SATA Drive only reading 100 MB/s instead of 3GB/s

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matrimforever

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Jan 9, 2012
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Hi,

I have a WD 500 GB SATA drive that im trying to maximize the speeds with.
I have it jumpered to run at least at 1.5 GB/s but it runs at less that 100 MB according to HD Tune and CrystalMark. Model is WDC WD50 00AACS-00G8B. I also have an older PATA drive, but that wouldn't hinder the SATA drives performance would it? It's a 250 GB WDC WD2500JB-00G



Mobo: Gigabyte M61P-S3
Win 7 Ultimate

This MOBO is tricky in that the BIOS has no option to change to AHCI but instead says something like Enable All Controllers SATA 1. PCWizard shows AHCI as enabled though.

Why isn't it running faster? What can I do to increase its performance?
 
Solution
choucove
First off, the hard drive you are using is a variable speed (5,400 rpm to 7,200 rpm) which means the maximum you are going to be getting on throughput anyways is going to be around 100 MB/s. That's perfectly in line with what you seem to be getting. The speed on the actual port interfaces is not measured in GB/s but Gb/s or Gigabits. There are eight bits in one byte, so the theoretical maximum of a SATA 3Gb/s interface is about 375 MB/s. Your physical hard drive is actually your limiting factor, as it takes an enterprise SAS hard drive or SSD to reach that speed or greater per interface.
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matrimforever

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Doesn't work on an AMD MOBO :/

I've also done this:

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the pane on the right side, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
 
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choucove

choucove

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May 13, 2011
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First off, the hard drive you are using is a variable speed (5,400 rpm to 7,200 rpm) which means the maximum you are going to be getting on throughput anyways is going to be around 100 MB/s. That's perfectly in line with what you seem to be getting. The speed on the actual port interfaces is not measured in GB/s but Gb/s or Gigabits. There are eight bits in one byte, so the theoretical maximum of a SATA 3Gb/s interface is about 375 MB/s. Your physical hard drive is actually your limiting factor, as it takes an enterprise SAS hard drive or SSD to reach that speed or greater per interface.
 
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Solution
M

matrimforever

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matrimforever

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So even though it claims 3Gb/s along with the MOBO saying it supports that, are you're saying that it won't reach 375 Mb/s either?

 
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matrimforever

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Nevermind I found it on the HD fact link I gave above, where it says a Max Rate of 108 Mb/s, lol. In tests I get at Max 94 Mb/s which I guess is pretty normal. Guess I had in my mind a different speed since it was SATA, thanks all.
 
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choucove

choucove

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Yep, your traditional mechanical hard drives average around 100 MB/s to 125 MB/s in throughput, that's just the maximum speed at which they can run. Since the hard drive you have is a Green drive (variable or low RPM) you are going to get on the very low side of that. The interface connection speed (SATA 3Gb/s) is just the maximum transfer throughput supported by that interface not the actual speed of all drives connected with it.
 
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