SSD Performance

I installed an Intel 520 Series 180GB SSD as a boot drive. It's in port 0.
I am running A08 Bios.
The performance of the SSD according to HD Tune 2.55 is:

MIN: 256.0 MB
MAX: 404.0 MB
AVG: 351.1 MB
ACCESSS: 0.1
Burst: 119.6 MB
CPU: -1.0%

This doesn't look like SATA 6 peformance to me. (could have the wrong terminology here) but maybe I'm wrong. Can someone give me some pointers on getting the best performance out of this thing?

Thanks.

 

You should put the SSD in bay 1 (in the middle of the laptop). Bay 0 is known to fluctuate between SATA II ans SATA III speeds while Bay 1 is always SATA III on the A08 BIOS.

Edit: For reference to anyone who may see this, I am referring to the R3.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Okay, just verified and it is in the middle, thought that was 0 and not 1.

Are my numbers normal for SATA III then?

 

Try running a program called "AS SSD". That will give you a benchmark of how your drive is performing.

Those look like SATA III to me, though.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

The port operating at 6GB/s is not going to guarantee the drive has read/write speeds that are great. What I mean by that is low benchmark speeds on a drive may or may not be an accurate indication the SATA port is operating at the slower SATA 2.0 3GB/s speed. It could be a drive performance issue showing up as low benchmark speeds.

Launch Intel Rapid Storage Technology and it will tell you if the port is operating at SATA 3.0 6GB/s. See attached thumbnail.

 

Okay did that, score is 397. Read and Write speeds look low though.

Intel RST is showing 6 GB/s for it as well.

 

Those are SATA III speeds and I think those are typical numbers for the 520.

Edit: Good catch Mr. Fox, I didn't notice it off screen left of my device. After looking again, the speed is SATA III but not typical for a 520 as pointed in the post below. I was judging off of memory, which turned out to be a memory of a post about someone saying their drive is under-performing. My fault there, sorry about that. I need to stop making posts at 2am.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

SSD performance issues are especially common after cloning a Windows installation from HDD to SSD. Did you do a clean Windows 7 installation to the new SSD or clone it? Did you notice the 1K BAD? It appears the drive is not properly aligned.

Cloning does a good job from HDD to HDD or SSD to SSD, but not HDD to SSD.

Those speeds are less that the drive should be delivering. The Intel SSD 520 Series delivers sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MB/s. Your sequential write speed is substantially less that the drive should have, even at SATA 2.0 speeds.

 

Mr. Fox,

It was a clean install. Not sure about "properly aligned" unless you're referring to how it is sitting in the bay. It only fits one way though so..............

Pardon my ignorance.

 

Mr. Fox was talking about proper partition alignment. Here are two good resources on alignment:
SSD Alignment
Speed Up Your SSD By Correctly Aligning Your Partitions

 

Roger that, I googled it after posting and felt kind of stupid. I just bought Paragon Alignment Tool and will try to DL it and use it tonight when I'm on a wired connection. Currently on a wireless network and it's not nearly stable enough for me to trust it for a 33MB download.

Downloaded and ran Paragon...........significant improvement in the AS SSD score however it's still nowhere near the "advertised" speeds that the drive is supposed to be capable of. Intel RST still says 6 GB/s for the port it's on. Edited to add, 36 seconds from cold start to usable desktop without the spinning cursor, 30 seconds to the spinning cursor desktop, remaining 6 seconds is spent loading the tray icons.

Anyone else with an Intel 520 series that can validate these numbers or tell me where else to look?

 

Our numbers are pretty similar now that you're aligned. But my boot times are anywhere between 10-20 seconds. I have no AV running though...do you have a ton of startup items?

 

Assuming I'm looking in the right place, and believe me that's a HUGE assumption............the only thing I show in my startup menu is Killer Wireless.

Now I'm relatively sure that more programs are loaded and running at startup but I'm not seeing them.

 

No reason to feel that way. If we had all the answers, then most of us wouldn't be here on the forums. Glad that helped. It looks much better now. One thing to bear in mind is that benchmark results on SSD drives may not be a reflection of advertised read/write speeds. Maximum advertised speeds are often under sterile conditions, and performed in a manner that is known to produce the highest numbers. The user experience and satisfaction level is an equally valid indicator of SSD performance.