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    Random 512K write rate slow on Kingston V+180 64GB SSD (1.8")

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by dohuy, Jan 26, 2012.

  1. dohuy

    dohuy Notebook Consultant

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    I've had my SSD installed for about 1.5 months and performance so far has been good, at least in comparison to the slow 1.8" 5400 rpm Samsung Spinpoint I had before. However, when I decided to bench the new drive, it appears the random 512k write rate, as measured by CDM 3.0.1 is very slow, at least in comparison to press reviews of the drive. Is there something I did wrong while installing the drive? AHCI is enabled in my bios, and I started with a completely clean install of W7 Ultimate. Relevant specs are - HP 2730p, 4GB RAM, Intel SL9400 1.86 Ghz.
     

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    dohuy, Jan 26, 2012
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  2. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    A clean Win7 install should result in aligned partition. Confirm by running AS-SSD as described.

    A full SSD can see performance degradation. Disable hibernation (powercfg -h off) and run the disk clean wizard to remove other unnecessary files. Also perform the AS-Cleaner component of Tony Trim to help Garbage collection along. Also check to make sure TRIM is enabled.

    Unfortunately the Toshiba controller on the V+180 isn't capable of doing multithreaded reads so the 4kb-Q32 reads (IOPS) are considerably slower than other competitors drives as can be seen in the usata link in my sig.
     
    User Retired 2, Jan 26, 2012
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  3. dohuy

    dohuy Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for your help troubleshooting, Nando.

    AS-SSD shows "OK", which I assume to mean that its aligned. I also tried Paragon Alignment Tool, and it said that the drive was aligned.

    At the moment the SSD is only half full, and hibernation has been disabled. I don't know if this makes a difference or not, but my page file is set at a constant size of 800MB. I also tried the AS-Cleaner, but there was almost no difference in the CDM score. TRIM is also on.

    Is it normal for a SSD to degrade that much with only 2 month's use?
     
    dohuy, Jan 26, 2012
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    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    Something is certainly not right. Still, it's not a performance SSD. Perhaps you seek a refund and get a significantly faster $215 120GB 1.8" OWC Mercury Aura Pro (SF1222) instead? See review.
     
    User Retired 2, Jan 27, 2012
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  5. dohuy

    dohuy Notebook Consultant

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    Unfortunately, I got it from Newegg, so my purchase would only qualify for a replacement. Calling Kingston was no help either as they say my drive is meeting their quoted sequential write rates. Guess I'll have to just settle for lower write rates. However, since I did buy this drive for reliability/value, how can I check on the health of the drive besides doing these benchmarks?
     
    dohuy, Jan 29, 2012
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