Asus Z87m with Samsung 840 Pro running half speed

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archetas

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Sep 26, 2007
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Hi all,

It's been 10+ years since I did a build and SSD's are new to me. I've put together an Asus Z87m Plus with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 and I'm getting 1/2 all the rated speeds across the board. I've crawled the forums for answers not exactly finding one, but I'm suspecting it's a driver issue. Here's the obvious stuff I've checked.

-The SSD is on a Sata 6GB connection. I have tried other Sata ports and another cable and even swapped a HDD with the SSD. The SSD is currently device 0 (SATA6G_1 MB connector).

-C states have been disabled in the bios.

-Bios is set to AHCI mode. I'm running Bios 1003 published 1/14/2014.

-I ran the Intel INF driver utility to update chipset drivers.

-Trim is enabled (DisableDeleteNotify=0)

-Samsung Magician 4.3 has been run, the firmware updated (ver DXM05B0Q), over provisioning enabled, OS optimized for performance. The 256GB drive is only about 10% full.

-I have performed all windows 7 (x64) updates (maybe the problem).

-I do have Symantec Antivirus installed (another possible problem)

What's fishy is Magician reported at one point that my drive was only 3GB/s. I reconnected the drive and rebooted, and magician then restated it was 6GB/s. Performance tests still rate it like it's 3GB/s. I have installed Intel RST, which upon multiple reboots and drive reconnections consistently reports my SSD as a 3GB/s device whereas my HDD is consistently reported as a 6 GB/s device. The other semi-confusing issue for me is that my Intel driver is listed as a SCSI driver.

I'm open to any/all suggstions including driver suggestions. I'm only a few days into this problem and still reading/crawling forums between work and family. I have seen a few similar posts, but there hasn't been any followup or resolution or it was simply a sata 3gb issue. I hope I'm not asking a silly or obvious question. I'm currently at work and I will try disabling the antivirus when I get home, but the fact that RST thinks it's a 3GB drive is what's pointing me towards a driver issue.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.


 
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Ok. Closing out. The problem was a driver issue. Maybe it was the order of operations on the install, but Intel RTS gave me nothing but problems. I discovered it was running on my Alienware just fine when I did a reformat on it. After installing the RTS on the Alienware I then installed the Samsung drivers and the Alienware was right back at the same high specs. So, I did the same thing on the new build - RTS, then the Samsung. Now my performance is where it should be, around 550's and 90k's. With RAPID mode, per Magician I'm getting:

Seq Read: 1218
Seq Write: 609
Ran Read: 130482
Rand Write: 94191

I don't do this enough to shed any real light on it, and I probably didn't provide enough information from the start. I'm just...
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archetas

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Regarding the chipset drivers, I ran the Intel INF driver utility. It performed updates, but this was also before I ever verified my speeds. I believe my chipset drivers have been updated, but I will add it to the list of things to check this evening.
 
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Dereck47

Dereck47

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Try these and see if it helps:

1.) Make sure your 840 Pro is on the latest firmware version DXM05B0Q.
2.) Update your motherboard's BIOS. If your O/S is Win 7 64-bit then update to version 2.00.02 which was released today.
3.) After you update your BIOS connect your drive (in AHCI mode) to port SATA6G_1. See page 1-6 of your motherboard manual for the location of the ports.
 
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archetas

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Dereck,

1) The latest Samsung firmware 1.0 DXM05B0q is installed
2) Asus Bios was updated. I will look into the newest version.
3) The SSD drive is currently installed on SATA6G_1. I will ensure connection after the bios update.

Thank you for the information.
 
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archetas

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Skimming another post, I see another user found resolution in the BIOS. Evidently on his ASUS board bios, even though AHCI was enabled, he was receiving 3GB/s. After he enabled the Hot Pluggable bios feature (AHCI and Hot Plug were listed independently) he started receiving the full 6GB speeds. I'll check my settings and test that as well then post. I remember seeing the option and thinking "I don't need to hot swap".
 
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archetas

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So, update:

I re-disabled C states and turned on hot swap for the SSD. No effect.

I removed the driver and let it re-install. Evidently, a SCSI driver got loaded for my SSD and two HDD's. I removed intel rapid storage and the driver from my device, reboot, and my benches jumped.

Using Magician, scores went
from 250MB/s Sequential ready & write, and 40k Random IOPS read & write -
To 557 read, 379 write, 75k Read IOPS, 30k Write IOPS.

So, a bit more realistic but write IOPS dropped. I figure with the correct updated drivers, I should be there. So I go to the Asus website to find a good set of intel drivers, which should rock the drive I figure. I end up reinstalling the rapid store, and it puts it back to SCSI drivers and the scores drop again. Right now I'm searching for some updated intel sata drivers. RAPID mode is still disabled since I know the approx scores I should get before RAPID mode was released for the 840 pro.

Sorry for the lack of screen shots, using the laptop while I dink around.
 
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archetas

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So, I'm still messing around with drivers on my new Asus. Here are my current results and a comparison:

Asus with Sata 6GB/s
Seq Read: 558
Seq Write: 387
Ran Read: 78552
Rand Write: 44750

Alienware with Sata 3GB/s
Seq Read: 406
Seq Write: 381
Ran Read: 62056
Rand Write: 53298

While the Asus performance isn't bad, it still scores below my Sata 3GB/s drive in some cases, and lower than the benchmarks I was expecting. I'm happy with the performance on the Alienware, but I was (and still am) expecting more on the Asus. I'll play with the drivers and bios more, then get into the SSD tweaking guides unless someone has suggestions on where to look first. :)
 
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A

archetas

Distinguished
Sep 26, 2007
15
0
18,520
Ok. Closing out. The problem was a driver issue. Maybe it was the order of operations on the install, but Intel RTS gave me nothing but problems. I discovered it was running on my Alienware just fine when I did a reformat on it. After installing the RTS on the Alienware I then installed the Samsung drivers and the Alienware was right back at the same high specs. So, I did the same thing on the new build - RTS, then the Samsung. Now my performance is where it should be, around 550's and 90k's. With RAPID mode, per Magician I'm getting:

Seq Read: 1218
Seq Write: 609
Ran Read: 130482
Rand Write: 94191

I don't do this enough to shed any real light on it, and I probably didn't provide enough information from the start. I'm just happy I got it resolved. Thanks to those who helped.
 
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