M17x RAID 1 Read speeds

Hello all,

Straight to the point:

I have two 7200rpm HDD (500GB) running in RAID 1 inside a m17x (t9600 @ 3.2ghz).

Write speed is 69.5mbps

Read speed is 30mbps

After comparing these results with other m17x alienware laptops I'm happy with the write speed but the Read speed is almost half of every other lappy.

Every LAN that I go to my computer is the last to load.. even after the $600 cheapy computers haha. I've tried with and without the NVIDIA raid controller and changing write caching within device manager but nothing really changes.

If anybody has an idea please share it with me! I'd like for my $3300 lappy to at least load faster than a $600 dollar one haha!

Cheers in advance!

P.S. Any further info required then hit me up and I'll post ASAP

 

Have you updated the chipset to the Intel chipset which is far better than the nVidia chipset. I think doing that would make a huge difference in both your read and write.

 

I've installed the chipset that is listed on the Dell Driver website, also the m17x driver thread lists a Nvidia chipset driver but not a Intel one. Would you be able to direct me to the correct intel chipset? Thanks heaps for the quick reply btw!

 

Looking to see what I did and will repost when I figure it out, dang chemo-brain drives me crazy sometimes!

 

Does anyone have an idea? Write speeds are normal but Read speeds are pretty much half the average.. If anyone has a link to the Intel Chipset drivers for the M17x R1 or has any other idea PLEASE post.. thanks!!

 

Doesn't support.dell.com have the chipsets drivers?

 

Try uninstalling the nvidia and install the intel drivers, in many cases the intel ones are better.

 

The dell website only lists the NVIDIA Chipset drivers for the M17x R1. If I go to Device Manager and uninstall the drivers for the following:

Nvidia Mirror 465.76G
Nvidia nForce RAID Controller
Nvidia nForce Serial ATA Controller

Will this affect my PC? I'm not to sure which component within the Device Manager is the chipset?

 

What Intel drivers? On the R1?

 

I thought i remember seeing once someone said that if they uninstaller the nvidia drivers windows installed an intel one, not positive though

Edit: I know that sometimes nvidia drivers can cause compatibility issues with ssd's, but that's a separate issues

 

I still don't see how can someone install Intel chipset drivers on the R1. If you have a link let me know

 

Sure i'll see if I can find it, btw how does your analysis of the r2 look?

 

Good, About the R2 results, better not hijack this thread, click on my signature, there are a couple of users who tested their R2,
Aikimox and nburro you can check there their results

 

Hmm ok I'll uninstall everything of a NVIDIA/RAID nature and see how I go. I'll post back with the HDD read speeds afterwards.

 

Ok after uninstalling the above mentioned drivers the following happened:

1) Windows reinstalled the same drivers

2) Thats it lol..

Greatly appreciate the ideas guys.. any more?

Normal Write speed.. half the read speed.. why?

 

Use the script from the following thread to remove the storage drivers
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6091239&postcount=3355

 

Nah that didn't work.. said something about my computer not meeting the specifications.

My next question is.. Is there a way for me to stop the computer from running on RAID 1 without losing everything? I.E. Turn my 1 HDD made up of two HDD INTO 2 seperate HDD? I'd rather not reformat or such but if this fixes the problem then I guess that might be the path to take

 

Did you try to use the driver sweeper after you uninstalled the nvidia chipset drivers?

 

ok.. well.. I just did the drive sweeper on the Nvidia chipset drivers after rebooting in safe mode and now my laptop won't boot.. it gets a blue screen of death and crashes. I'm currently doing a Advanced recovery via the Alienware thingo. After that is done I'm getting rid of Raid.. any tips on how to do this? No more driver crud for me

 

Something doesn't sound right... BSOD and crashes...
Anyways, if you want to unRAID the disks, from bios simply choose AHCI. You have to format both disks afterwards though and install everything from the beginning, Windows, drivers, programs... Also if you do this you will loose the recovery partition (if you still have it). So choose wisely. I would advise you to use the recovery partition to restore your system (if you have it).

 

if your running in RAID 1 and not RAID 0, then it's easy, simply disable RAID in the BIOS. Then it should just boot off the primarry HDD0. Then you can wipe the secondary drive and use it for storage since it will be a duplicate of your first drive due to the RAID 1. If its running in RAID 0, then your going to need to reformat/reinstall since your O/S is spread across two HDDs.

Also know that your read/write speeds may suffer in RAID 1 because the computer takes time to write to both HDD's. Thats the trade off for the extra security.

 

Well the recovery has gone well! I'm gonna reformat the computer with the seperate HDD still.. but I will report that I've tested both HDD and both now report read speeds of approx 75-80mbps.. thats almost 50mbps FASTER than it was with RAID 1.. ergh..

Next question (and thanks heaps stamatisx and everyone for your patience and help).. now that I'll have two 500GB HDD Is it smart to have windows installed on HDD A and all my games on HDD B? Or no matter?

 

Yes it is good to have the OS on one disk and the rest like music, games, backup files on the other disk.

 

if you set your system in Raid 0 both hard drives will work as one large hard drive. So you have 1 tb of space. I have 1.2tb of space due to two 640gb hard drives working as one. And a 2tb external hard drive for Crit save files.

 

I also agree to that, use them in RAID 0. It would make sense if you had an SSD and an HDD to use them unRAIDed

 

I would use one HDD to install your operating system in it and your applications. I would also use the other HDD as your storage drive. Where you save all documents, music, videos, photos, ect.

Problem with RAID 0 is that it doubles your chances of losing all your information. Now you have to rely on two HDD's to operate properly together. When one fails, they are both done since your info is scattered across two drives.

 

Raid 0 tends to have better speed in Games. The only reason I would not raid my setup is if I did not have a 2tb external hard drive as Back up.

 

TBH I'm going to agree with DR650SE.. After this toss fight with RAID 1 I'm perfectly happy to avoid going back.. especially considering it was obviously RAID that was causing such a dramatic loss of performance for me.

The only problem I have now is having to reinstall everything.. ARGH haha..

Thanks to everyone who helped!

Cheers,
Robbie

 

I found this and it migth explain things better http://gizmodo.com/5203952/giz-explains-what-a-raid-hard-drive-array-is-and-why-you-want-one

 

Get An Ssd