new SSD and WEI still only 7.2?

[socrgy9]

so i recently installed a new 256gb crucial M4 SSD and migrated my old C: onto it. i've run the windows experience index assessment and it only comes out to a 7.2 for the primary hard disk.

i couldve sworn i read somewhere that an SSD was the only way to get a 7.9 on WEI primary hard disk rating. have i done something wrong? or am i just confused/misguided.

no big deal, i am just curious mostly

 

[solarmystic]

7.2 is pretty good... but i do believe the one of the few guaranteed ways to get it would be to have 2 SSDs in a RAID 0 array...

More importantly, if you want to know if you're getting bang for your buck in the SSD you purchased you should use disk benchmarking software like CrystalDiskMark (http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html/) and AS SSD Benchmark (http://alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?download_id=9)

Compare the results with others who have the same drive..

Conventional HDDs of all types are capped at 5.9..

 

[socrgy9]

aaahhh! i forgot about raid setups. those just don't seem like that great of an idea to me.

thanks!

 

[solarmystic]

No worries mate, I'm waiting to pick up one of those babies when the higher capacities drop in prices meself!

 

[TanyaC]

Verrrry Interesting.. I have a OCZ Vertex 3 120GB. It rates a 7.8.
I wouldn't have thought there'd be a lot of difference in SSD drive performances.:shock:

 

[solarmystic]

Verrrry Interesting.. I have a OCZ Vertex 3 120GB. It rates a 7.8.
I wouldn't have thought there'd be a lot of difference in SSD drive performances.:shock:

Tanya, I do believe the Vertex 3 has a SandForce controller built into it?

The Sandforce drives are much faster than the Crucial drives in general (coupled with OCZ's in house firmware) but are known not be as reliable as the Marvell based controller the Crucial M4 uses...

 

[socrgy9]

how high of a cap? i just got this a few weeks ago for well under $1 per gb....and then 2 days later the price dropped nearly $50. then one day after that, newegg had a ___% off on the exact SSD i had just bought

check this out if ur looking into it:
Let's Talk SSD: Which is the Best? & HUGE Price Drops! - YouTube
SSD Market Update Featuring OCZ Vertex 4 SSD NCIX Tech Tips - YouTube

 

[socrgy9]

Verrrry Interesting.. I have a OCZ Vertex 3 120GB. It rates a 7.8.
I wouldn't have thought there'd be a lot of difference in SSD drive performances.:shock:

Tanya, I do believe the Vertex 3 has a SandForce controller built into it?

The Sandforce drives are much faster than the Crucial drives in general (coupled with OCZ's in house firmware) but are known not be as reliable as the Marvell based controller the Crucial M4 uses...

thats why i chose the m4

 

[solarmystic]

Straight up 512 GB, socrgy9. Will not settle for anything less so i can just directly clone my 500 GB laptop HDD into the new drive with mininum hassles of having to move programs or files around...

Thanks for the links though, interesting watch!

 

[socrgy9]

Straight up 512 GB, socrgy9. Will not settle for anything less so i can just directly clone my 500 GB laptop HDD into the new drive with mininum hassles of having to move programs or files around...

Thanks for the links though, interesting watch!

thats what i did. but i got an SSD big enough for just my files on C: because mine was 625gb.

i ended up using the paragon migrate os to ssd program. cost 20$ but it made everything smooth sailing. all i had to do was change the boot drive in my mobo bios.

its interesting to know different ssd's would have that kind of a difference in speed. i didnt think there was so much variation

 

[Kipper]

7.9 here with a single M4 256GB.

Possibly how you have the drive hooked up; which sata port, current drivers?, etc........

 

[smarteyeball]

Possibly how you have the drive hooked up; which sata port, current drivers?, etc........

Yep. And what is your BIOS set to - IDE, AHCI?

Is the SSD aligned properly? (Use something like AS SSD) to check that the SSD is aligned correctly.

ie:
Good


Bad

 

[mlg3000]

SATA port?

I have a Crucial Force 3 SATA 6 120 gig and have as little as possible on it except for Windows. On the WEI it reads as 7.8.

In agreement with the previous poster - do you have your drive plugged into a SATA 6 port and are you using a SATA 6 cable. These can make a big difference.

MLG

 

[mlg3000]

How do you use AHCI if you also have conventional drives?

Possibly how you have the drive hooked up; which sata port, current drivers?, etc........

Yep. And what is your BIOS set to - IDE, AHCI?

Is the SSD aligned properly? (Use something like AS SSD) to check that the SSD is aligned correctly.

ie:
Good
View attachment 219242

Bad
View attachment 219243

I tried to set my ASUS board to AHCI but it wouldn't recognize some drives and had trouble booting. I have a SATA 6 SSD, a SATA 6 7200, a SATA 2 SSD and two 7200 SATA 3s.

How do you determine whether the setting should be IDE or AHCI under these "mixed" circumstances?

Thanks

MLG

 

[TanyaC]

Tanya, I do believe the Vertex 3 has a SandForce controller built into it?

The Sandforce drives are much faster than the Crucial drives in general (coupled with OCZ's in house firmware) but are known not be as reliable as the Marvell based controller the Crucial M4 uses...

Yes, you are correct. There's always a trade-off

 

[socrgy9]

you know what? i think all the sata ports on my mobo are SATA 3Gb/s connections. is that why my M4 is not as fast as Kipper's M4?

check the snips i'm adding as well. looks to me like all drives are running in IDE. i don't know what AHCI is or why its better for an SSD. would that help speed up my SSD?

 

[smarteyeball]

you know what? i think all the sata ports on my mobo are SATA 3Gb/s connections. is that why my M4 is not as fast as Kipper's M4?

check the snips i'm adding as well. looks to me like all drives are running in IDE. i don't know what AHCI is or why its better for an SSD. would that help speed up my SSD?

Sata 3 GB/s or Sata II would slow it down some as the m4 is a Sata 3 device.

AHCI or Advanced Host Controller Interface adds a few features like Native command queuing (optimizes read/write which gives a little more performance, less wear on the drive - but it's not really a 'night vs day' performance increase. It also allows for hot swapping (unplugging the drive while the PC is on. Not much use if you don't swap drives much )

Bottom line, it would improve performance a little. How much you'd notice is questionable.

But between it being IDE and on a Sata II controller, that's why your score is lower than others.

I tried to set my ASUS board to AHCI but it wouldn't recognize some drives and had trouble booting. I have a SATA 6 SSD, a SATA 6 7200, a SATA 2 SSD and two 7200 SATA 3s.

How do you determine whether the setting should be IDE or AHCI under these "mixed" circumstances?

Thanks

MLG

If you installed the OS while in IDE mode, changing it to AHCI would indeed cause boot failures. You have to 'prep' the system first before changing the BIOS setting. Basically you have to change a few settings in the registry and then change the BIOS.

Are any of your devices IDE? ie Connected with the old flat ribbon cable? If so, you wont be able to switch over to AHCI because those devices need IDE to be seen. Your Optical drive for example.

But since it looks like all your devices are sata 2 at minimum, where did you notice the missing devices if you couldn't boot into the OS?



EDIT:

How to change from IDE to AHCI

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

 

[socrgy9]

Bottom line, it would improve performance a little. How much you'd notice is questionable.

But between it being IDE and on a Sata II controller, that's why your score is lower than others.

thats what i thought. so i guess if i upgraded to the new motherboard i want, which has SATA 6Gb/s connections, that would give me the full speed of the SSD.

 

[pirej]

I had similar problem, but one i got the ahci solved.. i had score 7.1 on wei, then i updated the (amd)sata sata drivers, and i got score of 7.5 on wei.

p.s. my motherboard has only sata2, so im not using all of the speed of the ssd.

 

[Victor S]

Too many variables to say why WEI reports as it does, unless you were to measure everything it uses to come up with its number. And of course you would have to know what WEI uses to make its calculations.
For example, it reports 7.8 on my M4 64g. Using AHCI.
I have 3Gbps controllers, and using the common benchmark tools used here (Crystal being one) - scores are about 60% of those using an M4 with 6Gbps controllers.
That's seems pretty normal, but the WEI is high compared to some others with M4's.
I don't put much stock into WEI, certainly not enought to upgrade my MB.
Others look at that differently.
Unless a difference is percievable to me in real daily use, I don't care.