Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system

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  1. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
       #1

    Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system


    Just took delivery of a new HP dv7t-7000 laptop. It has the i7-3210QM Ivybridge processor along with Intel's H77 chipset. Everything looks pretty good with it so far. Processor WEI 7.8, Memory 7.9. etc. (BTW, processor Passmark score: 8843. Yowser.)

    On unpacking, I removed the original mechanical drive (never started it up, actually) and installed a used Corsair Force 120 (SATA II) drive to perform all the setup activity (this includes Intel RST). My plan was to hammer the used drive with all the setup writing/deleting and then move the finished image over to a new Corsair Force 3 (SATA III) 240GB drive.

    Well, everything went fine with the setup. Not a single glitch or problem. No freezing. Perfect startup and shutdown. Perfect sleep state and wakeup. And, the WEI the old used drive turned in came in at 7.5. About what you'd expect for a normally functioning SATA II drive.

    So then I cloned the image onto the Force 3 (f/w 5.02). Everything still works fine. The ATTO scores for the drive when used as the system boot drive come in about where you'd expect for a SATA III drive. So what's the problem? The Force 3 WEI comes in at 5.9. Now I KNOW that it's working okay to the best of my knowledge, but there's this nagging feeling that something's not right somewhere such that it produces this greatly substandard score. In about 20 Win7/SSD installations/conversions, I have never seen such an unusual WEI result. It just strikes me that something fishy there. but there's not a single other symptom that suggests where to look.

    Anyone have any idea what might be going on here?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #2

    Rather than use a used drive and make an image, why didn't you just install the new one first? TRIM or garbage collection or something would have taken care of it in a few hours. Let it sit powered on idling for a few hours and re-try WEI.
    You can try this too: Windows Experience Index - Reset
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Actually, I didn't have the new drive in my possession at the time.

    Thank you for the suggestion to clear the WEI. Got the same result.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Here is the AS benchmark for this system. It's good, but not great. This Force 3 drive came with the most recent 5.02 firmware. You have to wonder if there's something about this f/w that has slowed this down, since reported results with these drives have been higher. When I have a chance, I'm going to pop the Force 120 (SATA II) drive back in and see how this benchmark turns out.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-ssd-bench-corsair-force-3-7.29.2012-2-57-04-am.png  
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Here are both benchmarks run again on an empty partition. And Windows' assessment of the performance:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-ssd-bench-corsair-force-3-7.29.2012-11-59-02-am.png   Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-atto-corsair-force-3.png   Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-wei-corsair-force-3.png  
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Okay..... so I swapped the Force 3 for a Crucial M4. Re-ran the benchmarks on an empty partition and here are the results. They look about what you'd expect for an M4. AND... the Disk WEI is still coming in at 5.9!

    So it looks like there's some kind of incompatibility or bug in the Windows rating applet. It comes up with (IIRC) 7.7 for that old Force SATA-II drive, but two brand new SATA-III drives score much lower. Doesn't make a lick of sense, but I'm going to trust the benchmarks when they tell me the drives are performing as they should. So FYI, here's the data for the M4....
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-ssd-bench-m4-ct256m4ssd2-7.29.2012-1-59-03-pm.png   Peculiar WEI result with Force 3 drive on Ivybridge system-atto-crucial-m4-256gb.png  
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #7

    Thanks for all the info. I'm scratching my head about the 5.9 though. While WEI is only important to a specific PC, you should get a 7.8-7.9 with any newer SSD.

    When I first installed my first M4 it got a 7.7 but within 24 hours changed to 7.9. I think the AS SSD score should be nearer 700.
    I'll ask a member more versed is SSD than I am.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 6,349
    Windows7 Pro 64bit SP-1; Windows XP Pro 32bit
       #8

    GeneralEclectic said:
    Okay..... so I swapped the Force 3 for a Crucial M4. Re-ran the benchmarks on an empty partition and here are the results. They look about what you'd expect for an M4. AND... the Disk WEI is still coming in at 5.9!

    So it looks like there's some kind of incompatibility or bug in the Windows rating applet. It comes up with (IIRC) 7.7 for that old Force SATA-II drive, but two brand new SATA-III drives score much lower. Doesn't make a lick of sense, but I'm going to trust the benchmarks when they tell me the drives are performing as they should. So FYI, here's the data for the M4....
    Your Crucial m4 is working great.

    The Force brands I'm not familiar with their expected speeds but appear adequate.

    If you did a reset of the WEI scores and then rerun the assessment and still get 5.9 on the hard drive then their is a glitch in WEI.
    There is no problem with the SSD's.

    Other than a reset of WEI I have no idea how to fix the WEI.
    I would not worry with it.
    You have the info you need.
    Everything is working fine so enjoy the new hardware.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 39
    W7 Pro, W7 Ult, W7 Enterprise
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Yeah, it appears that the SSDs are working approximately as expected, so I'm going to TRY not to obsess about the incorrect WEI. There's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it's actually measuring something relevant that *is* wrong, despite the nominal benchmarks.

    Thanks for the input. I'd still appreciate comments that might shed more light on this.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 26,863
    Windows 11 Pro
       #10

    First, I would suggest you not run any more tests for a few days. too many tests in a short period of time can slow an SSD down. As Britton30 suggested, let it idle on the login page for a couple of hours, to help with the garbage collection. After about 3 days go back and run WEI again. I suspect you will get a different result.
      My Computer


 
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