Installing an SSD? tips/tricks/benchmarks

And heres my M17x laptop 2x SSD intel X25-V 40GB in RAID0
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I would be very concerned with the 4k randoms in that... They are reminiscent to the ole Sammy SSD that was first introduced.

RAID is actually pretty interesting when u speak of ssds. You can get the seq read scores as high as you want by adding drives but until you can find a way to bring up the 4k randoms, there is not a person around that can tell one from the other by looking at the screen alone. Simply, you could put that RAID setup beside the single Intel and the speed you see in front of you is the same...unless you can find a way to use large sequential reads which are rarely used by the typical user.

 

My desktop is not RAID..... thats just 1 SSD 120GB... my laptop is

 

I've just ordered some SSDs to test with and I've also sent a note to engineering about this. Can you tell me what specifically I should be testing the performance with and what to look for? Thanks.

 

Your main concern should be the 4K random reads/writes. They are affected the most and those are that matter when it come to responsiveness of the OS and the SSD.

You can user CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD, ATTO disk Benchmark, etc
Any benchmark program is welcome, if you have a couple of runs post them somewhere so we can compare the numbers/run the same benchmark ourselves.

 

Also as it is mentioned in this guide if you are on win 7 you may want to run the test without the Intel driver/Nvidia controller driver.. I haven't hand good luck with them. The best performance has been on the windows 7 one.

 

Hey guys, I'm somewhat clueless when it comes to SSDs and so far I have heard Intel, Intel, Intel, but what about crucial? I love the brand when it comes to affordable ram, how have your experiences (if any) been with their SSDs?

 

the HM55 and PM55 are identical, the difference being the HM55 has Intel's security suite and the Intel HD graphics supports Display port, DVI and HDMI. PM55 for Performance(or if you don't need the secuirty suite), HM55 for multi-media/business class notebooks. Otherwise the same I/O controllers though.

 

I really find it hard to understand how an Intel chipset doesn't play well with at least an Intel SSD. That drives me crazy.

 

I've been wondering that too the crucial realSSD seems to have really good scores

Corsair's another but there seem to be some problems with them when I read through the official forums.
Solid State Drives (SSD) - The Corsair Support Forums

Mushkin also has a sandfoce drive now too.
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 120GB Solid State Drive Benchmarks – Crystal Disk Mark :: TweakTown USA Edition

I've sorta given up on the idea of one of these super fast drives since my m17x is crippled in the 4K dept, apparantly all PM55 laptops are. boooo intel

p.s. Can anyone reccomend a middle of the road drive that doesn't deliver faster speeds than the 4K cap so I dont spend extra $ for something I'm not going to get?

 

did anyone try 1000mb *just* the 4K and 4K CQ=32?

 

can't say it helped much in my case..

 

in other news, leaked Intel roadmap confirms 160,300 and 600gb new SSDs in Q4 this year.
Leaked Intel roadmap details Sandy Bridge CPUs, expands SSD lineup? -- Engadget

 

Yup they prob picked that leaked diagram here from the SSD thread....

 

So anyone know an easy way to clear the flash nand on a SSD drive (samsung)

I have tried HDerase but it would not even see the SSd drive when I booted up with it

 

use the Secure Erase command from Linux
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

 

did anyone install the new firmware for the dell 128 or 256 ssd drives? do they require a reformat of the ssd?

i ran crystal disk a few times. my speeds are about the same as anyone else with the dell samsung 256gb ssd.

 

Can you share some CDM bench test?

Thanks in advance

 

Yes after the firmware update you need to format and install the OS

Can you confirm TRIM is now enabled ?

 

my dellienware is from around may so the 256gb samsung ssd that came with it was already TRIM enabled. i'm interested to do the firmware update for the reported speed increase but i don't think many that have the drive posted before/after speeds, and i don't think that many of us actually have the samsungs because everyone just bought aftermarket.

sorry, i didn't take a screenie of my crystal disk runs but here are the numbers:

dell oem/samsung 256gb ssd - 42% full, in windows 7 NOT safe mode

run 1
203.6 169.8
158.4 101.5
12.68 5.797
18.58 3.923

run 2
209.2 149.5
164.1 72.03
12.38 4.101
24.36 5.192

run 3 - after intel rapid storage driver update from dell 8/2
206 161.8
161.6 102.3
12.68 4.704
19.6 5.174

run 4
206 163.3
160.3 86.8
12.69 5.205
18.48 4.354

 

Got my drives today, so I'll see when I have some time to install the OS and start testing. Hopefully by end of week.

 

Can i ask which drives did you get?

 

+1 on that, this way we can find results from different systems and configurations in order to compare results.

 

I'm thinking tonight or tommorrow I'm going to finally get around to installing my intel drives. Might try them in RAID 0 just for some benches to see how it goes, but ultimately I'm going to be using just one Intel SSD. After I secure erase it of course. They are both in the box unopened. Once I get home I might use the raid+optical HDD bay.

Are there any tests you guys are paying attention to in particular that I can run assuming I get around to everything?

 

Sorry if this has been asked before but it seems my 4k read and write are pretty low. I have the 160gig intel x25 bought in may or June. I'm running 64 bit win7. What do I need to do for optimal performance?

 

For the time being you can't do anything about it, it is a known issue and it's up to Dell to fix that.
Take a look here to confirm that you have similar results with the rest of us
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19340601.aspx

 

How low? Can you post the result?

 

Well I just got the 80gb Intel G2 at work so tested with my laptop quick.

All I can say is this is why I buy Intel drives (the 160gb is also shown for comparison)

 

damn, those speeds are sexy !

 

Not so quick there Stam... Can you run a Crystal Disk score in safe mode and post it? As well, are you running System Restore? HINT HINT I bet the latter is yes.

 

Hi all, just wondering if you think this score is normal. It seems a bit low. Its from my 160GB Intel G2. I've optimized it in every way, installed rapid storage etc.

 

Yeah, the scores are low but normal. (It's contradicting what I say but it is a know issue of the PM55 chipset)
The only thing you can do for now is to report it here:
Alienware M17x - R2 Killing the SSD performance - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community
and hope for Dell to fix it

 

Trust me Les, there is nothing he can do to increase the 4K random reads/writes above 18 MB/s 48MB/s respectively (those will be his scores in safe mode). All our SSDs are capped at those numbers.

 

@mfractal (or anyone):

Will your instructions (below) work for moving (& creating junctions) for frequently written to folders -- will it work if I move them to an external USB hard drive? (assuming I ALWAYS have the drive plugged in whenever I boot up)?

 

Yes, it will work but I am not sure how the performance will be.
Users directory contains different cache dirs for progs and they access it frequently, I am not sure it won't be counterproductive, I guess you should test and see.
Good luck!

 

Well, if I had an e-SATA port I might try it -- but I/O via USB 2.0 would probably make it counterproductive, as you suggest. Besides, I got my little Acer for portability and really don't want to lug an external drive around with me. So I'll take the writes from "users" folders and minimize all others as much as possible.

Excellent thread, thanks for starting it. I'll be getting my X25-M 80GB G2 in the next few days... the latest one offered on Newegg (has latest firmware installed). I'll post Crystal scores after applying most of the tweaks. Phil posted a couple registry tweaks in the thread for my model laptop that I'll also put in.

 

Just thought I'd mention I ran in safe mode and managed to get some good numbers.

 

Even though you have the M15x, this apply in your case as well
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ssd-speed-issue-investigation-discussion.html

 

Yeh I know, what can you do. Its pretty quick, programs start up instantly, boot up is quick, very good upgrade. I'm happy with it.

 

So why the better numbers in safemode? Is this what the dell engineers need to work out? If thats the case, shouldn't it be a simple toggle of a feature since whats holding it back is off during a safemode boot? I havn't been up to speed on the SSD issue much.

 

There will always be some kind of affect when software and applications come into play. This, quite frankly, is an excellent tool because it gives one an idea of exactly how much affect the OS is having on the performance of the drive. I have used this countless times to diagnose and it has worked great each time.

 

I got an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 40gb coming so I will do some comparisons between it and the Intel drives. It was $115 with shipping, I just could not say no to that haha

 

Waiting for one myself. It is identical to the others given exception to the size of the NAND.

 

So far I am a little confused on the new drive.....it is showing 146 MB/s sequential read......and I could not get it to format on my laptop, had to hook it up to the desktop. This is half of what I expected. Am I doing something wrong here? Drive is brand new, like 1 hour on it...according to CrystalDiskInfo at least. Intel 80gb is shown for comparison

Also just noticed that CrystalDiskMark is seeing it like a hdd and not a ssd.... what do I have to do to make this work properly....losing interest in this drive very quickly....

 

Do the same test but in 0Fill mode under the file menu. Crystal does not give accurate results to drives that utilize compression in their storage.

 

Doing that seemed to fix it. Next question, is that scenario (0Fill) going to be similar to the usage of the OS on the drive...meaning is that the performance I can expect in every day use? And it definitely looks like Intel has been dethroned haha - not sure if all SandForce drives are this good, but I am happy so far!

Here is 0Fill, with the 80gb Intel G2 for comparison


I also ran it with 1Fill out of curiosity


Looks like 1Fill causes a hit in performance (but again, these 2 ways to test are new to me and I do not know how they use the drive compared to the default (random) method. If someone can explain this I would be compelled to spread some rep around )

 

Check this out Scook
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6714533-post6781.html

 

Thanks for the clarification, I see he essentially had the EXACT same questions I did haha

So taking that into account, this should still at least match if not beat the Intel right?

I also assume he had a vertex 2 which gets special treatment from sandforce thus the better performacne

 

Yeah pretty much...

 

Wish it was more clear. Kind of odd that the drive needs special treatment to get expected performance. That is like saying your processor is X fast as long as you only do this one type of computation

As it is, I cannot say I fully trust it to perform as advertised yet