Question Low speed with new SSD M.2 (Hynix 256GB)

[simopl]

I just bought a brand new laptop (Asus Vivobook 17 Pro) with SSD M.2 256GB from Hynix. After I updated Windows 10 to the newest version I decided to run HD Tune benchmark on my disk. No apps / programs were running in the background. As you can see on the screenshot there are a lot of speed drops in the test. Is there something that can be done about it or is the disk faulty?

 

[kanewolf]

M.2 is just a form factor. The interface could be NVMe or SATA. This page shows that it is a SATA drive -- https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ASUS-VivoBook-Pro-17-N705UD/specifications/ so you won't get 1500MB/s or other NVMe rates.

 

[simopl]

@kanewolf - thank you for your reply. I know that NVMe would have a better performance but that is not my point. What I'm having issues with are the visible speed drops from 385 to 75MBps. I have tested a lot of SDDs and whenever I checked them the speed was always constant - the line in HD Tune benchmark was not showing visible transfer drops or there were just a few tiny ones.

 

[Eximo]

Like all flash technologies they aren't that fast 100% of the time.

How full is the drive?

It is an MLC drive, so only two bits per cell. Typically the fast speeds are achieved by writing only the first bit on each cell. Simulating SLC memory. When it can't do that it has to slow down and start moving bits together. The more full the drive, the more this will happen.

Even SK Hynix's pages doesn't list if this is a dramless drive, I wouldn't think so, pretty sure one of those chips is ram. Drive's without their own RAM can't cache much, so slow downs are to be expected.

 

[ShawnWager]

It might be worth opening it up and checking for other other M.2 slots, they could be either PCIE or SATA. I've seen complains of manufacturers wasting these high bandwidth slots on wireless adapters while other expansion slots are still available. Just a thought =D