it seems "slightly" faster, I guess I was just hoping for more.

[idata]

HDDErase 3.3

[idata]

How is erasing my drive going to help?