SB750 performance-Intel X25-M/G2 02HA Setting Up

[Nvidia256]

There seems to be allot of confusion around the Net about these drives in relation to performance and chipsets/settings etc...

Recently I purchased a New 80gb X25-m G2 02HA firmware drive. I plan to Install Win 7 on it.

My motherboard is an AM3 with the SB750 Chipset. Word is that the ATI's native SB750 drivers are not up to par in terms of reaching Max performance on the Intel SSD. OCZ and other manufactures recommend the *Microsoft AHCI* drivers for the SB750 rather the the AMD ones for better performance.

I am totally lost here, as there seems to be so many little different conflicting reports on what firmware to use etc... here is a list of points I hope somebody can clarify


-My drive came manufactured with Firmware 02HA(trim Support), should I update to Firmware 02HD(will this yield better performance)

-What SouthBridge Drivers Should I use for the my SB750, ATI or Microsoft

-What Speeds Should I be looking to Achieve when benchmarking the Drive in order to determine if it's running to Spec

-What settings or Modifications do I need to make to prepare WIN7 Installation, what about Cluster Size

-is over-provisioning mandatory for maintaining drive performance

-any guides for Win7 SSD tweaks

-Is there any other important information that I am missing?



Please if anyone can any these questions I would be very greatful

[Ao1]

-My drive came manufactured with Firmware 02HA(trim Support), should I update to Firmware 02HD(will this yield better performance)

Upgrading is not necessary for performance but I would do it anyway as bugs may have been removed that might cause a problem.

-What SouthBridge Drivers Should I use for the my SB750, ATI or Microsoft

If you are using Win 7 you need to use the MS AHCI driver 1.0 if you want TRIM to work automatically. There is little difference between the new Intel RST driver and the MS AHCI driver so I would suggest you use the MS driver, which is installed by default by Win 7.

If you don't want to use the default MS AHCI driver you can use the Intel Toolbox to manually run TRIM. The Toolbox can be downloaded here:

TRIM will not currently work if you are using a raid configuration. Hopefully this will change at some stage when the controller drivers are updated.

If you are using the Intel Toolbox for manual (or scheduled) TRIM you will find it takes a lot longer if you are using system restore. The more system restore points you have the longer it will take. If you disable and delete system restore points TRIM will take 1 to 2 seconds. If you don't it could take up to an hour depending on how many system restore points you have. Info on the Toolbox can be found here

I disable and delete system restore to save space, but this is an added reason to not use it. I use Win 7 System Image to make backups, which is quick and easy, and free.

-What Speeds Should I be looking to Achieve when benchmarking the Drive in order to determine if it's running to Spec

The 80GB drive is a tad slower than the 160GB drive. If you use AS Benchmark you should get a score of around 413 for an 80GB drive. If you are using a 160GB drive your score should be around 420.

AS Benchmark is quick and easy and can be downloaded here.

-What settings or Modifications do I need to make to prepare WIN7 Installation, what about Cluster Size

Make sure you set the BIOS to run in AHCI mode. AHCI mode is much faster than IDE mode. You don't need to bother aligning the drive as this will occur automatically.

If you have a TRIM capable f/w and the drive is in a used state before you install Win 7 you can format the drive correctly using the format command during installation.

If you don't trust the Win 7 format command you can use hdderase to wipe the drive. Hdderase V4.0 works on the newer f/w and it should work in AHCI mode, but if not set the BIOS to IDE compatible. (Don't forget to switch back to AHCI mode before you install Windows.)

You can download hdderase here:

-is over-provisioning mandatory for maintaining drive performance

I'm not sure what you mean, however there are a couple of tricks that work with Intel drives to improve performance and durability.

When you install Windows and set a partition size that is smaller than the drive size you will get a speed boost and the wear on the nand will be reduced. More can be found out on how this works on these Intel podcasts.

http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/id..._MEMS002/f.htm
http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/id..._MEMS003/f.htm

My AS benchmark score went from 420 to 441 by decreasing the partition size to 70GB from 160GB. It is debatable if that is worth the loss of capacity, but if you don't need the space it's a no brainer.

The gain in reduced nand wear is however considerable, even with a small reduction in drive capacity.

-any guides for Win7 SSD tweaks

I do the following:
Superftech - Set to disabled.
Defrag - Set to disabled. (it should happen automatically but it doesn't)
System restore - disabled for the reasons mentioned earlier.
File indexing - disabled. (most likely this does nothing)

-Is there any other important information that I am missing?

Ourasi uses a lot of other tweaks that can be found here

Unfortunately it needs to be translated, but maybe Ourasi will post them here in English if you ask nicely.

For reference my AS Benchmarks scores on a 160Gb drive are:

AS SSD Benchmark 1.2.3577.40358
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC ATA Device
Firmware: 2CV102HD
Interface: IDE
Size: 149.05 GB
Date: 28/12/2009 13:34:20
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 255.64 MB/s
Write: 105.06 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 21.69 MB/s
Write: 52.24 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 158.81 MB/s
Write: 65.58 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.057 ms
Write: 0.084 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 206
Write: 128
Total: 441
------------------------------

[Nvidia256]

Damn Nice!

Thank you so much audienceofone for your informative respone.

[TurboDiv]

Can someone post some test results with their Intel X-25M with 790FX or 750 on native Windows 7 AHCI drivers with automatic trim please ! Thank you. All results in the other thread are with Intel ICH9 controllers and we all know they will be probably slightly better or not ?

[trans am]

-My drive came manufactured with Firmware 02HA(trim Support), should I update to Firmware 02HD(will this yield better performance)

Upgrading is not necessary for performance but I would do it anyway as bugs may have been removed that might cause a problem.

-What SouthBridge Drivers Should I use for the my SB750, ATI or Microsoft

If you are using Win 7 you need to use the MS AHCI driver 1.0 if you want TRIM to work automatically. There is little difference between the new Intel RST driver and the MS AHCI driver so I would suggest you use the MS driver, which is installed by default by Win 7.

If you don't want to use the default MS AHCI driver you can use the Intel Toolbox to manually run TRIM. The Toolbox can be downloaded here:

TRIM will not currently work if you are using a raid configuration. Hopefully this will change at some stage when the controller drivers are updated.

If you are using the Intel Toolbox for manual (or scheduled) TRIM you will find it takes a lot longer if you are using system restore. The more system restore points you have the longer it will take. If you disable and delete system restore points TRIM will take 1 to 2 seconds. If you don't it could take up to an hour depending on how many system restore points you have. Info on the Toolbox can be found here

I disable and delete system restore to save space, but this is an added reason to not use it. I use Win 7 System Image to make backups, which is quick and easy, and free.

-What Speeds Should I be looking to Achieve when benchmarking the Drive in order to determine if it's running to Spec

The 80GB drive is a tad slower than the 160GB drive. If you use AS Benchmark you should get a score of around 413 for an 80GB drive. If you are using a 160GB drive your score should be around 420.

AS Benchmark is quick and easy and can be downloaded here.

-What settings or Modifications do I need to make to prepare WIN7 Installation, what about Cluster Size

Make sure you set the BIOS to run in AHCI mode. AHCI mode is much faster than IDE mode. You don't need to bother aligning the drive as this will occur automatically.

If you have a TRIM capable f/w and the drive is in a used state before you install Win 7 you can format the drive correctly using the format command during installation.

If you don't trust the Win 7 format command you can use hdderase to wipe the drive. Hdderase V4.0 works on the newer f/w and it should work in AHCI mode, but if not set the BIOS to IDE compatible. (Don't forget to switch back to AHCI mode before you install Windows.)

You can download hdderase here:

-is over-provisioning mandatory for maintaining drive performance

I'm not sure what you mean, however there are a couple of tricks that work with Intel drives to improve performance and durability.

When you install Windows and set a partition size that is smaller than the drive size you will get a speed boost and the wear on the nand will be reduced. More can be found out on how this works on these Intel podcasts.

http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/id..._MEMS002/f.htm
http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/id..._MEMS003/f.htm

My AS benchmark score went from 420 to 441 by decreasing the partition size to 70GB from 160GB. It is debatable if that is worth the loss of capacity, but if you don't need the space it's a no brainer.

The gain in reduced nand wear is however considerable, even with a small reduction in drive capacity.

-any guides for Win7 SSD tweaks

I do the following:
Superftech - Set to disabled.
Defrag - Set to disabled. (it should happen automatically but it doesn't)
System restore - disabled for the reasons mentioned earlier.
File indexing - disabled. (most likely this does nothing)

-Is there any other important information that I am missing?

Ourasi uses a lot of other tweaks that can be found here

Unfortunately it needs to be translated, but maybe Ourasi will post them here in English if you ask nicely.

For reference my AS Benchmarks scores on a 160Gb drive are:

AS SSD Benchmark 1.2.3577.40358
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC ATA Device
Firmware: 2CV102HD
Interface: IDE
Size: 149.05 GB
Date: 28/12/2009 13:34:20
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 255.64 MB/s
Write: 105.06 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 21.69 MB/s
Write: 52.24 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 158.81 MB/s
Write: 65.58 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.057 ms
Write: 0.084 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 206
Write: 128
Total: 441
------------------------------

very good advice but You forgot to tell him to go into ctrl panel\power options\see addl plans\set to performance\edit plan settings\change advanced power settings\go to the tree on the left pane to hard drisk\turn disk off after(set to NEVER)

Also download and Install Perfect Disk 10, Once installed, you have a few option to set:

-under the defragmentation tab set to consolidate freespace
-navigate to drive properties and check the option for Aggressively consolidate free space
-navigate to the autopilot tab
- hit the Stealth mode button and select the ssd you have
-below set to consildate free space
-Now with these basic settings all in place all you need do now for the first run is go back to the Defragmentation tab and hit the green go button and do a manual defrag... (consolidate free space should be selected)

Perfectdisk10 is safe for use with SSD

once this first run is finished you now need to minimise PD10 and if not already on you PC download and unzip AS-Cleaner http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...8&d=1257418520

Open AS-Cleaner, make sure you check with FF

run it all the way until the progress bar stops looping.

IF you are on sb750 you might want to go to amd catalyst site and go to motherboard/it. video/ indiviual mobo/chipset drivers dl the amd sb drivers and the ahci drivers.

bench both before and after and compare. its also good to run the as cleaner with FF before benching. Im assuming you already enabled write back cache on the disk. if not its mandatory for ssd.

[Ao1]

Just a quick update on the performance gain by increasing spare block provision.

This is all explained in the Intel podcast but as a quick summary....

The speed gain is achieved from the increased availability of the “ready to be written” resourse pool.

It works by essentially forcing more frequent background clean ups. The performance boost can be around 10% but the main benefit is more consistent performance. The performance boost is more suited to random writes.

Benchmarking results vary significantly depending on how the drive was put into a used state. If you put the drive into a used state by filling the drive with sequential writes you get a very different result as compared to filling the drive with random writes.

Changing a workload from sequential to random will cause a performance drop whereas changing from random to sequential will increase performance over time.

So in conclusion the performance gain will only really become evident on a used drive with a random write workload but the extent of the gain will be dependent on historical write patterns.

[Ao1]

@ trans am
Why would anyone with an Intel drive want to use Perfect Disk 10? What works for an OCZ drive does not necessarily work for an Intel drive. Same thing for the power option, is that not a quirk on OCZ drives?

[Anvil]

I tried Consolidate Free Space + AS Clean (against all advice and my own knowledge but I wanted to see the impact it had on a worn SSD) on one of my G2 Intels and while sequential throughput was largely unaffected random operations suffered a lot.
(in my case I had to HDDerase it to regain performance)

I don't recommend using this combo on the Intels, especially if you've got 02HA or 02HD firmware, it doesn't make sense at all if TRIM is active and working.
Run the SSDToolbox once a week or so if you're unable to use the original W7 TRIM enabled driver, essentially it does the same thing as AS Clean but in the Intel way.

CFS+AS Clean (FF) does work on the Vertex (fw 1.4 and 1.41) but only for a while, in my experience.
There is a lot to be said about GC on the Vertex but in the end it does regain performance, well, at least on the large blocks.

[TurboDiv]

Guys if i want to reinstall already installed W7 on the SSD do i need to format the SSD with a special program or W7 installation disk can do it by itself ? Also when i open the W7 installation i see 2 partitions - 100mb and the other 74 GB. DO i just quick format the 74G partitiona nd install windows again ?

[Computurd]

@audienceofone..the reasoning behind the hdd power options is that the vertex F/W runs cleanup when the drive is idle, so if it shuts off during sleep or idle it wont GC, however that will be fixed with real-time GC that will be in next FW...the beta is running great on it and it does both gc and trim so should be good stuff....oh well just in time to see me go off to the next gen's LOL

[TurboDiv]

@Nvidia256. Im curisous to see your results. Please post some when you install it. I had some trouble at first but after that i got it going.

[CrimInalA]

I don't recommend using this combo on the Intels, especially if you've got 02HA or 02HD firmware, it doesn't make sense at all if TRIM is active and working.
Run the SSDToolbox once a week or so if you're unable to use the original W7 TRIM enabled driver, essentially it does the same thing as AS Clean but in the Intel way.

nor trim nor the intel ssd toolbox work on raid 0 systems . that's why we use the perfectdisk workaround to keep our disks up to speed .

[Musho]

@audienceofone..the reasoning behind the hdd power options is that the vertex F/W runs cleanup when the drive is idle, so if it shuts off during sleep or idle it wont GC, however that will be fixed with real-time GC that will be in next FW...the beta is running great on it and it does both gc and trim so should be good stuff....oh well just in time to see me go off to the next gen's LOL

Sorry for the offtopic, but where did you find that 1.50 for Vertex is going to have realtime GC? As far as I know, Tony said 1.50 would have the GC from 1.41 (Which is _not_ realtime, as it cleans when the drive is idle) and the trim function from 1.40 and some bugfixes.

[Nvidia256]

@Nvidia256. Im curisous to see your results. Please post some when you install it. I had some trouble at first but after that i got it going.

Saturday I will post the results since I had to order new Computer parts. I will be testing this on a Brand new Gigabyte 790FXTA-UD5. I will compare the results with MS AHCI drivers against the ATI SB750. Although I am pretty Sure MS AHCI drivers will be the way to go since they have Automatic trim supported in them.

Here are the Results I obtained with My older Board an MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX, using the MS AHCI drivers. The 80gb Intel SSD has 20% of it's storage Unpartitioned and I have Write Cache Enabled.


-
-

[TurboDiv]

Thats about right. I get around 372-370 on AS SSD which is about the same as you.

[Nvidia256]

How come I am not getting in the 370 range?

[TurboDiv]

Disable C1E + CnQ and report back.

[Nvidia256]

Made no difference.

Here is what I have observed. ATI's AHCI drivers perform faster when benchmarking the Intel SSD. As nice as this may sound it's deceptive since the ATI ACHI drivers do not support Automatic TRIM and are also not compatible with the Intel tool box optimizer(for those without trim). Eventually the drive will become slower. One nice thing about the ATI AHCI driver is it boots Windows 7 very fast, at Twice the speed of the MS-AHCI drivers.

My motherboard also has an onboard Jmircron SATAIII controller. Sadly the drivers for this controller are less than stellar meaning the MS-AHCI drivers are much faster.

SIMPLY PUT! Using Intel X-25's with ATI chipsets require the Native MS-AHCI drivers for best performance it's best.