How to maximize the performance of OCZ Agility 3 (120gb)

Hi,
I recently bought an OCZ Agility 3 6gb/s (current firmware is 2.11) to replace one of the HDD on my MSI GT680 laptop (i7 2680QM (ES) ) but since it's tested with AS SSD Benchmark, the maximum read and write are not as 500mb/s (192mb/s read, 132mb/s write only) . I would like to ask if you could guide me how to maximize the performance of Sata 3. I believe my laptop is supporting Sata 3, I also adjust to AHCI in Sata mode. Thanks

 

Sandforce drives only get their advertised speeds in ATTO due to their reliance on compressible data. You won't see 500MB/s in AS SSD. Run ATTO and report back.

 

To get the most, real world performance of your SATA3 system, you need an Intel 510 Series 250GB SSD. SF basically lies when they state their performance specs for their drives - they know that no real world usage pattern exists for the defaults that ATTO uses - so, the only reason to continue doing so is to dupe their customers.

To get the most, sustained, performance from any SSD:

Perform a clean Win7 install on a partition that is smaller than the full capacity of the drive (for example: on my write heavy usage; I'm using 100GB out of the 250GB capacity of the Intel 510 I'm using).

Install all necessary and up-to-date drivers for your system, including the latest Intel RST drivers.

If you did chose an Intel SSD, install the Intel SSD Toolbox, setup the weekly schedule as recommended and also check that the system environment is also setup optimally for the SSD. I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that offers a similar 'toolbox' for their SSD's.

With the above accomplished, anything else is simply experimental. While experimenting can possibly bring a performance increase - it can also leave your system in such a state that you may need to re-build it to make it normal/usable again.

Hope some of this helps.

Good luck.

 

IMHO Agility3/SF are really bad with highly compressed data and just not real world with 0-fill (highly compressible) so don't take too much notice of the bench results. Real life performance should be somewhere in between.

Here's an example with CrystalMark. Same set up except one run is with random data and another 0-fill.

0-fill


Random

 

Dufus,

I think by using the 50MB size for your bench runs you are testing the DRAM cache more than the SSD part.

 

Yes, but both tests get the benefit. IMO no point writing more than necessary to the disk to make a point other than to show lower scores. If it were all DRAM then there wouldn't be such a big difference between the two.

Just for your peace of mind here's one done earlier at 1000MB with FF-fill, personally I wouldn't read too much into it though.

 

I updated to the latest FW 2.15 which is still running lower speed with AS SSD testing software, this is the result with ATTO benchmark with high performance setting in Windows 7

 

If you want to see the best 'theoretical' 'scores', then try running ATTO in Windows Safe Mode. Looks to me like there is something that is keeping the drive's attention while you're running the benchmark.

 

All I need to know is that the drive runs in 6gb/s mode or not, the score does not bother me alot. I want to know that I paid for a drive that could perform to what I expect

 

Ah!

Is this drive new or used?

While you are reaching SATA3 speeds on some of your ATTO scores, it is not as I expected this to look like.

This is what I expected to see:
OCZ Agility 3 SSD Review - Page 8 - ATTO & SiSoftware Sandra

You are definitely above SATA2 speeds though - so, it is not your system - it is the SSD that is holding you back (in real world usage).

See post 3 in this thread to get the best speed out of your system.

Good luck.

 

Thanks a lot, the drive is brand new, to be honest, I have no ideas how to utilise the maximum the drive performance out of it. I did clean install W7 which it takes 25gb out of my 120gb space, updated the drive to the latest FW 2.15, so far this is the best I can do to hope its performed as expected 6gb/s speed. What more can I do anyway? should I wait to see the price of 256gb Crucial M4 cool down a bit and change?

 

No, I don't think the performance difference will be worth the lost time and $$ difference you will lose by selling an SSD used and buying one new (there is not that much difference in performance between them to warrant a few days downtime - you might not make that down time up in a year with the new SSD).

What I would do is simply shrink the C: drive partition to the smallest capacity you can get away with in your use/needs + 15GB for Windows to 'breathe' and not bother you too much with it's constant 'low disk space' warnings.

With 25GB used, and assuming you will only need another 10-20GB for your data (totally making this part up), then I would Shrink the partition to 50-60GB and leave the rest 'unallocated'. If you do need more capacity in the future, simply Extend the partition into the unallocated area as you need.

If you do try this - make sure to disable any automatic sleep modes in the power options and leave the system running all night after you have done the following:

In Disk Management, right click on the unallocated space and choose New partition. Leave everything at defaults (we are simply going to delete this partition in the morning) and format the partition (quick format). This will force a TRIM on the unused nand that we want to exclude from our usable capacity.

Leave the system running. Just because TRIM is working on a system, doesn't mean it is executed immediately.

In the morning, simply go and delete the partition we created temporarily (to clean the nand).

If your system is anything like the systems I've seen/touched/built with an SSD - you should notice that it is noticeably snappier.

The most important thing? Stop benchmarking your drive (it simply makes it perform slower, over time).

If you need the full capacity of your SSD - well, whatever you can 'spare' to set aside as outlined above will help with keeping the speed up as high as possible - but even 15 or 20GB will help keep your SSD as fast as possible.

Hope this helps.