Revo drive 3 + ASUS Z87-A + 760 SLI = problems

[Alexius92]

Apparently My RevoDrive can't get up to speed with this setup. in the benchmarks it gets up to ~300mb/s when it should be up in ~950

Seems like the problem is the motherboard. Is there any motherboard I can get this setup working? It would be good if it supported Haswell processors as well so that I don't have to buy a new one.

Any solutions?

 

[WyomingKnott]

300 MBS surprises me. 250 would not, 500 would not. My first guess is that your 760 SLI is hogging PCI-E lanes and leaving only one or two lanes for your poor Revo drive. An easy and definitive test would be to run with just the onboard graphics (or only one graphics card) and see if the speed increases. I'll update this post after I check out the specs for the motherboard.

Question 1) Which slots are each of these devices in? The graphics cards in the x16s and the revo in the X4? Strangely, the X4 slot is built physically like the X16 slots, so you have to be really careful.

Question 2) Before we go any further, can you do the test that I described above? It's really the key thing.

Question 3) What benchmark? Is that speed sequential read? Random 4k reads? The values will be very different.

Question 4) I see 4 models of Asus Z87. Which one do you have? For example, on the Z87 Pro V edition note 3 says "*3: The PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_2/3/4 slots. The PCIe x16_3 slot is set to x1 mode by default."

 

[Alexius92]

300 MBS surprises me. 250 would not, 500 would not. My first guess is that your 760 SLI is hogging PCI-E lanes and leaving only one or two lanes for your poor Revo drive. An easy and definitive test would be to run with just the onboard graphics (or only one graphics card) and see if the speed increases. I'll update this post after I check out the specs for the motherboard.

Question 1) Which slots are each of these devices in? The graphics cards in the x16s and the revo in the X4? Strangely, the X4 slot is built physically like the X16 slots, so you have to be really careful.

Question 2) Before we go any further, can you do the test that I described above? It's really the key thing.

Question 3) What benchmark? Is that speed sequential read? Random 4k reads? The values will be very different.

Question 4) I see 4 models of Asus Z87. Which one do you have? For example, on the Z87 Pro V edition note 3 says "*3: The PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_2/3/4 slots. The PCIe x16_3 slot is set to x1 mode by default."

Hi Wyoming! Thanks for the Reply!

Question 1: TBH I'm not 100% sure.
Here's a picture of the inside of the computer:
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll187/Alexius92/DSCN0529.jpg?t=1407855015
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll187/Alexius92/DSCN0527.jpg?t=1407854798
(Revo Drive placed below the 760's)

Question 2) I tried to do the benchmark with SLI disabled but didn't make a difference. Should I remove one of the cards physically first to find out?

Question 3) Here is a screenshots of 2 tests I did with Crystal:
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll187/Alexius92/RevoDriveBenchmark.png?t=1407854793

Question 4) The exact model is: ASUS Z87 Socket 1150 Z87-A MDP HDMI DVI VGA 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 SLI/CFX ATX

 

[WyomingKnott]

1) Looks right
2) Yes, I meant physically remove a card
3) Not what you want
4) That's specs, I need a model number. Look here for a list of all their Z87 boards: http://promos.asus.com/us/z87/comparison/ . My mistake, it's a Z87-A.

The spec page here, http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87A/specifications/ , says
Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode) THIS IS THE SUCKER
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
2 x PCI

So the third slot is physically x16 but actually PCIe 2.0 x2. Max theoretical rate 1 GB/sec in each direction.

Go back to question 2. Remove one graphics card and put the Revo in the other graphics card slot. If it's running near expected speed, you have identified the issue and we look for a mobo with a third slot that will run at x4. Hey, I forgot, is the Revo PCIe 2.0 or PCIe 3.0?

EDIT: "The RevoDrive X2 family gets its edge by employing a PCIe x4 interface (1GB/s bandwidth as opposed to 3Gb/s of SATA II) " At 250 MB/s per channel, that's PCIe 1.0. You need an x4 or higher slot. PCIe 1.0? Really? How old is the drive?

 

[Alexius92]

1) Looks right
2) Yes, I meant physically remove a card
3) Not what you want
4) That's specs, I need a model number. Look here for a list of all their Z87 boards: http://promos.asus.com/us/z87/comparison/ . My mistake, it's a Z87-A.

The spec page here, http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87A/specifications/ , says
Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode) THIS IS THE SUCKER
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
2 x PCI

So the third slot is physically x16 but actually PCIe 2.0 x2. Max theoretical rate 1 GB/sec in each direction.

Go back to question 2. Remove one graphics card and put the Revo in the other graphics card slot. If it's running near expected speed, you have identified the issue and we look for a mobo with a third slot that will run at x4. Hey, I forgot, is the Revo PCIe 2.0 or PCIe 3.0?

EDIT: "The RevoDrive X2 family gets its edge by employing a PCIe x4 interface (1GB/s bandwidth as opposed to 3Gb/s of SATA II) " At 250 MB/s per channel, that's PCIe 1.0. You need an x4 or higher slot. PCIe 1.0? Really? How old is the drive?

Okay So I now Physically removed the card and moved the Revo drive one slot up and was very surprised but I got the same results as before in the benchmark..

This confuses me a lot.

also yes, Z87-A is the right model.

Also sorry it was a long time since I bought this machine Revo Drive 3 is the one I have
Specs here: http://ocz.com/consumer/revodrive-3-pcie-ssd

 

[WyomingKnott]

OK, with the Revo drive in a slot that's running at least PCIe 2.0 x8, I have no idea what could be wrong. Unless the drive has seen a lot of wear and needs to be factory reset - no, even that wouldn't explain poor read speeds.

Hope that someone else comes along, or start a new post and include the information about that test. Sorry that I can't help you any further.