SSDs vs. SATA-II compatible (SATA-I) chipsets

The latest SSDs have surpassed the SATA-I spec and have made one thing abundantly clear:

There is NOT a single SATA-II mobile chipset out there!


ICH8 provides SATA-II support, but it is not a SATA-II chipset in itself. All it means is that SATA-II HDDs will work with it...
You won't get the speed benefits of SATA-II, as I've discovered upon installing a faster than SATA-I SSD (OCZ Vertex 30GB). :cry:

Feel free to benchmark with ATTO (download here) if you don't believe me.

Here's mine:

- A Dell 1720 laptop (ICH8M), the 30GB is the OS drive and there is another 250GB mechanical HDD.
- All tweaks have been performed as detailed here.
- The 30GB Vertex is aligned with an 128 offset.
- WinXp Pro SP3 (with all the latest updates), clean install.
- AHCI 8.7, Intel Chipset Driver 9.0.0.1008
- No other programs running in the background (not even text services or Anti-Virus).
- ATTO run off the C drive (Vertex).





If anyone knows of a true/actual SATA-II mobile chipset, please post a link here.

 

Isn't the Inspiron 1720, ICH7-M though?

 

No, not unless CPU-Z is wrong...

 

Sorry, don't worry about that.. I read wrong.

But pics are always cool.




From the spec sheets:
Serial ATA (SATA) Controller
The ICH8 has integrated SATA host controllers that supports independent DMA
operation on up to six ports (desktop only) or three ports (mobile only) and supports
data transfer rates of up to 3.0 Gb/s (300 MB/s). The SATA controller contains two
modes of operation – a legacy mode using I/O space, and an AHCI mode using memory
space. SATA and PATA (Mobile only) can also be used in a combined function mode
(where the SATA function is used with PATA). In this combined function mode, AHCI
mode is not used. Software that uses legacy mode will not have AHCI capabilities.
The ICH8 supports the Serial ATA Specification, Revision 2.5. The ICH8 also supports
several optional sections of the Serial ATA II: Extensions to Serial ATA 1.0
Specification, Revision 1.0 (AHCI support is required for some elements).

So I wonder what's going on...




How is performance when you take out the mechanical drive, and also, are any hard-drive compatibility options enabled in the BIOS?

 

I think that is the ICH8 desktop variant...

Hmmm, haven't tried that. Will do today and post back.
But even if performance did go up to expected levels, it's still be unacceptable.

 

I believe they set the ICH to SATA I for power saving?

 

Well, there is ONE ssd enhancing chipset on the market!

The ICH9M

• Two integrated Serial ATA host controllers, each with transfer rates of up to 3 Gb/s, support four SATA ports for increased storage capacity and speed.

allegedely!

Anyone got one to confirm SATA-II perfromance?

 

Is it the one that comes with the Mobile Intel® xx45 Express Chipset?

 

Probably this has something to do with it. I recall a T61 user having the same issue with his X25-E.

Checkout the HDD stats in PC Wizard 2008.

 

I did check my BIOS. I'm using AHCI.

Unless, you're saying it is (hardware-wise) unavoidable.

 

Can you up a screenshot of PC Wizard 2008 > Drives > No. of HDD (SSD) ..

 

The 3rd (PHYSICALDRIVE) drive is a RamDisk. The 250GB drive is the MyDocuments drive. The Vertex is OS and programs only.

 

Click on drives in the left toolbar and then click on no. of HDDs. See what it says about Legacy mode.

 

I bet that the ICH8M is originally intended to be SATA2-300 compatible. But the reason its not done is the manufacturers(of the notebooks) uses SATA2-150 mode to save power.

Some notebooks use SATA2-300, like the HP laptop used in the notebookreview X25-M review.

 

My bad, been telling you the wrong section. Its Drives > no. of disk controller.
Anyway, just see what it says about Legacy Mode over there.



You can run a benchmark using HD Tach. That should help you know if the interface speed is capped or not. If it is, then it is definitely at the BIOS level (and not hardware), because there is no SATA1 version of the ICH8-ME.

 

Yes, that's the one.
GM45 and the rest.

 

I've gone through the BIOS options. There is nothing apart from choosing between IDE and AHCI (and I'm running AHCI).

 

There are numerous options which are hidden in every BIOS, and are unlocked using an administrator key-code, or a bootable FDD.

Now if the SSD is on Drive Controller #2, then it is in IDE Legacy Mode and is bottlenecked to ATA-100. If it is on #1, then AHCI is disabled, and its running in IDE Mode (again limited to ATA-100).

I have no idea why :/

 

That's what I thought, screwed either way.

What did you mean bootable FDD?

 

FDD = Floppy Disk Drive?

I can make a USB act like one, but how do I unlock BIOS options using one?

 

bootable FDD = bootable Floppy Disc Drive.
Their are certain kinds of FDD's. Their are lots of generic ones, but if you are using one to install Bios or windows sata drivers, you will need a Windows certified floppy drive. These are only made by TEAC, Mitsumi and SmartDisc

K-TRON

 

I have made one before to change Video card BIOS, is that the same?

It was running DOS Win98. Will that do?

 

Asking around I got this reply:

 

Well, whats the actual R/W rate of your SSD when installed in a SATA2 compliant computer?

 

Well, that's an excellent question.
I do have a 750i desktop but I'm not going to format the OCZ, reinstall WinXP just to benchmark.

It takes me hours to get it back to the way I like it.

Any suggestions to speed this process?

 

Install the SSD in the desktop, if it BSODs....run a repair install and the desktop-compatible chipset drivers will be installed.

Usually in ATA-100, Read rates go above 100MB/s but write rates are sorta capped to 100MB/s.

I've always read that IDE Legacy and SATA native don't make a difference in performance, since only NCQ and hot-swapping are disabled in legacy mode. Not sure if the bandwidth is capped or not, but the IDE driver will communicate with the SATA controller through the legacy IDE/ATA protocols, so it shouldn't be able to communicate as fast as SATA-150 or 300.

Speculation :/

I wonder if the XPS series (M1530/M1730) have the same issues with fast SSDs.

 

I think I will when the new firmware comes out, which as we're being informed will be any day now.
I will align it and test it on the desktop first, then the laptop and report the results here.

 

Could try Enabling 3Gbps mode on the ICH8M SATA Controller to overcome the ~150MB/s speed capping you are seeing with the OCZ Vertex running on a Sata-I 1.5Gbps interface. If successful, good info to support request for a bios update.

 

Wow, OK, that will take some reading and carefull investigating.

Thanks for the link. I'll try to work it out.