TRIM and SSD Optimizer for Intel SSD drives

Printable View

Show 100 post(s) from this thread on one page

10-27-2009, 06:18 AM
CrimInalA

Guess I'll wait to flash mine till they bring out a driver for ICH10R raid 0 supporting trim .
:D
10-27-2009, 07:06 AM
mk_dir

Anyone konws if this Intel SSD Toolbox works on G1 drives?

I also read about several cases of briked SSDs aftwer this firmware update... backup your data if you go ahead with this update.
10-27-2009, 07:13 AM
fvbounty

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams

TRIM support only works natively IF you have Win7 and IF you're running in AHCI mode... anything else, you'll have to run the optimizer .. daily it seems.

also to anyoen reading this and thinking of updating... DO NOT!!!!! LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER FIRMWARE WHICH MAY VERY WELL BRICK YOUR SSD!!!

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1463671

Thanks for the heads up!
10-27-2009, 07:32 AM
-=DVS=-

Flashing went smoothly for me didn't even change bios to IDE or anything left it in AHCI mode. Doen't work on 50nm SSD according to Intel ToolBox.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3...pturezo.th.jpg
10-27-2009, 07:46 AM
hewi

Did I get this right...no love for the older X-25M SSD users ? This software only for the newer generation Intel drives ?
10-27-2009, 07:52 AM
mk_dir

So in the end; no TRIM support, no Solid State Toolbox option, no sequential data tranfers enhance.... is there a technical reason for that or simply intel abandon G1 owners?
10-27-2009, 08:12 AM
lowfat

Quote:

Originally Posted by mk_dir

So in the end; no TRIM support, no Solid State Toolbox option, no sequential data tranfers enhance.... is there a technical reason for that or simply intel abandon G1 owners?

Intel announced back when the G2's were being released that there would be no TRIM for G1's.
10-27-2009, 08:30 AM
kl0012

Quote:

Originally Posted by mk_dir

So in the end; no TRIM support, no Solid State Toolbox option, no sequential data tranfers enhance.... is there a technical reason for that or simply intel abandon G1 owners?

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...=expert&pid=12

While the minor slowdowns we saw only occurred with heavy testing, Intel is justified in optimizing the G2 more towards write combining. When Windows 7 is released into the wild, Intel plans to release an updated firmware to include native TRIM support. TRIM commands sent to a patched X25-M G2 will likely purge the LBA remap table of entries, meaning the drive would no longer have to track each and every LBA. The 'virtual fragmentation' (i.e. entries in the table) will simply not exist for unused portions of the drive, which should result in consistent 80MB/sec writes to any empty portions of the drive.

There has been some buzz / rumors about the older X25's not receiving a TRIM-enabled firmware. With the 8820 firmware performing so consistently even after being heavily fragmented, there is not as much of a need for TRIM support. The G1 drives will only benefit slightly in cases where the drive had been completely written (i.e. full) in the past and was then dropped back to a relatively small amount of content. In that case, the difference seen would only be in random write IOPS. Keep in mind that a G1 X25-M in this worst case condition still dominates the competition in random write IOPS.
10-27-2009, 08:32 AM
Ourasi

Quote:

Originally Posted by mk_dir

So in the end; no TRIM support, no Solid State Toolbox option, no sequential data tranfers enhance.... is there a technical reason for that or simply intel abandon G1 owners?

There is no technical reason, only the fact that the Gen. 1 owners would not buy Gen. 2 since Gen. 1 have the same performance +/- 0.0xx%... You might hate them for this, and never buy Intel again, but they still don't give a damn, since they are so far ahead of the other mainstream competitors. They are in a position where they can do the most unforgiveable BS, and still not be able to meet the demand, what a crappy world we live in :shrug:
10-27-2009, 08:42 AM
Ourasi

Quote:

Originally Posted by kl0012

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...=expert&pid=12

While the minor slowdowns we saw only occurred with heavy testing, Intel is justified in optimizing the G2 more towards write combining. When Windows 7 is released into the wild, Intel plans to release an updated firmware to include native TRIM support. TRIM commands sent to a patched X25-M G2 will likely purge the LBA remap table of entries, meaning the drive would no longer have to track each and every LBA. The 'virtual fragmentation' (i.e. entries in the table) will simply not exist for unused portions of the drive, which should result in consistent 80MB/sec writes to any empty portions of the drive.

There has been some buzz / rumors about the older X25's not receiving a TRIM-enabled firmware. With the 8820 firmware performing so consistently even after being heavily fragmented, there is not as much of a need for TRIM support. The G1 drives will only benefit slightly in cases where the drive had been completely written (i.e. full) in the past and was then dropped back to a relatively small amount of content. In that case, the difference seen would only be in random write IOPS. Keep in mind that a G1 X25-M in this worst case condition still dominates the competition in random write IOPS.

This is just utter BS, and contradicts his own statements in this and his latest article.. There are a flurry of bad Gen. 1 performers on every SSD forum needing to learn how to do HDDErase, even this one gets it's fair share of these posts.. There is no excuse for this ignorant behaviour from Intel and the ones blindly kissing their asses, period..
10-27-2009, 09:19 AM
mk_dir

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowfat

Intel announced back when the G2's were being released that there would be no TRIM for G1's.

Yep, I already konw that, Intel claimed no G1 Trim support time ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kl0012

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...=expert&pid=12

There has been some buzz / rumors about the older X25's not receiving a TRIM-enabled firmware. With the 8820 firmware performing so consistently even after being heavily fragmented, there is not as much of a need for TRIM support. The G1 drives will only benefit slightly in cases where the drive had been completely written (i.e. full) in the past and was then dropped back to a relatively small amount of content. In that case, the difference seen would only be in random write IOPS. Keep in mind that a G1 X25-M in this worst case condition still dominates the competition in random write IOPS.

The performance degradation on Intel SSDs using 8820 FW had less impact than the Indilinx/Samsung, thats completely true, but that not means that G1s don't appreciate a TRIM support or a restore performance app ... "They already work fine with 8820, don't worry" sounds like an excuse.

Check the actual performance of one of my X25-M:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6563/ssdx25m.jpg

So if I wan to restore his performance, i have to make image/clone and then do a low level format.

Saludos
10-27-2009, 09:32 AM
mk_dir

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ourasi

There is no technical reason, only the fact that the Gen. 1 owners would not buy Gen. 2 since Gen. 1 have the same performance +/- 0.0xx%...

I think you get the point. But, Intel can bring support G1 users anyway... if G1 series goes EOL, that fact will not affect Postville sales. Moreover, G2s units are cheaper to produce (as fas as they use 34nm NAND).

The problem for Intel in this situation should be how to get rid of 50nm drives stock.
10-27-2009, 10:20 AM
Ourasi

Quote:

Originally Posted by mk_dir

I think you get the point. But, Intel can bring support G1 users anyway... if G1 series goes EOL, that fact will not affect Postville sales. Moreover, G2s units are cheaper to produce (as fas as they use 34nm NAND).

The problem for Intel in this situation should be how to get rid of 50nm drives stock.

Well, ignoring the Gen. 1 drives wont exactly boost the sales of them, infact giving it TRIM/Toolbox probably would, since most Gen. 1 in stock is 80gb versions (and alot of E's) and it's priced the same as 80gb Gen. 2. Many are tired of waiting for the Gen. 2 drives to surface (none in stock for weeks where I live), so a TRIM fw on Gen. 1 would probably be tempting, now however, without any TRIM support, it is not.. Getting stuck with a ton of Gen. 1 drives is their own fault, and they get no sympathy from me, quite the opposite infact...
10-27-2009, 10:31 AM
Roger_D25

Good point Ourasi, enabling TRIM support on the G1 drives would probably be the best way to increase the sales of these drives (and get rid of backstock)! Otherwise there is no reason to purchase these G1 drives in my opinion, at least not yet given the small price difference?

By the way guys I was able to flash my firmware to the new version with no problems what-so-ever (at least not yet anyway)! After looking around a bit on other forums however many people are having major issues since updating their firmware version (some suggest user error but I'm not so sure about that given how many people are having problems)? I'm just thankful it worked properly on my system and that TRIM is now working, I would be very bummed if my drive died! Thanks very much Bojamijams for bringing that issue to our attention however (if I would have read about this issue before flashing my firmware I'm not sure I would have tried it)?
10-27-2009, 10:36 AM
Brother Esau

Quote:

Originally Posted by zalbard

Gah. I wonder what's the deal with raid and trim... Still limited by the raid controllers?

Big surprise as there is yet to be a HDD Diagnostic application that will work in Raid from any developer even spinrite 6 does not work on raided drives.

SSD is new technology why do so many find it hard to believe that Raided SSD Drives have this myystical power over legacy products:rofl:
10-27-2009, 10:51 AM
turtletrax

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brother Esau

Big surprise as there is yet to be a HDD Diagnostic application that will work in Raid from any developer even spinrite 6 does not work on raided drives.

SSD is new technology why do so many find it hard to believe that Raided SSD Drives have this myystical power over legacy products:rofl:

Because it is rather important. Imagine something like not being able to defrag your HD if you had RAID.
10-27-2009, 11:20 AM
v0dka

It seems that the download is no longer available.
10-27-2009, 11:25 AM
Roger_D25

vOdka - I just checked Intel's site and the download I used is still available (well the page is still there with all the details and download link), however as you mention once you try to actually download it there is a "File Not Found" error? Very interesting, it certainly seems like there might be more to this "issue" many people are having after updating their firmware (assuming that is why they pulled the file)? Of course it might just be a coincidence to but the timing is suggestive.
10-27-2009, 11:28 AM
mk_dir

The End to End Error Detection Count is overcoming the net... and this is the second firmware issue for Postville SSD :(
10-27-2009, 11:35 AM
Roger_D25

Like many who have already applied this new firmware I'm worried (at least until we know more about what is actually happening)? I just ran a SMART Attributes check via the Intel SSD Toolbox and everything checked out thankfully. The "End To End Error Detection Count" you mention above, do you know what it means in regards to this issue people are having (its one of the attributes checked via the Intel SSD Toolbox SMART attribute check)? In my case it lists RAW @ 0, Normalized @ 100, and Threshold @ 99, any idea's what that means in general terms? Thanks for any help you can give!
10-27-2009, 11:37 AM
v0dka

1 Attachment(s)

Clicking this link www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware I get this, looks like trouble to me
10-27-2009, 11:51 AM
HydrogenAlpha

Intel firmware update failures - hosed drives

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams

TRIM support only works natively IF you have Win7 and IF you're running in AHCI mode... anything else, you'll have to run the optimizer .. daily it seems.

also to anyoen reading this and thinking of updating... DO NOT!!!!! LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER FIRMWARE WHICH MAY VERY WELL BRICK YOUR SSD!!!

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1463671

OMG I am so glad I read this post before flashing my G2s. There is a frightening history of bricked drives, even when people do everything right. It sounds best to wait a few days to see if intel has anything to say about these failed firmware updates. I doubt I have much to gain from the update anyway with my drives in RAID 0 on an ICH10R.
10-27-2009, 12:46 PM
AceBaran

Oh Hell! bought mine friday and updated a hour ago ...

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2670/ssdt.jpg
10-27-2009, 12:51 PM
Roger_D25

I assume you haven't had any issues AceBaran? Also the file was recently removed from the site, when did you download the Intel Firmware Update Program?
10-27-2009, 01:07 PM
Roger_D25

It looks like Intel has responded to the new firmware update and its new SSD Toolbox software, HERE is a link to the information.

Show 100 post(s) from this thread on one page