3. Install Windows 7
At this point, you may want to use the supplied Acronis True Image HD to image the new drive. We’re upgrading our Windows 7 installation to a 64-bit version, so we’ll do a clean install instead. Get your PC back to its previous condition, with all apps and drivers installed.
The Performance
Okay, it’s time for the acid test – how has the SSD improved performance?
First of all, let’s check out the Windows Experience Index, before and after the installation.
Whilst our overall score has gone up to 3.8 (perhaps the move to 64-bit helped the Atom processor improve by that 0.1!), it’s the Primary Hard Disk score we’re really interested here, which has improved from a score of 5.7 up to 6.8. All well and good, but how does that translate into real world performance?
| Task | Pre-Upgrade (secs) | Post-Upgrade (Secs) | Plus Tweaks (Secs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boot to Desktop | 52.4 | 38.3 | 34.5 |
| Open Media Center | 15.7 | 13.4 | 11.8 |
| Shutdown | 21.3 | 9.3 | 13.5 |
Overall, a positive improvement with a 26.9% reduction in boot time, and a 56.3% reduction in shutdown times. Application opening improved by 14.6%. The right hand column shows additional benefits gained from tweaking a number of Windows settings to further optimise performance. TweakTown has a great guide and a tool you can download, so you can tinker to your hearts content.
For the more scientific, the new drive speeds clocked in at 153.27 MB/Sec for reading and 59.5 MB/Sec writing.
Finally, a comparison of drive test results from pre and post upgrade.
Certainly there may well be faster drives available in the market than the Kingston V-Series, and performance gains also depend on the chipset and drivers available for your PC, but installing an SSD drive is certainly an easy way to speed up any PC and for those frustrated by long boot and shutdown times, it’s a sound investment.
