So I bought an SSD, Is there anything I need to change to maximize it's performance and life?

[FueledByBacon]

I purchased an MX100 128gb, I didn't go for the 256GB model even though it's performance seems to be much better over the 128GB version, I am pairing it with a Western Digital 1TB Blue Drive for storage. I researched numerous tweaks and changes to make within Windows 8.1 to increase it's speed, reduce write cycles and increase it's life overall. I've decided to do the following, is there any reason I shouldn't do any of the below and have I missed something that you believe to be vital. 
 
- Fresh Install of OS (without wiping OS on the HD so I can migrate some data over)
- Move User Folders to HDD
- Move games to HDD (except for one or two titles which I will keep on the SSD for loading)
- Move downloads to HDD

- Move Temp Files to HDD
- Disable prefetch / superfetch
- Disable automatic defrag (Automatically disabled from what I understand when Windows detects an SSD as the boot drive, don't run manual defrags on the SSD for obvious reasons)
- Disable Indexing
- Check if TRIM is on (fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify)

- Reduce page file to 1GB (1024mb)

- Disable Hibernation

- High Performance Power Plan

- Enable Write Caching, leave the flush setting to default.

- Disable System Restore

- Move Recycle Bin to HDD / Disable Completely

- Disable Reliability Monitor (schtasks.exe /change /disable /tn \Microsoft\Windows\RAC\RacTask)

 

 

Is there anything I missed, would you recommend any changes to what I am planning on doing or do you believe any of it is unneeded, I personally do not believe indexing, pre/supefetch and the recycle bin tweak are needed but I'm completely new to using SSD's on desktops and don't want to end up doing anything that will kill my SSD.

 

[Jerakl]

AFAIK defragging SSDs is bad for then.

[Akolyte]

Yeah, if your on 8.1  Turn defragging back on,  and turn system restore off. Theres a known bug where Windows will defrag your SSD is system protection is enabled on that SSD. So, just make system images every so often and you'll be good as gold. 

 

Windows 8.1 doesn't defragment your SSD, it retrims the SSD allowing the SSD to become faster and have longer lifespan. 

If you want to trim manually you can too. 

[theloveablemoose]

I wouldn't make your page file that small, was playing shadow of mordor today and 4gb of mine was being used so i would increase that.

[FueledByBacon]

AFAIK defragging SSDs is bad for then.

 

Which is why I am disabling the automatic defragmenting and installing an application to manually defrag the HDD and ignore the SSD.

 

 

I wouldn't make your page file that small, was playing shadow of mordor today and 4gb of mine was being used so i would increase that.

 

Remove the page file and see what happens, from what I've experienced it doesn't seem to cause any issues with my previous install but removing it completely causes issues with some older applications. With enough RAM the page file isn't overly useful, once I upgrade to 16GB again I'll be removing it completely as this single 8GB module isn't going to cut it for me.

[Intervalence]

Which is why I am disabling the automatic defragmenting and installing an application to manually defrag the HDD and ignore the SSD.

 

That's unnecessary... you can just disable defragging for the SSD, and allow windows to automatically defrag your HDD as usual 

[theloveablemoose]

Which is why I am disabling the automatic defragmenting and installing an application to manually defrag the HDD and ignore the SSD.

 

 

 

Remove the page file and see what happens, from what I've experienced it doesn't seem to cause any issues with my previous install but removing it completely causes issues with some older applications. With enough RAM the page file isn't overly useful, once I upgrade to 16GB again I'll be removing it completely as this single 8GB module isn't going to cut it for me.

I'm not saying put at double your current capacity (which windows recommends for some reason) just increase it a bit so you have a cushion. A couple gigs taken up by pagefile is less of an inconvenience then freezing no?

[FueledByBacon]

I'm not saying put at double your current capacity (which windows recommends for some reason) just increase it a bit so you have a cushion. A couple gigs taken up by pagefile is less of an inconvenience then freezing no?

 

I guess but I haven't had any issues with freezing in the past with my Page File disabled, I'll try both but I suspect it won't make a difference when I get 16GB of RAM.

[TheProfosist]

You don't really have to do any of that really. All depends how many files you had in those folders.

Only thing I think you might have missed would have been disabling your page file pertaining you have enough ram. This is something I'd even do on a system with a HDD, actually it would have more of a effect there.

[TheProfosist]

I wouldn't make your page file that small, was playing shadow of mordor today and 4gb of mine was being used so i would increase that.

If you have enough ram you don't need one at all.

[MassiveEntropy]

TBH, I don't think that your SSD would die because of too many writes/reads before you replace it in a couple of years. I'm assuming (possibility of being very wrong) that you are not using your 128GB SSD as a portable drive, where you are constantly writing/reading, so I'd go as far as to say you don't really need to do basically any of that. 128GB SSD will more than likely be obsolete in 2-3 years, and if the size is not obsolete, then the speed will be. Also, at least for me, windows 8.1 auto-detected my SSD and it does not defrag it at all. Just saying, seems like way too much effort to preserve a SSD, since they seem to last longer than HDD. As a OS boot drive and some games, I think you would've been fine with just installing it, and not fiddling with every setting that could extend the lifetime. Take this with a grain of salt! 

[FueledByBacon]

TBH, I don't think that your SSD would die because of too many writes/reads before you replace it in a couple of years. I'm assuming (possibility of being very wrong) that you are not using your 128GB SSD as a portable drive, where you are constantly writing/reading, so I'd go as far as to say you don't really need to do basically any of that. 128GB SSD will more than likely be obsolete in 2-3 years, and if the size is not obsolete, then the speed will be. Also, at least for me, windows 8.1 auto-detected my SSD and it does not defrag it at all. Just saying, seems like way too much effort to preserve a SSD, since they seem to last longer than HDD. As a OS boot drive and some games, I think you would've been fine with just installing it, and not fiddling with every setting that could extend the lifetime. Take this with a grain of salt! 

 

It's going to be my OS Drive, I'll probably just end up installing basic applications and the OS on it with one or two games and then just making sure it's not defragging (which should be done automatically by Windows when an SSD is detected) and move my desktop 'Stuff' folder to the HDD.