Will you upgrade? That is the question...

[Mustang]

SSD Finale

Off topic

Only a 30-day free trial. The built-in Defragger in Windows is actually a form of 'Diskeeper Lite' (very Lite!) for want of a better description. There are other free defraggers out there though and there is a Diskeeper Lite version for download: Download Diskeeper Lite free .
Never tried it though so not too sure of its features.

This is the final thing Corsair had to say on SSD optimization:

TRIM is built into Windows 7. So as long as you did a clean install with it, it is automatically on. Also you do not need extra programs. Our controller also has built in garbage collection and works very well with TRiM to avoid degradation from file deletion. While 3rd party programs may assist in SSD performance, more recent SSDs like yours no longer need assistance to run well compared to first generation SSDs, which did not have garbage collection in the controller.

As long as you do not RAID, your SSD will use TRIM. The RST drivers are there when you do raid, and at this time, Intel does not officially support TRIM when RAID is used for SSDs.

My SSD is a Corsair SATA3 120GB Force model.

Given the longevity of later generation SSDs, the number of write/re-writes is not an issue. Couple this with the self-optimizing of garbage collection in collaboration with Windows TRIM, and there appears to be no need of 3rd party optimizers.

However, to cover all bases, I will still run Diskcleaner free trial in a few months time, and see what their analyzer has to say about the state of the SSDs.

Thanks for your help on this issue. Cheers M

 

[Coke Robot]

Well, I just installed my first SSD! Not on my system, but for a friend's little netbook since the hard drive epically died. All I have to say is, WOW. :shock: Definitely goes to show that hard drives are literally reverse bottle necks for our modern systems. A little 1.67GHz Intel Atom processor can boot up Windows 8 faster than my hard drive based system with a dual core AMD Athlon at 3.8GHz. It's wicked!

 

[Dave76]

SSDs are an impressive performance upgrade.

 

[mart4494]

Well, I just installed my first SSD! Not on my system, but for a friend's little netbook since the hard drive epically died. All I have to say is, WOW. :shock:

Made a decision to upgrade my Samsung X460 laptop with a SSD. It was max'd out on ram so the decision was to eBay it and buy a new one or fit a SSD which I have in my desktop. Took the SSD route and saved several hundreds of $$$. Don't think I would have got the superior performance with a new laptop that I've experienced with the Samsung + SSD.

 

[Dark Reality]

Tentatively voting "Maybe"; first instinct was to vote "No".

First, I wanted to like the Start Screen. It's not a terrible idea. It has two problems that I can see. First, it opens by default as if the user will want to start there. This is incorrect; at least I see it as counterintuitive. Second, the apps we use every day are second or perhaps third class citizens to the Metro apps and tiles, most of which I don't need. The music app would be okay if it used album covers from my actual collection. Seeing Carly Rae Jepsen, Skrillex, and Black Eyed Peas insults me, frankly. How about highlighting the music I actually listen to? Plus, it's fullscreen and there's no way I can control it while doing anything else. The video and photo apps are just as bad. IE 10 Metro is well done enough, but everything being forced fullscreen is wrong. Might as well adapt Android or iOS to work on the desktop. I feel that smartphone-style apps can enhance a desktop OS, but they should not take it over. Second was something my wife said to me. That had I not informed her that she could hit the Start key and start typing, she never would have found the Calculator. That is a massive fail right there. My wife's no dummy, but neither is she an expert. Her opinion on Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac OS X can be summed up by "As long as Firefox works the same". And for the record, it didn't in Windows 8. I installed it, and it wasn't added to the Start screen on her side. I've installed a bunch of stuff on my side that does not show up in her account. I can add it, but should I have to?

I think the retail version of Windows 8 will fix some of these minor issues. If it doesn't, it's destined to fail -- even if it gets its act together in SP1 like Vista did, well, look at how Vista is still stigmatized and Vista is actually good now. It's still in the same boat as Windows ME, which has never been good.

I want to like Windows 8, but two things need to happen. First, give us an option when we make our account to start on the desktop or the Start Screen. Second, all programs go on the Start Screen by default. It's certainly big enough. Let us resize their tiles, set up notifications in them (or not), and even group them, kind of like a home screen. And add controls to the tiles. The music tile should at the very least let me pause without having to go into the Music app. And the music tile should control whatever media player is playing, and display its current track with artist/band name and album art. Windows 8 can be really good, but I'm not sure Microsoft sees it.

 

[Mustang]

Off Topic:

Well, I just installed my first SSD! Not on my system, but for a friend's little netbook since the hard drive epically died. All I have to say is, WOW. :shock: Definitely goes to show that hard drives are literally reverse bottle necks for our modern systems. A little 1.67GHz Intel Atom processor can boot up Windows 8 faster than my hard drive based system with a dual core AMD Athlon at 3.8GHz. It's wicked!

Like yourself, when I first installed my SSD, all I could say was Wow! I had read some bad reports about earlier generation, and was hesitant to pay the high price back then. But with prices dropping to about a third of the original cost, and the problems of wear and optimization resolved, I'd never go back now. I use an external USB drive for storage, even though I doubt I'd ever fill 120GB.

As discussed in earlier post, decided to buy Condusiv Diskeeper specifically for optimizing SSD, and at $29 consider it money well spent. It does have extra features such as Intelli Write which prevents 'fragmentation' before it occurs. And various others.

Ontopic:

Re upgrading, I'm still not sure. I will buy the upgrade disc, but whether I'll use it as my primary OS is debatable. It definitely does seem crisper than Win7, but at the same time overall seems clumsier to use.

When Vista came out it was a whole new architecture over XP, and still had a lot of advantages, like superior disk manager, etc, despite the early set backs. Then when Win7 came out it topped Vista and XP in all departments. Aside from Metro, which is good for certain functions, Win8 doesn't have seem to have that quantum leap over Win7.

To be honest, I just put an SSD in my old Vista machine, and there doesn't seem to be a heck of a lot of difference anymore in performance between it and Win7. However, it still lacks a lot of Win7 features and would only ever be backup OS.

I've got Classic Shell with direct boot to GUI enabled, so that gets me back to my preferences for boot up. Also have found most of the things that are in Win7, but in different places. But having done all that, it doesn't really seem a lot better than Win7. With the upgrade costing only $39 it's worth getting, but I prefer a full retail version and am not sure I'd spend the big money on it? Hmmmmm? Even so I'll keep working away at it.

 

[Coke Robot]

Ok, as now the FINAL RTM code is released for trial use and such, will you upgrade? That is the question.

For me, still a resounding YES!!!

I have white windows with a red taskbar and red Start Screen and everything seems to be working solid. Need to do a HUGELY THOROUGH defragging and consolidating, but overall everything is slick.

I personally wanted metro iconography and design in Explorer and Control Panel, as to unite the WHOLE OS as one design. I'll settle for the dated Aero iconography, but oh well...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Was EXTREMELY SCEPTICAL at first but I'm coming round rather like (any Biblical scholars = "Conversion on the Road to Damasacus" sort of equivalent)

It actually DOES require to to organise your work in a totally different way but once you do it it's far more logical and intuitive.

For example there's no reason whatsoever to access applications via the the actual application menu for example there's no reason to keep EXCEL in the MS Office group if you run excel quite frequently in conjunction with another application. The start menu usually gives you OFFICE ===>EXCEL
===>WORD
etc.

This might not actually be the best way of working -- Organise the metro tiles via FAVOURITES or most used.

I'm often using Notepad - not often enough to pin it to the taskbar but enough to group it into "Favourites" / "Most used" with other apps I use a lot such as EXCEL etc. You don't want to pin too much to the taskbar either or that becomes a bit too cluttered as well.


For example I've done this (won't be my final iteration but by a bit of trial and error you can organise it how you work) screenshot enc.

For example I use Notepad quite a lot as well as EXCEL -- so why shouldn't I have these together in the same group (which I've done) and rarely use PUBLISHER so I haven't even pinned it to the start menu.

Now we DO need to be able to customize the tiles themselves and the start screen background -- for example different Groups of tiles could have a different Background colour and the TEXT name group needs to have Bolder and possibly a different colour font.


(Guys at Deviant Art --there's a job for you).


You also need to be TOTALLY RUTHLESS with removing all surplus tiles that are created after a classic application standard install and remember you can pin folders to the start menu if you like.

I have also removed all the "supplied" metro apps -- I don't need Travel / Weather etc apps on a COMPUTER -- fine for a tablet or mobile phone which is where these belong.

Some users will find this change rather strange but you might find you actually LIKE it provided you get away from thinking you need to retain all your programs in APPLICATION order rather than frequency of use order.

Also organising tiles and removing excess stuff from a classical install will be a bit of work for most users -- not exactly an OOBE job.

Tools to do this easily should be made available and doubtless will once the "Real Users" start getting there hands on W8.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[FSeal]

Tentatively voting "Maybe"; first instinct was to vote "No". ...

I think you are spot on on all accounts...

Using the start screen is sort of like placing all your program icons on your desktop, then using Aero Peek to get to them. In fact, as ugly as that is it would actually be preferable in some ways to the metro start in flexibility.

BTW the RTM is exactly the same but the desktop is maybe even a little bit worse as it's been fully uglified (Grey window borders all over the place is horrendously ugly) Man I never wanted to see Windows 2000 grey on my desktop ever again

 

[Phone Man]

As of now, yes I will upgrade. All my hardware works but still need to install a lot more software to be sure they work OK. Now that the RTM is out we should see more and more drivers and software become more compatible with Win 8. Still playing with the Start Screen but its getting there.



Jim

 

[Mustang]

Any Biblical scholars = "Conversion on the Road to Damasacus" sort of equivalent.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo, just a thought, but remember Paul was "blind" for three days after the Dam road experience! Then he awoke from the dream and came to his senses! LOL!

Cheers M

 

[FSeal]

Any Biblical scholars = "Conversion on the Road to Damasacus" sort of equivalent.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo, just a thought, but remember Paul was "blind" for three days after the Dam road experience! Then he awoke from the dream and came to his senses! LOL!

Cheers M

So would you be applying that quote to Microsoft itself? Or the users?

 

[Frank1]

I think I read that for a limited time anyone can upgradefrom Windows 7 to 8 for $39.99. It might have been on this forum that I readit, but I'm not sure. Is that correct?If so, I'll probably upgrade.

 

[pparks1]

You can upgrade from XP, Vista or 7 to 8 for $39.99 until the end of Jan 2013.

 

[Mustang]

Any Biblical scholars = "Conversion on the Road to Damasacus" sort of equivalent.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo, just a thought, but remember Paul was "blind" for three days after the Dam road experience! Then he awoke from the dream and came to his senses! LOL!

Cheers M

So would you be applying that quote to Microsoft itself? Or the users?

Meant in the sense of 'blind' by upgrading ... and awoke to see the light not to use it!

 

[Frank1]

You can upgrade from XP, Vista or 7 to 8 for $39.99 until the end of Jan 2013.

Good!! I already have my wife's permission.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

I've been back watching the poll here lately since we are now into RTM releases. I'm a numbers guy. I've noticed in the count as of 8/23/12:

Total votes: 89 members

Yes: 43.82% -> 39 members
Maybe: 21.35% -> 19 members <- ????
No: 34.83% -> 31 members

 

[Frank1]

At first I said, "No". Then I said,"Maybe". Now I'm saying, "Yes." It's not because I thinkthat Windows 8 is so great. Actually, as of now I prefer 7. But, what the heck,doing the same old thing with your computer sometimes gets boring. At my ageit's good to exercise your brain as it is your body. Actually, at any agethat's a good idea.

 

[slacker3343]

I am upgrading to be on the ground floor of this, which ever way it goes I want to see it first had and it really isn't that bad.

 

[FSeal]

How about an option for "Yes I can't wait" separated from "Yes because I have to but not very thrilled"? A lot of us will HAVE to upgrade simply because we MUST take whatever MS is going to foist on the public. This'll be the VERY FIRST time in the history of windows that I am negatively enthused about an upgrade. If I mark "Yes" on the poll, that will unduly reflect positively on the situation. I know a lot of people in that position...