Problem with SSD Performance

I am having problems with my SSD drives in both of my laptops.
Below is the detail of my 2 Laptops.
How could I improve my read/write times?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

• Laptop 1
  - HP DV6
  - Intel Series 5 Controller (Driver 10.6.0.1002)
  - Mushkin MKNSSDCL240GB-DX
  - TRIM is enabled
  - Get 7.8 in WEI for Hard drive (but bad Crystal Disk Mark Scores)
  Pics Provided of Horrible Performance and Configuration
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Laptop 2
  - Dell E6410
  - Intel Series 5 Controller (Driver 10.6.0.1002)
  - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW160G3K5 2.5" 160GB SATA SSD
  - TRIM is enabled
  - Get 6.4 in WEI for Hard drive (and bad Crystal Disk Mark Scores)
  Pics Provided of Horrible Performance and Configuration
  
  
  
  
  

 

Perhaps bum drives? Are you on the latest IRST?

 

Just did some more research and found that the problem is that I am doing a full disk encryption and it severly hampers the performance of SSD drives. Unfortunately I will have to live with the performance above as these drives must be encrypted due to data sensativity.

P.S.
I live in Rockville, MD but grew grew up off seven lock rd.

 

My Intel 310 has been encrypted for two weeks, and doesn't look anything like that... Do you have the Intel SSD Toolbox, and do you have the SSD Optimizer tool set to run weekly (or whatever frequency you desire)? It does have a provision to work on encrypted drives and is especially vital, so we don't lose too much performance. I did lose some, but not nearly so much as to bother me.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18455

Added benchmark... too bad i didn't run CDM before encrypting. All my numbers fare better than yours, save for random reads (and of course, my drive is advertised for sequential speeds of 200 read, 70 write). I recall in HDTune Pro that random reads weren't exactly stellar before encrypting either.

 

Didn't realize how much encryption had a toll on SSDs.

Born in "Olney" but lived in Gaithersberg/Rockville pretty much my whole life.

 

I have the latest drivers for my SATA controller (installed the latest Intel® Rapid Storage Technology drivers).

Additionally, I'm currently typing from the #1 laptop and can only "view drive information" and "Check Smart Attributes". I cant use the optimizer. none the less, I have TRIM enabled and also followed the online guide to optimizing ssd's but because Full Disk encryption uses the whole disk (when it encrypts it), it doesnt leave the SSD room for its TRIM enhancement functions (According to websites I read). Hence the horrible performance. I'll continue to try and tweak things.

I will also call WinMagic as I hear that the driver from them that encrypts the hard drive is the bottle neck. Maybe they have an updated version.

 

The Intel SSD Optimizer will only work on the Intel drive... At least it'll give you better performance on that one.

 

K, will try it now.

 

New pics up after installing and running the Intel SSD Optimizer.
Also, I already downloaded the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers.

Weird that theToast has such better numbers.
What encryption software are you using thetoast?

 

Ok, so your problem is something else then. A few questions:

-What CPUs do those machines have?
-What encryption scheme are you using? (AES/Serpent/Twofish/etc.)

My speeds are good because I'm running AES encryption through Truecrypt 7.0a (which supports AES-NI if the CPU supports it, as my CPU does), and I have the Intel SSD Optimizer scheduled to run every week.

That is to say, install Truecrypt, and in the process of creating a dummy encrypted file container, run their built-in benchmark. That should shine some light on what kind of encryption power your CPU can provide. It might be the bottleneck.

 

Ahh, understood. My WinMagic only supports AES 256bit but not AES-NI (I think).
The Laptop #2 with the Intel SSD has an Intel i5 M540 procesor (doesnt support AES-NI).
Laptop #2 is for work so I cant relly change that much stuff on it but Laptop #1 is personal.

Just checked the net and found that my CPU (Intel i7 Q740) for Laptop #1 doesnt support AES-NI. Hopefully WinMagic comes out with better drivers or Intel optimizes there drivers.

 

That's too bad... Your laptop 2 is well equipped to be encrypted. That CPU has AES-NI, and has the Intel drive... It might be worth seeing what you can do to switch to software that'll support AES-NI.

 

Unfortunately, laptop #2 is a company laptop and they use WinMagic. I dont think I would be able to convince them to put TrueCrypt on there when all the other people use WinMagic and out tech staff knows WinMagic.

I just hope I would eventually fully utilize on Laptop #1 the Full capabilities of my SSD some day.

 

What is your motherboard? If it is the Intel 5 series, here is why it is lagging, and some info on how to improve it. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-series-4-5-965-chipsets-stamatisx-tweak.html

 

Dont know the motherboard type. Checking on the dell website under the service tag doesnt specify. I tried your tweak abidderman and am now rebooting to test.

 

Latest run with registry changes specified for changing 3 to 4 in 2 locations.


Doesnt look like such a change.

 

Sounds like WinMagic is definitely the Norton A/V of the encryption world.

Instead of worrying that everyone else including the tech guys know WinMagic, maybe you could be a pioneer and show them how much it's costing them using outdated software?

I'm sure that they're not happy with paying for 2010/11 technology (SSD's) and getting 2004/5 (4200 RPM drive) performance in return?

Btw, this isn't something that WinMagic nor Intel can fix with a 'driver' - Intel is already giving hardware acceleration (on specific hardware) to address this issue - now, it's your company's turn to use the appropriate software to do that.

Show them how.

See:
TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux - Downloads

 

Problem is I work for a small company (20 employees) and they bought all the developers these laptops with this configuration (Laptop #2). they have an image for locking it down and also paid for licenses. I'll try talking to the System admin who configures them monday and ask to change to TrueCrypt since its free.

Thanks to everyone for all the help!

 

Well, it can't hurt to ask I guess.

Couldn't you just backup your work data, remove WinMagic and benchmark, then install TrueCrypt and benchmark, then simply format the system and ask IT to re-image it on Monday?

Of, course, saving all the screenshots of the benchmarks first.

I wouldn't ask them to re-configure the image (I'm sure they'll say no...) I would ask them to use your system as a test bed to see if there is any performance increase vs. WinMagic.

Oh, and for a better benchmarking program, you may want to try this:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...h-storage/599219-anvil-storage-utilities.html


Which you can download from here:

See:
Anvil Storage Utilities Releases New Storage and SSD Benchmark - The SSD Review


The above benchmark data should be enough to convince your IT dept that they really made a bad decision with WinMagic and that it is not too late to correct it.

As a matter of fact, if your notebook's BIOS is able to put on a HDD User and Master password - you shouldn't need anything further to encrypt the data on the Intel 320 Series drives.

See:
Intel 320-series SSD and FDE (Full Disk...: Intel Communities


That would definitely solve your performance issues.


Hope I've given you some additional things to think about?

Good luck.

 

The problem is that I can do anything on Laptop #1 but not #2. Laptop #2 is actually given to me from a company I do contract work for. I 1099 to them and they force all engineers to use these laptops because of the contract they have with there clients forcing them to impose these restrictions. Is TrueCrypt FIPS 140-2 Level 2 approved? I cant find anything stating it is. If it is, I might be able to convince them to change.

Thanks again for all the responses.

 

Sure, glad to help a bit.

I'd be interested if you kept us posted on how this turns out.

 

MD_Teckie many people out here missed one very important info! You shouldn't run SSD filled to the max (as you metioned, I suppose that this software is just creating an encrypted volume that is about size of the disk). 80GB SSD needs 5 GB to operate correctly - this I can say with 100% certainty because I have such setup. When I recently deleted some stuff of of SSD and now it has 16GB free space it literally FLYES through whatever I do! The rule is: leave 20% of size of SSD free.

 

Chris,

Unfortunateliy, the way that the encryption software works is to take up 100% of the volume and becaues of this, the SSD thinks it has no space available even though in reality I'm only using 25% of the disk. l

If my processor supports AES-NI, Winmagic has a solutions similar to TrueCrypt, but unfortunately Laptop #1's procesor is not AES-NI compatible.

I spoke with the company that owns Laptop #2 and they said that they will contact Winmagic for there latest encryption version which includes AES-NI instructions to speed up encryption on machines with that capability.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks again to everyone for helping me out.