SSD Vertex drive No Faster than HDD

How is the drive connected; As IDE, as AHCI, As Sata Raid (not part of a raid0/1). AHCI is the recommended driver, supoorts Trim.

How did you align the partition, Probably not a biggy but is helpfull.

While sequental read/writes are higher on SSD, this is not where the BIG performance gains are. The big performance gains are on Random reads and writes which is why they are so much faster as a boot/program drive.

Connected as IDE, partitioned in Windows Disk manager - just the basic partition method.
Thanks for replying.

If possible change it to AHCI, May need to make a change also in registry for win 7 to recognize.

run regedit.
- go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Msahci
- right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
- In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
- exit the registry editor.

To check alignment
To check the alignment of your SSD's partition, it is quite simple.
In windows, run msinfo32
click on: components => storage => disks
Look for your SSD and check the partition starting offset.
It needs to be divisible by 4096 (ie return a whole number when you divide by this) otherwise the alignment is not correct

Alternate method

Download Diskpar (Win XP program, but I prefer to Win 7 Diskpart) Just copy to C:\ (This is the root directory) Then Open a dos window w/admin Priv) and enter diskpar -I Again need to devide by 1024.

Have tried changing to AHCI in bios, but computer won't boot up, changed back to IDE and okay again,
did several times-change Sata compatability but still doesn't like AHCI setup

-checked it out and starting offset is 32,256, so comes to 7,875 after dividing.
How do I change the alignment ???

thanks for your help !

My bad, thought this was for win 7.

Have you run a program simular to crystaldiskmarks, if so how do your stats compare to Specifications (or against a review).
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Cry...


(1) Win XP does not support Trim, I believe OCZ has a program that you can run periodically (equiv to intel toolbox).

(2) as to alignment, I've never done it. The easiest way would be to partition the Drive using A windows 7 installation disk, custom install - just bomb out after Setting the Partition. VERIFY your BIOS has AHCI compatibility. ??? How is your HDD set up, if on same controller and not ahci you may have a catch 22. and would have to convert your operating system HDD to AHCI. inwhich case you would need the MB F6 AHCI drivers.

Have tried changing to AHCI in bios, but computer won't boot up,
changed back to IDE and okay again,
did several times-change Sata compatability but still doesn't like AHCI setup

-Have just re-partition drive with offset to 4096 rather than default
same result - still slow

If you install windows with ide mode, it will not boot when set to achi, achi is backward compatible , so you will have to reinstall windows as achi on your main drive else forget about it.

Run hd tune to see if it is performing up to par, run it on your main drive to compare.

The main reason for an ssd is access times, sure you get faster reads writes, but nothing in terms of oh my god, the oh my god part is how fast it can open something before read speed even is activated.

I recommend reinstalling windows on the ssd and make sure its achi mode. Also upgrade to Windows 7 or send the SSd back, if you can but usually they are exchange only.

^ aggree, best option is to use the SSD as a boot drive and switch to Win 7.

Then take your pair of HDD's and config in raid0. Raid0 does NOT improve Random read/writes, but does improve Sequential read/writes - for your large sequencial files. Would need to controllers on MB for this, one for the SATA Raid, and the other to set AHCI - for a given controller I believe it's one or the other.

It's not necessary to reinstall windows to switch between IDE and AHCI modes. You simply need to force Windows to reload it's disk drivers at boot time so that it has the right drivers available. Here's how:

1) Run the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2) Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
3) Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
4) Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide
5) Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
6) Shut down
7) Start up again, but before Windows boots go into the BIOS configuration screens and change the disk mode to "AHCI". Save the new BIOS configuration and restart so that Windows boots.

When Windows starts, it will detect the change, load new disk drivers, and do one more reboot to start up with them.

Nice tip,Thanks!!!!!  

Have tried to do this but:
Msahci isn't showing up in "services" (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci )
Did a full search in registry using FIND tool, nothing there about the AHCI ! strange
Pciide is but value already set to 0

BTW What difference will it make changing to AHCI ?

I tried to get a response from OCZ about all this, but so far (14 hrs) not a word, so much for support.
You guys are awesome though, thanks for your help !!!

I haven't heard of this happening, so I don't know how to help you.

I assumed you're running Windows 7, but if you're running XP then that might explain it. I don't know of a way to change the disk type under XP (IIRC XP didn't come with SATA drivers built into the OS, they had to be loaded separately during installation).

Yes, running XP pro 32bit, thanks anyway.

Yes I wish I could but that would be a major task that I am trying to avoid unless really all other options are tried.
This is because of the work involved in reinstalling some software with lots of issues, network connections, driver issues with connected equipment. If there was some way of cloning it over I would.

Thanks guys for your time !

Best answer selected by paxas.

This might solve your problem. It's a PCI card that supports AHCI. It should provide XP drivers and you could attach the SSD to it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Connectors:
- 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports support of up to 2 SATA hard disk drives
- Backward compatible with SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 1.5Gb/s hard disk drives

Interface: PCI Express x4 interface
Compatible with PCI Express x4, x8, and x16 slots
Configuration Supported: AHCI Mode
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 7/Vista/XP 32/64bit

Yes, thats a useful option, I will look into it, thanks for the tip!

I have tried reinstalling win XP with the F6 command at start of install to load extra drivers, after completion of install "Msahci" is still not showing up in registry, only thing I can think of is maybe I have to load some separate drivers (not avilable in the win-install setup) Do you know of any special drivers to add at the start of the installation when it asks for them???