SATA Performance Severely Hindered - Sabertooth X58

[ModXMV]

Hi All,

I am having an issue with SATA performance and my SSD drive with my X58 motherboard. I have narrowed it down to the motherboard due to the fact that I benchmarked the drive in another computer and the results in A SSD were in line with the results here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gskill-phoenix-pro-120gb-ssd-review/9

Currently the results in my machine with the X58 Sabertooth are around 100 composite score. This lousy performance started happening after I flashed the BIOS up to 0603 to fix blue screen issues. This issue is not resolved when I roll back to the 505 bios.

Any thoughts/help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tecmo34]

One question.... When you flashed the BIOS to 0603 and back to 0505, did you change the SATA Controller back to AHCI??

 

[ModXMV]

I have flip flopped between AHCI and SATA, and it seems to make very little difference. My 4K tests are a fraction of what they should be.

I will flash back to 505 and change to AHCI and post my results.

 

[ModXMV]

Here is the 505 bios with AHCI enabled:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22736/as-ssd-bench%20FM-25S2S-120GBP2%2012.22.2010%203-35-34%20PM.png

I scored 400 on my old rig. I will go through and flash all available BIOs and post the results.


This is the SSD I am using:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231378&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Solid+State+Disk-_-G.SKILL-_-20231378

 

[tecmo34]

The only thing I'm seeing between the Guru image and yours is the Firmware version. Your showing 3.1 and their is 310A. I would maybe look to update your SSD firmware and re-test. Also, you are on the MSACHI drivers and they are on the Intel drivers ( ICH10R)... it looks like

 

[ModXMV]

So I am trying to install the iaStor drivers provided from ASUS and I am getting an error that it's not compatible with my version of windows (Windows 7 64 bit). This is frustrating.

 

[tecmo34]

I would look at ASUS's website for the latest version, which hopefully is Win7 64-bit compatible. Also, I would start with the firmware update first, if not current.

 

[jaquith]

If you changes from IDE -> AHCI after installing an OS chances are that you may have corrupted the registry. The simplest solution is to move the SATA 1 -> SATA 2 ports, also don't have the DVD in the first 4 ports.

The 4K is a lousy comparison for the SSD; I prefer ATTO Benching.

 

[ModXMV]

So here are some results. I found a compatible iaStor driver, apparently Asus has a bit of a fail on their website and had to lean on Intel.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22736/as-ssd-bench%20FM-25S2S-120GBP2%2012.23.2010%2011-42-23%20AM.png

I can't seem to find a 310A firmware download.

Here's Gskill's page for this drive:

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=284


Again what concerns me is that I installed this drive into a separate computer with the same firmware and saw benchmarks that were close to what is listed on their website and guru3d.

I am using the same drive and the same SATA cable.

 

[ModXMV]

Jaquith:

Just move the SATA port from 1 to 2?

 

[jaquith]

Update you Intel RST driver -> http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/chpsts/imsm

 

[jaquith]

Jaquith:

Just move the SATA port from 1 to 2?

Yep, that's the simplest unless you want to get into your registry.

 

[ModXMV]

I updated the Intel RST driver, switched to SATA port 1:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22736/irst-ssd.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22736/as-ssd-bench%20FM-25S2S-120GBP2%2012.23.2010%201-43-40%20PM.png

I am leaving to go home for the holidays here shortly I will continue this Monday.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[jaquith]

Well that sucked! Set the SATA3 to AHCI and use/try the SATA3 port. I assume when testing that you disabled any AV software, and the you did NOT install ANY of the ASUS 'Utilities' -> if you did then uninstall them, OR run MSCONFIG select Diagnostic and re-run tests.

Also, G.SKILL is using 1024K vs your 103424K sized test; also looking at their 'font' they've turned-off EVERYTHING!

Q - What OS? e.g. Windows 7 Pro x64

Ideal:

Before RST 'update':

After RST 'update':

 

[ModXMV]

So I just bit the bullet and reinstalled windows and here are the results:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22736/as-ssd-bench%20FM-25S2S-120GBP2%2012.30.2010%206-17-22%20PM.png

 

[tecmo34]

Much better results... It seems like you had an alignment issue, which the reinstall corrected.

 

[jaquith]

You missed my earlier post "Also, G.SKILL is using 1024K vs your 103424K sized test; also looking at their 'font' they've turned-off EVERYTHING!" Everthing - Aero, etc - G.SKILL's test rig has only bare bones Windows running...