Sandisk Extreme 240GB below-average performance

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1

MB: G1.ASSASSIN2
CPU: i7 3820
RAM: 16GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz Quad-chan

AHCI Mode, using Intel SATA-III port, Windows 7 Ult x64 (GPT)
Intel Rapid Storage Technology-E
R201 Firmware

Ever since I got the drive and benched it to make sure everything was in order, I noticed that it’s speed seems a bit off. Especially for the lower end read speeds, but both read and write seem below what they should throughout the test.
Do I have a bad drive, or is there something I can do to improve performance?
Thanks.

(By the way, I’ve made sure to optimize the OS to be used with SSD. Trim should be working, and defrag disabled, as well as many other tweaks)

2

Well, mine’s even slower than yours:

I’ve tweaked everything mentioned here:

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

So slow, what gives?

3

If you’re using your Intel Sata-III port, along with AHCI mode, I’m not sure, that seems very off.

Mine is off, but not by a large amount. I’m more-so disappointed that my read spead isn’t a bit higher, write I’m not so much worried about.

Maybe the websites that benched the drive were sent the cream-of-the-crop hand picked drives that normal consumers won’t normally get, or maybe they used an earlier firmware with better performance, I wish I knew…

4

I bought mine from Amazon, it was $200

Now I don’t think I have SATA3, I may have the SATA one or SATA two, but I’m not sure, I have a HP PAvilion g6-1c77nr, but based on the benchmark, can you tell if it’s SATA one or two?
 I have AHCI on and I follow a guide to tweak the SSD to its best:

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

And that’s the result I have, the SSD is faster than my previous HHD, but not that fast.

Is it possible to upgrade my laptop to SATA3 without buying another laptop?

5

@wesker wrote:

I bought mine from Amazon, it was $200

Now I don’t think I have SATA3, I may have the SATA one or SATA two, but I’m not sure, I have a HP PAvilion g6-1c77nr, but based on the benchmark, can you tell if it’s SATA one or two?
 I have AHCI on and I follow a guide to tweak the SSD to its best:

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f128/ssd-tweak-guide-236563/

 

And that’s the result I have, the SSD is faster than my previous HHD, but not that fast.

Is it possible to upgrade my laptop to SATA3 without buying another laptop?

the speed you are seeing is normal for a computer with SATA II. if you had SATA  I it woould be >133MB/s

6

ok cool, so I have SATA II then, now is it worth it to upgrade to SATA III? Is it possible to just buy a SATA III Controller and install it on my laptop?

7

You realize, you’re basically hi-jacking my topic by asking this in here. Your first post here wasn’t even relevant because you aren’t running the drive in Sata-III mode.

8

@wesker wrote:

ok cool, so I have SATA II then, now is it worth it to upgrade to SATA III? Is it possible to just buy a SATA III Controller and install it on my laptop?

to answer your question no you can’t just replace the SATA controller. You would need a new motherboard. since your laptop probably only has one type of motherboard which has SATA II you would need to buy an entire new laptop. 

9

@hypereia wrote:

MB: G1.ASSASSIN2
CPU: i7 3820
@ram: 16GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz Quad-chan

AHCI Mode, using Intel SATA-III port, Windows 7 Ult x64 (GPT)
Intel Rapid Storage Technology-E
R201 Firmware

 

Ever since I got the drive and benched it to make sure everything was in order, I noticed that it’s speed seems a bit off. Especially for the lower end read speeds, but both read and write seem below what they should throughout the test.
Do I have a bad drive, or is there something I can do to improve performance?
Thanks.

(By the way, I’ve made sure to optimize the OS to be used with SSD. Trim should be working, and defrag disabled, as well as many other tweaks)

Your ATTO performance is a little off, which given what I’ve read about X79 chipset platforms, is at least partially due to the RSTe driver.

X79 boards are the only Intel PC platforms that use the RSTe driver. I’ve seen complaints about this driver from several SSD benchmarking enthusiasts. RSTe is an Enterprise (business and professional applications) oriented driver, and its performance is tuned for that purpose. The standard Intel PC AHCI/RAID driver is IRST. Small file (4K) and random file I/O performance is more important in the home PC environment than in Enterprise use. The bottom line is, these two drivers perform differently, and you can find that few if any PC hardware review sites use X79 platforms for SSD testing. It’s not terrible or actually bad, just different. So comparisons of SSD performance on X79 platforms with other platforms is slightly inconsistent.

The “cure” for this, if you want to go that route, is to use the standard IRST driver used with the other Intel 7 series chipsets. But that is not as easy as installing that driver, it won’t install with the IRST installation program once it recognizes the X79 chipset. You must manually/force install the IRST 7 series iaStor.sys file, from the F6 installation IRST driver download. I’ve never done this myself, but you can Google on this topic for a better explanation.

Otherwise, your SSD is fine IMO.

10

Awesome reply, thank you for this valuable information. I will probably try this tomorrow once I have a bit more energy.

11

From using:

File name:
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Version:
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    Download

Date:
06/07/2012     
Status:
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Size:
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Language:
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High end reads improved, 4k reads still seem low.

12

what you are seeing is normal 

13

Then why is the performance so much higher in this benchmark? http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/sandisk-extreme-240gb-sata-3-ssd-review-equal-4k-readwrite-iops-performance-observed/3/

14

Have a look here:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/SanDisk-Extreme-SSD/HOW-TO-GET-YOUR-SSD-PERFORMANCE-BACK/td-p/281740