X-25M write speed half of what is should be...grrrr

[Nostromo]

mako88

What is your full system stats? what X58 board, ETC. cards..


nostromo

[safan80]

actually the intel x25M has a 16MB onboard SDRAM@133Mghz cache . You can even see it if you take the drive apart, it's the same chip found in some platter drives

That's funny the spec sheet does not list any cache

http://download.intel.com/design/fla...-datasheet.pdf

full site is here

http://www.intel.com/design/flash/na...ream/index.htm

[BenchZowner]

Get into Windows ( with the SATA Configuration set to "AHCI" or "Legacy IDE", the one that lets you boot into windows fine ) and install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager.
Then you can switch the configuration to RAID mode and boot into windows normally.

You might have to install the inf's manually, I don't remember for sure.

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

Performance drop that eva2000 was talking about has been mentioned in several forums, with x25-m, x25-e and fusionio - identical to the benchmarks posted.

There is a workaround with cancelling and resetting the drives, but it's a PITA

Read these posts for more info and workaround:
http://forum.ssdworld.ch/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82
http://forum.ssdworld.ch/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35
http://forum.ssdworld.ch/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=59

[jcool]

Get into Windows ( with the SATA Configuration set to "AHCI" or "Legacy IDE", the one that lets you boot into windows fine ) and install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager.
Then you can switch the configuration to RAID mode and boot into windows normally.

You might have to install the inf's manually, I don't remember for sure.

I had to do some evil reg hacks to my Vista 64 when changing from IDE to RAID, installing the Matrix Manager or the infs is only part of the ordeal. I found instructions somewhere around ehre (they were for AHCI tho) but it really was a pain to figure out

[Mako88]

Getting to the point where I want to secure-erase the drive to reset its internal controller to the factory state. I never did write tests on the drive out of the box, it's making me wonder if it's possible a bad unit. Secure-erasing it will should provide the answer as a few others speculated in the thread...any suggestions on a good program?

[Mako88]

Looks ok, reads/writes in ATTO still erratic today:

[WRC]

is there a firmware upgrade for the drive? I would call intel just to make sure what they have to say about your issues

[Nostromo]

Just grasping at straws here..

You have tried other ports, and different SATA cable?

Nostromo

[rge]

Playing with the intel controller. These pics were all taken about 5 mins apart, and settings are exactly same. Defragging helps pcmark5 scores, but to alter Atto, to however you want it to look, just run small files for few mins (ex. total length very small x 4-5x) to increase 2-32Kb speed ....the controller for write speeds just adapts to what you are doing. Running small then large over several times, can get a good balance of all write speeds. But since the controller adjusts to what you mostly do anyways....

Pic 1 maximizing write speeds at 1024, hosing everything else.

Pic 2 maximizing write speeds at 2-32kb size.

pic 3 maximizing write speeds at 16-64kb size.

Pic 4 maximizing write speeds at 16-128kb size.

Pic 5 maximizing speeds at all kb size (staggering repeated runs)

[Mako88]

Playing with the intel controller. These pics were all taken about 5 mins apart, and settings are exactly same. Defragging helps pcmark5 scores, but to alter Atto, to however you want it to look, just run small files for few mins (ex. total length very small x 4-5x) to increase 2-32Kb speed ....the controller for write speeds just adapts to what you are doing. Running small then large over several times, can get a good balance of all write speeds. But since the controller adjusts to what you mostly do anyways....

Pic 1 maximizing write speeds at 1024, hosing everything else.

Pic 2 maximizing write speeds at 2-32kb size.

pic 3 maximizing write speeds at 16-64kb size.

Pic 4 maximizing write speeds at 16-128kb size.

Pic 5 maximizing speeds at all kb size (staggering repeated runs)

Interesting, I'm going to play with it as nothing has changed since I started the topic. Woeful write speeds in ATTO and inconsistent read speeds. Short of doing a secure erase and reinstalling everything I've run out of options.

It FEELS as fast as ever in real-world usage, but it's likely impossible to perceive the differences in say an SSD with a 100/MBs read speed versus a 200/MBs read speed (in say normal usage, not a big file copy or benchmark).

Thanks for the post.

[HDCHOPPER]

thiers a lot of tweeks on ocz website from Tony works really well !!
esp alignment of the drive before formatting

[ewitte]

I'm not really that big of a fan of the Intel SSD drives. Read is good but write performance is on par (actually slower) with the $125-150 drives and there isn't really even that big of a boost from the cache if your using even a $200 a controller with memory. I mean I added up the costs of the 3 drives I ordered and the controller and it came out to like $610 and that will probably give about 400MB/s read 250MB/s write on 192GB worth of SSD. Yet it costs $400 on the low end for 80GB worth of space on the intel.

[rge]

I wont be going back to HD ever after trying SSD's, including raid. Raid is great for benching but random access times of .1 with >200 read speed makes a much bigger difference in my day to day experience than when i had raid. But no question I will be happier when write speeds catch up to read...my guess in one year or sooner my intel drive will be obsolete and i will be upgrading to larger capacity and faster. Funny I was thinking my raid was a waste compared to my intel ssd...guess it all depends on how you view it and your particular use.

[Lestat]

if you have write cache disabled your SSD will bomb everytime.
i dont care what tony said about disabling write cache, if you disable it, the drive will write so slow you'll think your on a floppy drive. (dont take that literally, its not that slow but there is a massive difference)
my own testing of 2 different SSD drives has proven this and i am not sure where tony comes up with disabling write caching helps, it doesnt.
on the ICH 10 controller if you have the Matrix Storage Manager installed it WILL NOT allow you to enable write caching because its a single drive.
i am not sure why the f'ing program does that but on my old DFI X48 my single 1TB drive could not use write caching because the intel matrix storage manager saw it as a single non raid drive and for some reason blocked you from enabling it. while my 3x Raptors in raid0 were allowed to enable Write caching.
using device manager to enable write caching failed also as the ICH10 controller was blocking it.
be aware of this but give it a try.

if you enable the raid controller and do not make the drive a raid drive, windows will freak out because the controller is now a raid controller and not a standard controller. it just makes the drive non raid and bypasses the raid part of the controller (so to speak) and you'll probably get BSOD

personally i would reload windows and start over. enable the raid controller and install Vista. you wont need any special drivers just for reloading Vista see's the ICH10 raid just fine. (since the ICH8R-ICH10R are pretty much the same thing windows has built in drivers, although the ICH10R is better then its predecessors)

[Particle]

What would NCQ even do on an SSD? The whole point of NCQ was to optimize the head path on traditional hard drives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCQ

I vote for block size or offset potentially being an issue.

[tiro_uspsss]

my bet is on it being a poo-poo drive, RMA time I thinks

[Mako88]

my bet is on it being a poo-poo drive, RMA time I thinks

Yep, there's no other explanation. Even doing the staggered ATTO test mentioned above "fooling" the drive to push max speed at certain MB sizes results in the same strange 35-40MB/s write speed cap. Half of what others have gotten.

[rge]

Mine adapts after 2-3 runs, and it is back to full. If yours doesn't change for better, I would definitely rma it, after trying the wipe it clean, etc first.

And no kidding about disabling write cache being a bad idea...I did just to see it hosed performance, makes mako88 ssd writes look good...I could probably write with pencil and paper faster...wont be using mine with write cache disabled.