Help I am an SSD noob!

[9a3iqa]

This is the CrystalDiskMark result for my Crucial M4 256GB SSD:



How do I fix the terribly low 4K scores?

Thanks guys.

 

[RetiredChief]

First verify: What driver are you using? are your partitions aligned?.
Down load and run AS SSD (no need to run the bennchies), just open as ssd and look at the upper left. Driver should be either msahci or an amd driver. Partition algnment should indicate "OK"

I think you find that most reviews are done on a intel platform and AMD driver is not quite as good as intels iaSTor driver.
Will post a scrren shot of my M4 in a laptop.
Added: Firmware is a snap, just vist Curcial Wbsite for down load an instructions.
http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

My 128 Gig M4 in laptop (I have updated the firmware since to 0309, newest is 000F):

 

[9a3iqa]

First verify: What driver are you using? are your partitions aligned?.
Down load and run AS SSD (no need to run the bennchies), just open as ssd and look at the upper left. Driver should be either msahci or an amd driver. Partition algnment should indicate "OK"

I think you find that most reviews are done on a intel platform and AMD driver is not quite as good as intels iaSTor driver.
Will post a scrren shot of my M4 in a laptop.
Added: Firmware is a snap, just vist Curcial Wbsite for down load an instructions.

My 128 Gig M4 in laptop:
http://i55.tinypic.com/nbq5xj.jpg

Thanks for the reply, but I updated my post after doing some research. I changed it from IDE to AHCI and my 4K QD32 result increased tremendously. I also checked if partitions where aligned and yes they were. I am using an Intel processor so I doubt the driver is AMD.

Even though I have now fixed the 4K QD32 the 4K result is still really low.

How do I improve that?

 

[RetiredChief]

^ LOL, Looked at the bottom of your post and saw AMD, but that was for your GPU.

Yes pcide driver will do that all the time. Are you using the msahci driver or the prefered iaSTor driver (part of Intels RST driver down load).

 

[9a3iqa]

How should I know which driver is being used?

 

[RetiredChief]

I use AS SSD, If you look at my screen shot, upper left it is showing that I'm using iaSTor (intels equivalant of msahci). Do not have to run the bench mark, just open the program
http://downloads.guru3d.com/AS-SSD-Benchmark-download-2569.html

 

[9a3iqa]

I just checked, it is msahci just like you suspected.

So how do I install the iaSTor?

 

[9a3iqa]

And I just checked on the difference between these two drivers, according to the posts on this thread msahci is better.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142529

 

[RetiredChief]

Check the date on that post, it's 2 Feb 2011 over a year old. Intel has updated there driver several times since thencurrently @ 10.8 (I'm running 10.6)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology

 

[9a3iqa]

So Microsoft have not updated their drivers?

And how do you install them? Just the normal way? i.e downloading then double clicking on file to install?

 

[RetiredChief]

Note sure on how often MS updates their ahci driver. But from what I've read the intel is currently faster, One poster indicated that it was not a Quantum jump, but closer to a small inprovement. Remember msahci is a default driver meant to run on different chipsets where as Intels is optimized to run specifically on the intel chipsets. Mort attention has been given to SSDs since their 10.5 version.

Yes I believe all you need to do is down loadt the RST driver and run it (I'd right click it an select run as admin)

 

[9a3iqa]

Best answer selected by 9a3iqa.