5 must-do SSD tweaks that supercharge your PC’s efficiency

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Tweaks that make a distinction!

Australian Editor, PCWorld Sep 29, 2025 3:30 am PDT

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In relation to efficiency tweaks, we have a tendency to consider slight adjustments we are able to make to our CPU or GPU settings that can make a distinction. But it surely’s additionally doable to squeeze extra efficiency out of your SSD. Listed below are some superior methods to get extra throughput out of your SSDs.

Preserve the capability to lower than 80 p.c full

SSDs are likely to decelerate significantly when greater than 80 p.c capability is used up. For that cause, you’re going to need to preserve capability under that restrict. For instance, when you have a 1TB SSD don’t have greater than 800GB of information loaded on it.

Regulate the facility plan in Home windows

Adjusting your PC’s energy plan prevents the SSD from going to sleep, eradicating the wait time for it to get up.

Half 1:

Kind select an influence plan into the search field and click on Enter. Choose the highest consequence.

Now select Change plan settings on the precise. Within the subsequent window choose Change superior energy settings.

Now change Flip off exhausting disk after to 0.

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Half 2:

This prevents the PCIe bus from downclocking, which barely impacts the SSD efficiency.

Underneath PCI Specific > Hyperlink State Energy Administration change the setting from Most Energy Administration to Off.

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Set up the most recent firmware replace

Firmware updates for SSD regularly take care of bugs and may also present efficiency updates. The basic instance of that is the 5B2QGXA7 firmware for Samsung 980 Professional SSDs. This replace stopped an issue the place the 980’s well being standing deteriorated to the purpose the place the SSD was unusable.

Be sure to know what utilities to make use of to obtain the most recent firmware updates. For Samsung SSDs you should utilize the Samsung Magician app.

Allow TRIM within the command immediate

TRIM helps the SSD clear junk information recurrently. A clear SSD naturally runs sooner. To examine if the TRIM is on sort cmd within the Search Bar and press Enter to open it. Now sort: fsutil habits question DisableDeleteNotify and click on Enter. If the result's 0, TRIM is enabled. If the result's 1, TRIM is disabled, and also you’ll need to flip it on.

You may manually activate TRIM by working the next command within the Command Immediate window: fsutil habits set DisableDeleteNotify 0.

Conversely, to disable TRIM on SSD, enter the command: fsutil habits set DisableDeleteNotify 1.

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Add a heatsink

In case your SSD doesn’t have a heatsink, you need to get one, particularly for those who’re working a PCIe Gen 4 or PCIe Gen 5 SSD. A heatsink can siphon warmth off the SSD and preserve it cooler. In case your SSD is working scorching, that can permit it to as soon as once more function in its commonplace temperature vary for optimum efficiency.

It’s doable to discover a title model heatsink for simply $20; or go for a lesser-known model and get an easier choice for $10.

Writer: Dominic Bayley, Australian Editor, PCWorld Based mostly in Australia, Dominic Bayley is a hardcore tech fanatic. His PCWorld focus is on PC gaming {hardware}: laptops, mice, headsets and keyboards.