G73jh + C300 performance

I have a C300 128 GB SSD installed as a secondary drive on my G73jh. I think I have everything optimized, but my 4K access times are not good.

CrystalDiskInfo: 4K Read: 15.48 MB/s, Write: 20.48 MB/s
AS: 4K Read: 12.14 MB/s, Write: 15.95 MB/s

Otherwise, the values (Seq, 4K-64Thrd/4K QD32) are good to very good. But it's the 4K performance I need :-}

Firmware: 0007, Driver: iaStor

If anyone else has the same configuration, I'd like to know what kind of values you're getting. Also, someone in the Crucial forum said I should try disabling C1E and EIST in BIOS, but there are no options for this (at least not in v213). Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

You should read something here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-g2-160gb-g73jh-why-sluggish-performance.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...et-can-not-take-full-advantage-fast-ssds.html

 

I have a G73 and a C300 with the newest firmware.

Mine was slow at first also till I did the 2 main tweaks out there.

I did the CPU Halt States Edit, and some kind of PPM tweak.


No more turbo boost, and cpu is supposed to be hotter but none of this has effected me in a negative way so far.

 

And when testing, you need to test with compressable data (not random).

 

A C300 don't need this trick to have nice results.

 

Thanks for the links and hints. It's a lot to digest, but I'm working my way through it. I tried reverting back to the standard MS AHCI drivers and it helped (or at least it appeared to - who knows what other confounders are out there ;-)
Anyhow, 4K write is now up to ~40 - not ideal, but also no worse than in safe mode.

 

wow 40 is faster than what I get and I did all those crazy tweaks.

Im using the Intel RST think guess I need to see if the MS driver is better.

 

Cryptocat, did you see any difference for 4K-64Thrd/4K QD32 with MS AHCI vs iastor?

 

I just did a test with the MS Drivers and yep the 4K write did go up to 40 from the 32 I had with Intel RST.

However there are other changes that are not good, reads go down and I think I read more than I write, so based on these results I think I will change back to the Intel RST driver.

Intel RST: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
MS AHCI: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Any experts want to look at those 2 comparisons and tell me witch you think is better?

 

I have a question, how is the new firmware going?
Since I had applyed THOSE FIXes to avoid the annoying freezes, do you suggest that I get the firmware update anyway?

 

@Vicious
Msahci looks better. I guess you won't feel any differences.
But I will check the msahci here too.
Do you have applied both tweaks?

@Jonny
Do you have freezes?
IMO these were reported only on sata6gbit ports.
The firmware 0007 had the intention to fix it, but doesn't.
If not, let LPM activated.

 

Thanks for all the input.

@namaiki: I did the test with iastor with 5 x 1000 MB, so I had to repeat that tonight with MS AHCI for "direct" comparison. "direct" in quotes because there are so many factors affecting performance that it is hard to compare. In fact, I don't see the 40 MB/s for 4K write, right now, but, anyhow, here are my results:
C300 with iastor

C300 with ms ahci


->no significant difference in the 4KQD32 scores.

@JonnyFrost: can't really tell you anything about the firmware upgrade. That was the first thing I did after I installed it - and I haven't really been using it yet, just trying to optimize it. I will let you know if I see any freezes. Thanks for the Crucial forum link. The regedit fix looks promising.

@tilla: When you tell Jonny to "let LPM activated" are you advising against this regedit fix? (ich wohne in München - also wenn es für Dich leichter ist, auf deutsch zu unterhalten, geht das bei mir auch.)

@ViciousXUSMC: I agree with tilla (layman's opinion), the MS AHCI looks better. Thanks for the tests and the input.

Oh, and for comparison - or just for the record - here's the test I ran last night:


But, even just an hour later, the 4K had dropped again. I just assume/d that it has to do with background processes or other load factors. I read somewhere that performance goes up when you really stress your CPU, but I wasn't doing that for either test. So, the mystery continues ...

BTW, I just tried out the regedit fix (deactivating LPM) and switching back to the iaStor -> not good, 4K dropped back down to 20.

 

Sticking with MS AHCI for a day then going back to Intel. Intel felt faster to me even if it did not quite show as good in the benchmarks.

Remember loading stuff is read, and installing stuff or unzipping stuff is write. I think most people read more than write so the Intel did have a big boost in read speeds for me and its also much newer than the MS AHCI driver.

 

It is late and I am slightly buzzed, so forgive me if this has been mentioned, but which chipset are you running? There are some tweaks by Stanismax and JJB that allow you to get performance closer to spec on intel 5 series chipsets, which have throttling built in. I used JJB tweaks on my G73 and my 4k randoms increased quite a bit. Again, several drinks in, so if this has been covered, forgive me.

Maybe try Throttlestop. There is a thread under hardware.

 

I did the registry edits to disable EIST and C1E that works just as well without needing to install any software.

 

FYI, blasting tons of data onto an SSD with these synthetic tests is a bad idea for a number of reasons. Aside from the wear, the SSD controller will likely drop into a reduced performance mode for a period of time because it detects the above normal write usage and tries to protect the drive.

Even without tweaking of any kind a SSD will dust a HDD so just use it normally and be happy I say.

 

Benching over and over is not good but just a test to see if things are performing as normal is a good idea I think so you cant spot if there are any obvious problems.

 

@Cryptocat
If you have problems with freezes on C300, then you can try disabling LPM. I don't recommend it for notebooks (energy saving) or if you don't have any stuttering or freezes. It's a well known problem of the C300. But my C300 in desktop rig never had ones. On notebooks it is enabled by default (RST driver installation). Since last versions 10.xx (IDK) Intel decided to enable this on desktop installations too. But the C300 don't likes it too much.
(Klar. Auf deutsch geht's bisl einfacher. Ist am besten hier beschrieben.)

@all
FYI. A CrystalMark 5x1000MB writes over 20GB of needless data.
Better try with lower package (50MB) or even better use AS SSD.
'Only' 4-5GB per full run.
Disabling C1E or EIST aren't the right way! That is a notebook!

 

There was a little voice in the back of my head that said, "you're unnecessarily stressing your nice, new SSD." So thanks for making that voice loud. Anyhow, I had switched over to 1 x 100 MB with Crystal - only reran the 5 x 1000 for comparison to a previous test with iaStor.

 

Here is my AS SSD testing.

MSAHCI wins this one too, and the loss in read speed does not look as bad.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Still the Intel "feels" faster to me I think.

Edit:

Also system reboot times:

Intel:
14.788
14.523
14.211
14.274
15.568

MS:
14.617
14.445
14.367
13.844
14.539

Hard to say who wins that test... Intel had one randomly higher number in the 15 sec mark, MS had one randomly lower number in the 13 second mark but Intel has the faster middle times with like 14.2 while MS is about 14.4 If you just do an average MS will win.

 

Wow, that is FAST. Congratulations!

 

well got my update firmware, was about to upgrade the ati/realteck driver and...

BSOD...

No more SSD recognized

I thought it was dead -.-

Instead it just hardly freeze but somehow I could not repair windows, so here I am, from a brand new installation...

And without the tweak actived, yes, I had a freeze, I am wondering if that Intel rapid storage must be keept installed...

Anyway I shall have fixed nearly everything and I am back running again :3

 

After much tuning, configuring and testing, I'm finally a happy camper:

4K writes are now >40K.

Here's a synopsis of what I did:
- I had gone back to msahci because my SSD was faster with it, but my system temps were on the high side (68C idle).
- I disabled power4gear -> idle temp came down a few degrees, but when I ran Prime95, -> BSOD (temps over 90C before shutdown)
- I had done the registry edits to deactivate LPM, so I undid these -> idle temp went down to 58 - 63C.
- Switched back to iaStor. Idle temp dropped to 51C, Prime95 ran stably at 83-85C. But 4K write dropped from ~30-38MB/s to 28MB/s
- applied JJB tweaks. Idle temp stayed at 51C, 4K write increased to 37.
( already now I'm pretty happy ;-)
- Tried optimizing JJB tweaks by increasing the 95% tweaks to 99%. This increased 4K write marginally (to 38). But the machine seemed to be running hotter (as warned) under load, so I undid this -> i.e. went back to 95%.
- Check 4K write under CPU load of 20 to 40% -> 4K write 45!

I think it's working pretty well now. It seems stable and temperatures are good.

Thanks to everyone for pointing me in the right direction and sharing your experiences.

 

So you found Intel to be better than Microsoft Crytocat? Or you did it only for temps?

I have all the teaks applied, and the JJB @ 99% and have not heard my fans going or noticed any high temps.

What program did you use to view your temps?

Using Coretemp I see 55c idle and thats fine with me.

Temps can be due to my environment (cool office on a desk) and also my unit (better paste job and maybe cleaner cooling system) temps can even be determined by the cpu itself, some run hotter than others.

 

@ViciousXUSMC,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you: I just finished turning my C300 into the primary disk (clean Windows install, etc.) and it was kind of a long, bumpy road. But, I'm happy I did it - I can bounce my system now in 20 seconds!

I was using Aida64 to measure my temps. I am currently still trying to optimize the C300 in its new role as primary. During the clean install, there were some problems with driver conflicts, so the configuration isn't exactly the same as before.

I downloaded Core Temp (thanks for the tip) and have measured my temps with that. They are higher than they were, but still seem OK.

But, yes, my main reason for going to the iata driver was the temperatures.

Anyhow, current state of things is:
CPU: 55 Celsius idling, 70 Celsius under load (FSX)
4K write: 35 MB/s idling, 50 MB/s under load (FSX)

Right now, Power4Gear is installed. I may try uninstalling that, again.

Observing my GPU temps while playing Portal also caused me some concern - up in the mid 90s after about 5 minutes.

This will be my next project. According to Chastity's post, I've entered the area where you should seriously consider repasting, but I'm hesitant to try that - especially after watching the videos. Even the professional looked like he was having a hard time with the keyboard.

I bought the G73jh because the graphics card in my old laptop (Dell XPS M1710) burnt out. So, maybe I'll practice "operating" on it. People say that if you take out the graphics card and bake it in the oven, it works again, at least for awhile. I could practice repasting on it, I suppose.

Wish me luck. I wish you the same.

 

the tape can be opened using a scraper. makes it a lot easier

 

Like a small putty scraper? Thanks.