Slow intel 335 ssd on Z77

[hollywood]

Intel 335 240GB on Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H / 3570K.

Intel RST says I'm connected at 6.0GBs; However I feel that my speeds aren't all that spectacular. Especially writes. Anyone know if these are good numbers?

-Sean

[[XC] Oj101]

Other than your sequential write speeds, your speeds look about right from the quick bit of Googling I did.

[hollywood]

My main issue is my writes. It just seems no matter what I do, I can't get them into the 300MB range. Nearly every other review is posting writes at that speed. Will get more data up soon. Perhaps anyone with a Z77 based board and intel 330 or 335 ssd might know some tricks...

[hollywood]

Ok guys. This is for anyone with an intel 330 or 335 ssd and are getting abnormally slow write performance.

I finally nailed what it was. It wasn't indexing, cache buffer flushing or any other windows setting. The drive simply needed to be re-aligned and set right using the intel secure-erase option in the intel ssd toolbox.

(I just built this new machine and was playing around with a bunch of different OS install configurations.)

My main mistake was having a few previous OS installs and not going back to secure-erase (reset) the drives partition tables after my abortive attempt at tolerating windows 8. The drive had a bunch of installs, uninstalls and even though windows was supposedly 'formatting' the drive each re-install, I suppose the drive was a bit of a mess inside.

My writes were constantly low, many times in the sub 200MBps range.

I went through EVERY setting. Ensured AHCI was enabled, checked that SATA 6.0 was plugged in, etc. Was beating my head against a wall until I came across someone mentioning to run the intel secure-erase after a bunch of installs, wipes, monkeying around, etc.

So here we are.

Settings:

BIOS: AHCI enabled, C3/C6 states disabled
Win: Windows Search Service Disabled, Drive indexing disabled




Long story short:

If you have an intel Sandforce drive; Make a current system image. Delete all partitions on SSD. Run intel Secure-Erase. Restore drive image. Enjoy faster speeds.

[hollywood]

I hope this may help someone out there with an intel Sandforce-based SSD. (Intel 520, 330, 335) I know much of this is basic to many of you out there. However for novices or rusty folks like myself, this may come in handy.

Finished my tweaking and have really cranked up my writes. Most likely to max on a fully-functioning system. I'm very pleased with these latest numbers.

FINDINGS:

It appears that the intel sandforce ssds are sensitive to power halt states. More specifically that enabling them creates some sort of 'write barrier'. These tests were repeated and validated. If C1E, C3/C6 were enabled in BIOS, I saw 30-40% drops in sequential writes. 25-35% drops in 4k were observed as well.

To maximize an intel 520, 330, 335 on a Z77-based motherboard, I've found the following to help significantly:

1. Be sure OS is installed on a CLEAN drive. Reset to factory-fresh via the intel secure-erase utility included in the intel SSD Toolbox.
2. Ensure latest intel drivers / RST are/is installed.
3. Disable Windows Search service in services.msc.
4. Disable indexing in general tab of drive properties.
5. In BIOS: Ensure AHCI is enabled - Disable C1E halt state - Disable C3 & C6 halt states

The ones I had to figure out were #1 & #5. All the other stuff is common knowledge included for completeness.

Latest test: Test#4

[hollywood]

Ok. Test#5 complete. All of the above changes with a fresh optimization.

[audioave10]

Many Thanks! I have the Intel 330 Series 60GB I was just about to put into service.

[hollywood]

Many Thanks! I have the Intel 330 Series 60GB I was just about to put into service.

No sweat! Hope it helps...