Bad performance on Samsung 830

[Davey123]

I bought Samsung 830 128gb SATA III yesterday to replace my corsair force F80 SATA II that died 2 days ago. After a few hours of using the new ssd, I noticed that the performance seems to be slower than my dead ssd. So I ran ATTO Disk Benchmark and I got about 320 MB/s read and 220 MB/s write. That is ridiculous!! I wonder what's wrong with the SSD.

Samsung SSD Magician software doesn't help fixing the poor performance. Help! Please tell me what's wrong with my new ssd??

Another question I'd like to throw in, why my windows 7 does not disable super fetch and defragmantation automatically. I had to turn these off by my own.

I used Samsung Magician SSD Benchmark on the image below. ATTO showed the same result.

 

[dmoney1980]

are you running storage sata mode in AHCI (in the BIOS)? Is this on a fresh win 7 install?

 

[Davey123]

are you running storage sata mode in AHCI (in the BIOS)? Is this on a fresh win 7 install?

Yes, I fresh installed windows 7 when AHCI is enabled in the BIOS.

 

[brownstone]

Plugged in to a SATA III port?

 

[Davey123]

Plugged in to a SATA III port?

I did that too.

 

[pinkfloyd48]

I have the same SSD and getting 520 and 320 just cked

 

[dmoney1980]

could there be an alignment issue here? Does SSDlife check that? Just a thought...

 

[Davey123]

I have the same SSD and getting 520 and 320 just cked

Did you format the drive before installing? I installed Windows 7 when it was "unallocated space" instead formatting it into partition.

SSDlife? is that software? Gonna check that.

EDIT: Okay so this is the result from SSDlife

http://online.hddlife.com/ssdlife/b99dc3e6bad574d39d042b6c735b4733

EDIT 2: I reinstalled my windows 7 again checked my alignment and the offset range is divisible by 4096. Ran the benchmark again, same result...

Any ideas guys why my ssd is not running at advertise performance.

 

[Davey123]

Okay people. I solved this problem. After spending a lot of time googling internet finally I found what causes it.

IT'S MARVELL CONTROLLER'S FAULT!!! So I switched to intel ahci controller then problem solved!!
Marvell controller is known(barely anybody know about it *corrected*) to limit SSD performance because it uses PCI express x1 connection.

Unfortunately before I found the solution above, I returned Samsung 830 to the store and bought Corsair Force GT. I regretted of what I have done because I like the reliability that Samsung has opposing to Sandforce controller. I decided in the future, I will buy Samsung ssd when this Corsair GT is dead like my previous Corsair Force that is currently on RMA.

Corsair Force GT Atto Benchmark with Marvell Controller

Corsair Force GT Atto Benchmark with Intel AHCI Controller

LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE!!!

 

[Emulex]

marvell=junk

 

[sequoia464]

marvell=junk

Not certain, but I have read there is a new Marvell controller - the 9182 - that posts some decent results. I don't have one so I can't confirm - just from what I have read. Maybe someone here can comment on this.

I had two boards with the 9128 and it for sure had it's limitations - I would run my DVD drives off it, not my SSD's.

 

[Coup27]

Another question I'd like to throw in, why my windows 7 does not disable super fetch and defragmantation automatically. I had to turn these off by my own.

You're not alone here. I have setup 5 Windows 7 systems all with Intel drives (2 x G2 + 3 x 320) on 4 different platforms and not once has Windows disabled prefetch or superfetch.

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

You're not alone here. I have setup 5 Windows 7 systems all with Intel drives (2 x G2 + 3 x 320) on 4 different platforms and not once has Windows disabled prefetch or superfetch.

Hi Coup,

Did you run the Windows Experience Index? - this triggers Windows to automatically adjust settings in favour of an SSD.

Regds, JR

 

[COPOHawk]

Hey Coup 27:

This is also why you should be installing the Intel SSD Toolbox. I always run the optimization manager...along with running full diagnostic scans to make sure I don't have a bad drive out of the box.

 

[sequoia464]

Does windows set the settings for all SDDs in the system when you run the index, or just the drive with the operating system?

 

[groberts101]

Not certain, but I have read there is a new Marvell controller - the 9182 - that posts some decent results. I don't have one so I can't confirm - just from what I have read. Maybe someone here can comment on this.

That's true because the Marvell 9182 uses another PCI-E lane(x2) to actually hit 500MB/s.

 

[groberts101]

Does windows set the settings for all SDDs in the system when you run the index, or just the drive with the operating system?

just the pimary drive. If you have other SSD boot volumes on the same system you would need to boot to them and run WEI to properly set them up.

Many also don't know that the WEI also sets up the ACPI tabling between the bios, SSD, and Windows itself. Much of the latest Sandforce interaction issues(SF-2281) with those tables taught us that fact the hard way. lol

 

[reynoldsjrmy]

Does windows set the settings for all SDDs in the system when you run the index, or just the drive with the operating system?

Yep, as berts says just the primary.

Though to be fair all, bar disabling defrag, are only applicable to the primary when the primary is an SSD.

Regds, JR

 

[Coup27]

Hi Coup,
Did you run the Windows Experience Index? - this triggers Windows to automatically adjust settings in favour of an SSD.

Regds, JR

I do run WEI, but its one of the last things I do on a format. Soon after arriving at the initial screen I go through and disable hibernation, prefetch, superfetch and do my fave windows tweaks. I did not know WEI was anymore than a benchmark to be honest.

 

[reliabilityman]

Just reading this makes me curious if one should, if its possible to, turn off defragmentation in OSX?
I used to defrag all the time in OS 9 but since osx its not needed and I assume this is because the mac os is doing it behind the scenes without the user knowing?

 

[blackened23]

Glad you fixed the problem. I'm not a big fan of the marvell sata controllers either, why can't intel make a chipset with 6 sata 6gb/s ports already? I do not understand why z68 and x79 only allow for 2 intel sata 6g ports.