SSD not performing at advertised

[kuwok]

I know there are a bunch of threads about this but I can't say I have time to read them all, so here goes...

I have:
Asus x58 Sabertooth with the Marvell 91xx controller.
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
12gb of RAM
Intel i7 950 3.06Ghz (standard not overclocked)
1TB Western Digital HDD that I cleaned out and formatted.
I am using the 6gb/s cable that came with the mobo and I have it plugged into the 6gb/s slot of the mobo.
I did a fresh install of windows 7 64-bit.

I also followed all the steps from http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

I still only get 364.17Mb/s read and 174.51Mb/s write via AS SSD Benchmark.

Don't get me wrong the sdd is nearly 4 times faster than my HDD but I'd like to get closer to the advertised 500Mb/s range

 

[JohnnyLucky]

You have an older motherboard with an older Intel chipset. The two light gray colored SATA 3 6Gb/s ports on the motherboard use a Marvell 9128 controller. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the Marvel 9128 controller is not very good.

Actual solid state drive performance will differ from published specifications and benchmarks. Companies choose a benchmark that makes their ssd's look most favorable. Some companies manipulate the benchmarks to make their ssd's look even more favorable. There is a reason the benchmarks are called "synthetic benchmarks". At best they are only a very very rough approximation of real world performance.

You have a 128GB ssd. The general rule of thumb is a small capacity ssd will not perform as well as a large capacity ssd. That's why companies typically send out 256Gb ssd's for technical reviews.

Please run the ATTO benchmarks and post the results. That's what a lot of the ssd companies use.

 

[buzznut]

^ +1

Those rated speeds are max values under the best of conditions. Your older mobo is not the best of conditions. I would say your numbers are not too shabby for the present.

 

[RetiredChief]

3rd what johnny stated.
Don't be too concerned about the Sequencial speeds as these are the LEAST important matrix, it's the 4 K random that are the most important for a OS + Program drive.

Try this, measure the time to load your operating system - Time from "start loading operating system" until that little circle stops spinning. Disreagard and repeat if you get a message "installing updates"

Move SSD to the Intel Sata II controller. let windows install the generic msahci driver then switch the driver (install) Intels iaSTor driver. Intel's ahci driver (ver 10.5 or later) is better than msahci default driver. Repeat above test.

Just for comparission, my laptop w/M4 loads operating system in about 17 sec. Time varies for users as each user's setup loads different start-up programs. My Desktop w/samsung 830 (very simular performance to M4) loads operating system in about 12 Sec, but currently has less startup programs than laptop - Yours will be somewhat slower as on Sata II, but gives an indication of diff between intel sata II and Sata III ports..

AS SSD is a good program to show Firmware ver (m4 latest I think is 0009), Driver used (Both my desktop and laptop = iaSTor), and if partition alignment is OK (Would expect it to be OK, normally this is only BAD if imaging a HDD -> an SSD)

 

[ahnilated]

I know there are a bunch of threads about this but I can't say I have time to read them all, so here goes...

So what makes you think we have time to respond to you when you don't have time to read threads already dealing with this?