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I just bought an Intel X-25M 80Gb which I am planning to use as a system disk on my desktop computer.

I'm installing Win 7(64), but I've heard there are things one should set up before I go ahead and install. Something in the BIOS?

I've also heard that there are thing to tweak in Windows, like turning of the swap-file or something, so I don't "use up" the disk as fast by constantly writing it.

Could someone point me in the right direction of which steps I should go through before (and after) installing things om my disk, to ensure maximum performance and lifetime?

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If you use an Intel SSD, see this http://lifehacker.com/5639120/intel-solid+state-drive-toolbox-optimizes-your-pc-for-ssd-usage

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SuperUser is meant for a question to be answered by the knowledge of the Answerer. Just pasting a link isn't what is strived by the SU community. Talk about experience you have, or knowledge that you have on the topic. Sharing links is great, but with the backup of some thought to the answer. – KronoS Sep 24 '10 at 20:15
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Disagree. A useful, relevant link is perhaps not worthy of multiple upvotes, but it can be helpful and certainly isn't harmful. – CarlF Sep 24 '10 at 20:29
Sometimes link does the best job of answering the question, besides copy paste is frowned upon here also. I posted my relevant personal experience on another thread and it was deleted. I think some people here is all they do is to criticize. There is just no winning with some people here, but then again that is Not why I am here. – Moab Sep 25 '10 at 1:07
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Turned out to be just what I needed :) – erikric Sep 26 '10 at 20:54
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KronoS, the second link you give is to a totally different type of answer, endorsing software and quoting the manufacturer's promo copy for it. What Moab did was recommend a useful informational link. Not the same. – CarlF Sep 27 '10 at 12:36
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Although I don't own a SSD drive, I'm pretty sure that installing windows 7x64 or x86 is the same as installing onto a regular SATA drive. There is no "prepping" needed besides possibly a low level format (although this may only be needed on regular disk drives). As far as "tweaking" goes, you'll need to make sure that TRIM is enabled on the disk. This makes sure that all of the memory cells are in use and distributes the writing to all the cells so that one cell doesn't go bad faster than the others. Here is an article on why TRIM is so important. This SuperUser answer describes how to determine if TRIM is running on Windows 7.

After reading this article from Tom's Hardware, it appears that Windows 7 takes care of everything for you.

When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.

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