[jds63]

I am about to put a SSD in my PC to replace a HDD.

 

I purchased this SSD Drive  Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive.

 

PC is set to AHCI in BIOS.

 

Question, when i originally bought my PC it had Intel Management Engine installed.

 

I have been reading mixed reviews about reinstalling this with a SSD Drive, some say don't, some say do.

 

PC is ASUS Essentio CM6730    ASUS P8H61-M-Pro motherboard   Intel i5 Processor

 

When i originally bought the PC it came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, i upgraded it to Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit and at that time installed Intel Management software, ASUS also recommended i do it too.

 

When this is installed it runs on boot.

 

Question is will it affect the SSD's performance, do i need it now ?

 

Also concerned about the SATA controllers, will they be compatible with the Crucial SSD someone told me it should be fine, i posted an image of my Device Manager to see what i have there.

I have updated drivers for SATA from ASUS.

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by jds63, 01 August 2014 - 10:20 PM.

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Hello jds63,

 

Your MB has an Intel chipset so I suggest that you leave the Intel Management Engine installed and then check out the benchmarks for the device at the excellent article here and compare them to what you are achieving.

 

The SSD should be fine with the SATA drivers provided by ASUS for the MB, remember that it is not for Crucial to dictate what MB drivers need to be installed only that their product is compatible with the drivers and other software that it may be expected to use when connected to your ASUS MB.

[phillpower2]

Hello jds63,

 

Your MB has an Intel chipset so I suggest that you leave the Intel Management Engine installed and then check out the benchmarks for the device at the excellent article here and compare them to what you are achieving.

 

The SSD should be fine with the SATA drivers provided by ASUS for the MB, remember that it is not for Crucial to dictate what MB drivers need to be installed only that their product is compatible with the drivers and other software that it may be expected to use when connected to your ASUS MB.

[jds63]

Hey Phill thanks for replying !

 

Question also is which was hard for me and my knowledge to understand is what is and what does Intel Management Engine Interface do ?

 

Good article i bookmarked it for future reference, some of the specs in CrystalInfo looked German though but i get it. I have read articles like this before and other types in my research of this SSD.

 

I did my homework about this SSD before making a decision, it does get good ratings for speed and of course price which attracted me  to this one because i was not looking to spend a lot. Purchased it for $211.99 U.S. Dollars free shipping.

 

Why does it say this ?, seems no disc's (drivers) come with it. The Crucial CT512MX100SSD1 512 GB MLC Solid State Drive with Marvell controller.

Just meaning that's what Crucial wants you to use as you said.

 

This is something more i am learning by doing it.

 

Is CrystalDiskInfo better then using HD Tune Pro to check new SSD ?

Heard some bad, some good about CrystalDiskInfo, like spyware added too.

 

I prefer to do a Clean install rather then a disk system image, when i do i flash the Controller Drivers in during the clean custom install of Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit,  from a USB Flash Drive.

Since i did read somewhere that somebody said you also need to format the drive before use, can do this during a clean install in Windows 8.1.

Everything i have is backed up on external drives and have OS disc.

Edited by jds63, 02 August 2014 - 02:22 PM.

[phillpower2]

Question also is which was hard for me and my knowledge to understand is what is and what does Intel Management Engine Interface do ?

 

 

There is no one answer for this, IME will benefit some users but not others, it can allow remote access to your computer by others (not in my lifetime) which is promoted as a support tool, one reason that it is wise to install with a new build is the fact that it looks after the Intel drivers, most important when you have an Intel chipset.

 

Why does it say this ?, seems no disc's (drivers) come with it. The Crucial CT512MX100SSD1 512 GB MLC Solid State Drive with Marvell controller.

Just meaning that's what Crucial wants you to use as you said.

 

 

Plug and Play for one reason but for another it is because Crucial (and others) have tested their products with more than one chipset provider so as to go as far as reasonably practicable to ensure compatibility with other products, some MBs btw can have two different chipsets on them such as Intel and Marvel with the Intel M2 chipset predominantly allowing for SSDs etc. 

 

Is CrystalDiskInfo better then using HD Tune Pro to check new SSD ?

Heard some bad, some good about CrystalDiskInfo, like spyware added too.

 

 

Until you have a stable computer running just as you like it put this on the backburner for now, when appropriate I will ask iammykyl to drop by to advise on such things as benchmarking etc.

 

From Windows 7 onwards the storage device is formatted as part of the installation procedure, fine with a new device but I personally make a point of first using DBan on used drives when upgrading any computer.

[jds63]

Yes i have read that about IMEI using remote access, about only one of the things i understood it being for, plus fact of Intel Drivers, chipsets.

I think for me maybe once i had some tech do remote assistance in to my PC, later my biggest concern was where did software go that they put into my system to do this so i can get rid of it, afterwards.

 

I keep remote assistance disabled, i see it as a security risk. This Intel M E I is a high load on my CPU, runs all the time from startup, but i do have 16GB RAM.

Also have Intel Chipset Drivers i will need to reinstall too, can't recall them being installed with Intel Management Engine software, have these chipset drivers seperately from ASUS site.

 

Well i will go by your word that my Intel and Asmedia controllers and drivers are fine with this SSD. The time will tell when i do it.

 

Right now i have been using HD Tune Pro 5.50 for my HDD, which i know over time can become more problematic then SSD's to need to check them, this was the function i was more asking about not the benchmarking.

I do have AIDA64 Extreme i like this software a lot.

 

Like i said in previous post, i will be doing a clean custom install of Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit, i will have option before installing to format the SSD drive, i read this in a few places online to do it.

 

Right now i am preparing my system and all backups to do this transition to the SSD. I know won't be so hard, hey i changed a Heatsink once, can it be harder. Doubtful. 

Thanks Phill!!

Edited by jds63, 03 August 2014 - 01:43 PM.

[phillpower2]

Sounds like you have the task well in hand 

 

You are most welcome btw jd and any further questions along the way let us know   

[jds63]

Yes i feel so now too, if i do have any question now, during and after the task is complete i will use this thread.

 

I am never afraid get my hands dirty, seems hardware is one of the many things i enjoy doing ,installing, figuring it out and troubleshooting on a PC over the years.

 

Thanks Phill i will see how it goes and reply back !

Edited by jds63, 03 August 2014 - 03:51 PM.

[phillpower2]

You are most welcome jd 

[jds63]

Unfortunetly for reasons i have this topic open too, for similar questions.   http://www.geekstogo...g-hdd-with-ssd/

 

Should both be left open do i need to reply back to both with my solutions ?

[phillpower2]

Would you like the other topic closed and only continue here.

[jds63]

Well this one stated Intel Management Engine and that one stated Replacing the HDD to the SSD.

 

Similar things are being mentioned here from that thread.

 

Does it matter ? I think of it also in ways of helping others who read this topic too.

 

OP helping on other thread was busy could not respond. Needed more advice on a few subjects to this matter.

 

It doesn't matter to me which one i can finish with.

 

When it comes to me i will do more research, if i can not get answers i seek here to be able to do this project myself.

Might be called over anxious, but would hold off if i was truly stuck.  

Edited by jds63, 03 August 2014 - 04:24 PM.

[phillpower2]

Link to this topic included in the previous thread and then the topic closed so you will not receive any further replies there.

 

Going offline now as it is late here and I have an early start tomorrow.

[jds63]

Thanks again, yes you are ahead of me.

[jds63]

Received Item today, wow, that was fast as usual, i took the free shipping 4-7 business days and only took 2, love this company been doing business with them for years now.

 

Let you know on this post how it went and if i have any issues first, i will ask.TY

[jds63]

Update. Completed job installing the SSD to replace the HDD. Did a clean install of Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit.

 

Everything went well, bracket i bought to install in 3.5" bay,  i needed to drill a second hole on each side of bay due to holes did not line up.

But no problem as was made of hard plastic.

 

Still in process of finishing installing more software i have.

Took time for all of Windows updates i needed to put back in.

 

System is running good, seems fast although i have not benchmarked it yet.

I see some people mention a faster start up on there PC, not sure if it was a cold boot or a restart.

 

From moment i click restart till the Lock Screen came up it was around 38 seconds. Swore i saw some said it was much less. Guess could matter to what has to load at start up.

I do not have a lot of start up items enabled, could be hardware too.

 

Nothing went wrong with doing this, no issues what so ever.

 

Wondering what types of settings need to be left on or turned off, to improve life and performance of the SSD.

Research on some of this is 50/50.

 

Turned off Hibernation, because i do not use it, saed me a couple of Gigs.

 

Some research is saying to disable system restore, because of constant writes, every time you install a program or update, make any changes to system.

But i rely on system restore to save me from mistakes.  Also read about turning off SuperPrefetch.

 

Search indexing, some say do not need it because SSD'S are faster then HDD. Some say certain searches may take longer with it disabled, some systems did not work well. I do have an External HDD hooked up all the time i know i can set indexing just for this in properties on the Drive.

Research says,  Indexing was originally intended to provide quick access to a file on a hard drive (9.2ms access time).  When using an SSD (.02ms access time), indexing really serves no purpose but to increase the writes to the SSD. Which read anything that keeps performing writes a lot (everyday) on SSD not so good for life of it. 

 

Defrag, most say of course do not need to defrag a SSD. Although research says Windows will not defrag a SSD. I read Windows knows if a drive is a SSD (Windows will ask for a drive's rotational speed, and SSDs will report a speed of zero, in which case Windows will know that it's a SSD and will not do anything). Windows 8 or 8.1 Optimizes the drives, with SSD i believe optimize the TRIM leaving this active.

 

Schedule of "Defragment and Optimize Drives" run as it detects SSD automatically and issues TRIM at idle time to let SSD finish its work. There is nothing to worry about any settings for SSD under Windows 8.

TRIM is enable automatically on Windows 7/8.

 

Here's another - Advanced write caching what about this ? Some reads talk about changes to this.

 

Also read something about adjusting Pagefile for SSD perofrmance, now read this has to do with Virtual Memory, good for systems with not much RAM.

 

Now i am not familiar with tampering or changing advanced write caching/ write caching, search indexing and adjusting pagefile to do anything till i can get more answers here.

Edited by jds63, 05 August 2014 - 09:26 PM.