Asus Maximus IX Hero and m.2 drives -- one faster

[GregP74]

I put a pair of Samsung 960 PRO m.2 drives in this thing -- the m2_1 slot has a 1TB and the m2_2 slot 512GB.

Both are running in pcie mode, but I'm seeing the 1 tb one is running quite a bit slower than the other. Using the Samsung Magician utility, the 1tb is showing a benchmark speed of between 1800-2200 MB/S, while the 512gb is showing around 3000 MB/S.

I haven't tried swapping positions yet because I don't want to take it all apart again. Just wondered if anyone has a suggestion of something to look at -- bios settings, etc?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

What are the temps of the 2 drives , it does affect performance.

 

[GregP74]

The 512 is showing 29c and the 1tb 35c

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

When the temps go up performance suffers.

 

[GregP74]

The warmer one is the one near the CPU. Perhaps I'll try turning the fan over there a bit more

 

[mazboy]

ummm...check your board specifications. Often, only one of the m.2 slots runs at full speed, the other is just run off a SATA port...

 

[GregP74]

According to the manual they're both rather for gen 3 x4

 

[mazboy]

*2 When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled.
*3 When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is operating in PCIEX4 mode, SATA port 5. 6 will be disabled.

If I'm reading this correctly (ASUS is purposedly being unclear here) you get one full-speed m.2 slot (uses SATA 5 & 6) and one SATA speed m.2 slot (uses SATA 1)

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

The warmer one is the one near the CPU. Perhaps I'll try turning the fan over there a bit more

Same with mine , the one in the right bottom corner of my build runs faster and cooler.

 

[GregP74]

*2 When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled.
*3 When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is operating in PCIEX4 mode, SATA port 5. 6 will be disabled.

If I'm reading this correctly (ASUS is purposedly being unclear here) you get one full-speed m.2 slot (uses SATA 5 & 6) and one SATA speed m.2 slot (uses SATA 1)

There's an option in the BIOS for this port to set it to Auto, SATA or PCIE. It's def running in PCIE mode.

 

[GregP74]

The warmer one is the one near the CPU. Perhaps I'll try turning the fan over there a bit more

Same with mine , the one in the right bottom corner of my build runs faster and cooler.

Glad it's not just me. Next time I pull this thing apart I might switch them around but honestly it's going fast enough right now I'm not gonna complain too much.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I agree both of my 960's are quite fast , no complaints here too.

 

[GregP74]

I agree both of my 960's are quite fast , no complaints here too.

Yeah even the slower one is quite a bit faster than my 850 2.5" so I'm not going to complain too much. May swap them around next time I've got it apart but either way I really can't complain.

 

[lumineZ]

Go into Bios and go here:

Advanced ---> Onboard Devices Configuration

Now set:

M.2_1 Configuration: PCIE Mode
M.2_2 Configuration: X4


Keep in mind that doing this you will disable Sata port 5 and 6.
Sata port 1 to 4 will work unless you plug an M.2 sata drive into M.2_1 slot.

Got to ask. What Bios version are you running? There has been reported speed problem if you are running a Bios older than 1203 that has fixed the M.2 Samsung issue.

Sidenote:
The 1203 version is also the Spectre update so you should update to that no matter what.

 

[GregP74]

Ok I have those both set. Also have SATA controller turned off, ans I have no sata drives in there. And yeah, have 1203 on there.

 

[lumineZ]

Strange. If you have that big of a difference when you run a benchmark with the 1203 installed... I would contact Asus to be honest and ask them about it.

 

[GregP74]

I wish I could add a pic of the results here but i guess i cant

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I wish I could add a pic of the results here but i guess i cant

Use imgur.

 

[GregP74]

Oh yeah!

https://imgur.com/a/dnw9x

 

[lumineZ]

The difference should not be this big...

 

[GregP74]

Agreed.

I think tomorrow I'll switch them around and see what happens.

 

[GregP74]

So I switched the drives around and put the 512GB on M2_1 and the 1TB on M2_2 and I'm actually getting the same speeds from both drives. Perhaps the 1TB drive is just slower?

 

[lumineZ]

From Samsungs homepage:

RANDOM READ (4KB, QD32)
512 GB: Up to 330,000 IOPS (Thread 4)
1024 GB: Up to 440,000 IOPS (Thread 4)
2048 GB: Up to 440,000 IOPS (Thread 4)

RANDOM WRITE (4KB, QD32)
512 GB: Up to 330,000 IOPS (Thread 4)
1024 GB: Up to 360,000 IOPS (Thread 4)
2048 GB: Up to 360,000 IOPS (Thread 4)

SEQUENTIAL READ up to 3,500 MB/sec (does not matter the size)

SEQUENTIAL WRITE up to 2,100 MB/sec (does not matter the size)

 

[GregP74]

Interesting. When I swapped the drive locations they kept their speeds. Then I moved Windows from the 1TB to the 512GB... and it started showing the 1TB one going at the faster speed while the 512 decreased.

 

[lumineZ]

If it slowed down a tiny little bit I guess that is ok, since it will benchmark and at the same time keep windows running.