Solved Slow performance with new SSD

[guillerone]

Hellow everyone!

Recently I bought an SSD (Sandisk Extreme 240Gb) which is connected to the SATA 1 port of my motherboard (Asus Stricker 2 Extreme). I enabled AHCI in the BIOS and followed this SSD optimization tutorial but my performance is waaaaay lower than expected.

I used AS SSD Benchmark to test it out and these are the results:

​

I also tried changing from Nvidia's chipset driver to Microsoft's default as they mention here due to a possible problem with some Nvidia chipsets and SSDs but it's still the same.

I checked and Trim is enabled in the OS and BIOS is set to AHCI. Boot times are OK but not great (40 seconds). Oh! and I just installed the OS. Just plugged the drive and installed Windows 7 Ultimate X64. Partitions are aligned.

Could someone bring some light in here? I'm willing to offer a virtual hugh and virtual beer (although I can scan some and email it for you).

Thanks a lot!

 

[Piney]

SATA1 could be an issue... what motherboard do you have?

 

[guillerone]

I meant it's connected to the port number 1. It's an Asus Stricker 2 Extreme, capable of 3Gbps. It's not 6, but 3 I believe should be a lot faster anyway.

Thanks for replying.

 

[essenbe]

Why not try running ATTO benchmark and see if you get improved results. Some brands do not do well with As SSD. Plus, I haven't read the complete article you linked to, but disabling system restore is doing yourself a great disservice. System restore can save you from a clean install many times. You can reduce the size a little and have fewer restore points, but I wouldn't disable it. But, you are very correct. The drive should perform much better than that. Also, do you have the latest firmware for the SSD?

 

[guillerone]

I agree, Essembe. I re-enabled System restore, it has heleped me in the past.
As of the firmware, yes, it's the latest and Atto did not perform much better. Here are the results:

I really have no clue what the problem can be ​

 

[guillerone]

Oh, and OS is fully updated as well as drivers.
Sometimes the whole system gets hanged for about 30 seconds. During that time, only the mouse responds, the rest gets stuck and cannot do anything with it.

It's also not a virus or antivirus problem. It defenitelly has something to do with the SSD or Windows config.

 

[Victor S]

Could be a driver issue. I see the AS benchmark shows as SCSI.
Mine shows as ATA. Think I used the Win 7 drivers.
Just a guess, since I haven't paid attention since I did an initial benchmark on my 64gb M4. It was in the ballpark, and much faster than yours, except access time, and this M4 isn't a hotrod.
Check for driver/controller issues.

 

[essenbe]

I'm running out of suggestions. I do know that Nvidia chipsets have had issues with SSDs. I would try the MSAHCI drivers as well. Try not to run too many benchmarks, it will slow it down. Unless there is somethinh we don't know about your system, I would RMA the drive and try to get it replaced with another brand, if you can do that at your place of purchase. That's just my opinion. Even with the troubles with Nvidia chipsets, they have had much better results than you are seeing. If you would like, you can try running it in IDE mode just to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Hopalong X]

I checked and Trim is enabled in the OS and BIOS is set to AHCI. Boot times are OK but not great (40 seconds). Oh! and I just installed the OS. Just plugged the drive and installed Windows 7 Ultimate X64.

According to your manual you do not have AHCI capability with your motherboard with Nvidia chipset.
There is no AHCI mode in the Bios.

So I'm not sure what you actually changed in Bios. What did you change????

You will have to run Bios in IDE and the Windows OS setting in non AHCI mode.

Manual download here> http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/Striker_II_Extreme/#download

 

[whs]

Those nums are indeed not very good. You seem to have done everything right (unless you made a small mistake somewhere along the line).

I would go with Steve's suggestion and try IDE mode. Maybe it reveals something.

 

[guillerone]

I tried putting it into IDE mode and the performance is the same, absolutelly no change.

I did read the manual and I have 2 controllers: 1 nForce with 6 Sata ports and 1 Jmicron with 2 eSata ports. nForce is not compatible with AHCI but Jmicron is. Too bad it's external sata because I don´t even have the cables and adapters to try it out. What I changed in BIOS to AHCI was the Jmicron mode from IDE to AHCI but since there is nothing connected there, it makes no difference.

So, I think the problem is located at the controller level. Since I can't change my 300€ motherboard (I was stupid that day 4 years ago) I though of buying this: http://www.transcend.de/support/dlcenter/datasheet/TS-PDC3 Datasheet V1.0.pdf
This way I could hook up the SSD there and use it at full 6Gbps. It's only 30€.

What do you think?

Thanks a lot to everyone for your help. Really.

 

[Victor S]

If you can get your money back for the SSD, that's what I'd do.
Wait until you get a different MB. You really don't gain that much with an SSD.
It looks that the nvidia controller and the Sandisk don't mesh.
My SSD Hard Disk freezes intermittently. - SanDisk Forums, Welcome!

The freezing makes it unacceptable. A PCI card could make it all acceptable - if you don't run into other issues - but it's still crippled.
Running the SSD on the other controller is probably your most cost-effective solution if you can't get your money back on the SSD.

 

[guillerone]

I ordered a Conceptronic PCI card with SATA III support to see if that works out. Unfortunatelly returning the SSD is not an option since it's already unselaed and all that stuff.

To be honest, the performance improvement as of boot times makes it expensively worth. Hopefully with the PCI controller it will get faster and if not, I'll keep using the SSD like this until I change my mobo in a year or 2.

I experienced that freezing I see in your link only when running AS SSD tests, normal use is just fine and hopefully it does not come up again.

I'll let you know if the PCI controller help when I get it in a couple of days. Thanks!

 

[guillerone]

Oooook, I got some good news. After I bought and setup the Conceptronic PCI-Express card (CSATA600EXI), the performance increased quite a lot. Windows loads even faster and this is what I got in AS SSD:

​

This PCI card is based on an ASMEDIA 106x controller, I already installed the drivers.

I know it's not the best it can be so would you recommend anything to make it faster? Windows is already into AHCI mode, checked the reg key. Do I have to set the BIOS to AHCI mode even when I'm not using the onboard controller for the SSD?

Thanks a lot to everyone!

 

[Hopalong X]

That looks good to me. I can't think of any other tweaks though others may have some ideas.

My Samsung 830 is using the onboard Marvell 6.0Gbs controller.
Yours may not be the best but is sure a lot better than my Marvell.

Good job.

 

[essenbe]

I'd have to say that is quite an improvement over your first post. Those are decent scores and the more important ones are pretty good. I wouldn't worry about any thing else as far as improving performance.

 

[guillerone]

Yeeeeyyyyy! That's what I wanted to hear
We'll, it's really working faster now so I'll leave it like it is. And for people with the same problem, getting a PCI-Express Expansion card with SataIII connectors seems to do the job quite well. And an important thing is that it was 24€ (30$). Specifically, it was a Conceptronic CSATA600EXI although others may work well too.

Thanks again to all of you who helped!

 

[47box]

Hello guys,

I have been testing my SSD´s to check it´s performance and I got that above:


I have had mounting my machine and need´s some help with that result.
I made the otimasing of my system in order to get better performance on SSD´s, and the lest result that I got is showed in the picture.
I would like a consent with respect to results, because I have seen some systems started being much faster than mine.
If anyone can help me I will be grateful.
My setup is this:

i73930
EVGA X79 FTW
02's SSD RAID0 - Vertex4
02 RAID0 HDD's - Black Edition 60mb - 7200rpm
12gb corsair dominator 2133hz
coller H100
gtx 690

thank you