SSD under performing

[delsaber]

hi guys

I have been looking at getting an SSD for nearly two years now!

I finally bite the bullet when i saw a great deal on a crucial c300 256gb.

I installed this drive last night on a fresh install with windows 7 64bit.

I have run crystaldiskmark and as hdd and both report low read figures.

I only just found out the cables supplied with my motherboard are only sata2 so i have ordered a sata3 which may improve things a bit.

I still only get around 180mbps read speed so is this right?


I did a lot of reading up before I bought and installed this drive and i have tried the following;

*installed latest driver for my motherboard
*installed latest chipset driver for the marvell 9182 6gb sata port
*set the ssd to AHCI mode in bios

when i set the ahci mode i did it in "PCH sata control mode" before installing windows then realised afterwards theres also a esata and gsata option that i can change to AHCI also. So i just changed the Gsata to AHCI. is that right?


im really worried i have made a bad purchase

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Well, the first thing is there is no such thing as SATA 2 and SATA 3 cables. By International standard they are the same. There has been no change in the cable. The pin-outs are identical. If a vendor claims SATA 3 cables it is just an advertising gimmick. On the other hand there may be differences in the quality of cables. There could be problems with cables of questionable value and performance.

Normally the change to ACHI mode is made in the system BIOS before Windows 7 is installed which you did. But it sounds like you made another change after installing Windows 7. Did you make the change by editing the Windows 7 registry, rebooting, and then going into BIOS and change the BIOS setting? Or did you just boot and go into BIOS?

 

[delsaber]

thanks for the quick reply.

I went through the bios first and then after more reading I went through regedit but the value was already set to zero at that point which im guessing came from th BIOS change.

My speeds have improved slightly to 205mbps read speed but i was expecting 300+

The speed keeps changing though which i find strange. surely it should be pretty consistent?

 

[delsaber]

ok i just tried plugging it into my sata 2 port and read jumps up to 285mbps which is much more like it.

so could it be a faulty sata3 port or something?

maybe i still have the wrong drivers although i installed the ones i think are correct

 

[RetiredChief]

(1) Not good to run the Benchmark on SSDs to often. And results will change between runs as trim may not have returned the SSD to "Like new state"

(2) did you verify that infact ahci is being used. Download and install AS SSD. Open program up, do not need to run the benchies, But look in the upper left, should show msahci for the driver. Also should show partition alignment = OK.

(3) Johnny correct me if I'm incorrect, But on the p55a-ud4p (Same MB I have) the C300 will perform better using the Intel Sata II controller verse the Marvel 9182 controller.
The biggest advantage of running a C300 on Sata III is in the Sequencial read/writes which is the LEAST Important parameter - The Small file Ramdom read writes are more important and the C300 is not significantly faster when installed on SATA III vs SATA II. In fact the SATA II SF1200 controller and used on a sata II port are about the same as C300 on SATA III marvel controller for 4k Random benchmarks. DON'T get me wrong, the Seq read/writes will help in editing LARGE files (Movie/spreedsheets/cad and Cam drawing/editting large jpeg photos as long as these Files are ON the SSD and not the HDD. It's just that SEQs are what is touted/advertized - marketed. In Real life you will not see a BIG diff between the Top rated SSDs and the Mid-level SSDs.

ADDED: I see you discovered what I was pointing out - NO not a faulty SATA III, the Older marvel controller is just not as good as the slower INTEL SATA II Controller.

 

[monkeysweat]

try running ATTO benchmark,, when vendors list their ssd specs, it is given telling you the HIGHLY COMPRESSIBLE file types,,, that is what ATTO benches,, so there may be nothing wrong,, Crystalmark is closer to real world,,,what vendors should use but don't

SSD install shouldn't be rocket science anyways,, just enable ACHI before installing windows....

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Chief - Yes, Intel is preferred over Marvel.

EDIT - BTW - The newest, or at least one of the newest, Marvell controllers is the 9182 which is used on the Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z. It augments the integrated controller on the Intel Z68 chipset. When I first saw the motherboard specifications I thought it was a typo because the Marvell 9128 Controller is very popular with motherboard manufacturers. Haven't seen anything about controller and datalink performance yet.

 

[delsaber]

ah thats great guys thanks. so it just boils down to using a better controller although its "slower"

I did wonder if too many benches would effect the ssd so ill give it a rest on those for now lol.

yes i did verify that with as ssd chief.

I already notice a big performance boost so im pretty happy! 280mbps may not be what i was expecting but its still working well only filled 30% too so plenty of room for more haha