Readycache SSD slow (firmware 2.0.0)

SSD (Solid State Drives) All Other SanDisk SSD
1

Sandisk advertises the Readycache SSD to have a throughput of 480 MB/sec. Tests like on hardocp.com seem to confirm this.

I ordered two Readycache SSDs from two different vendors and tried them in two different PCs (AMD and Intel CPUs). There was a performance gain but not as big as I expected. So I measured the SSD raw performance of those Readycache SSDs and they only reach 200-230 MB/sec seq. throughput. The firmware version is 2.0.0.

Does Sandisk package a much slower SSDs in its newer Readycache SSDs ???

2

I guess it depends a lot on the benchmark and formating. With it running formated by it’s native software and after pausing disk caching, I also see those ~230MB/s max read under HD Tune. But when formated as NTFS, ATTO benchmark will saturate my SATA2 port (~274MB/s read), so it might as well reach those higher numbers in reviews.

edit: Firmware is also 2.0.0.

3

I’ve formatted the ReadyCache SSD with NTFS. The interface is SATA-6 on a new Dell Optiplex 7010 (Intel i3) - this cannot be the bottleneck. Used Atto, HD Tune and Crystal DiskMark to measure the SSD performance:

Atto: 115 MB/s write and 265 MB/s read

HD Tune (read): min 191 MB/s, max 211 MB/s average 201 MB/s

Crystal DiskMark: 258 MB/s seq. read, 118 MB/s seq. write

I also ran these tests with another ReadyCache SSD from a dirfferent vendor in my other PC (AMD): about the same results.

These are really bad results for any SSD. Given that a low budget hard disk has a throughput of at least 100 MB/s, the improvement through ReadyCache is probably small.

The read throughput in tests with firmware version 1.0 by the hardocp.com guys are MUCH higher: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/10/17/sandisk_readycache_32gb_ssd_review/4

I wonder if a sandisk employee could respond if (and why) Sandisk is now packaging a much slower SSDs with ReadyCache.

4

These numbers would be typical for an SATA-300 Interface. My ReadyCache SSD also has the 2.0.0 firmware, but I am reading between 330 and 355MB/s during a quick read speed test with HDTune. That’s not stellar performance, but combined with the short access time, it’s enough to outperform any conventional hard drive - if just the crappy software would work as it should (then it might even speed up my machine…).

So if you are just looking for a cheap and small SSD with 32GB in size, I think there’s nothing that speaks against the ReadyCache SSD (price/performance wise).

5

I just did an AS SSD Benchmark run and saw figures very similar to that test from [H]ardOCP (453MB/s sequential read speed). So I think it’s safe to assume that the current firmware revision alone is not responsible for your performance issue.

6

Thanks for taking the time to check!

The problem was indeed the SATA interface. Of the four SATA connectors on my mainboard obviously only two are SATA-600 (SATA-III). The other two are SATA-300 (SATA-II). Harddisk and DVD writer were plugged into the SATA-600 connectors at factory and I had plugged the SanDisk ReadyCache SSD into one if the remaining two connecors.

I swapped the DVD writer’s with the SSD’s connector and voila: I get the same fast speeds as [H]ardOCP.