Windows 7 + Intel X25M 160GB SSD only 5.9

Yesterday I bought a SSD (Intel X25-M 160 GB G2), put it in my laptop (Alienware m15x) and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7.
However, in windows 7 benchmark I only score 5.9 with the SSD. Can that be? Googling showed me, that people get 7+ on this benchmark with the same configuration. Do I have to install a certain driver or what could be the issue here? The only thing, that could cause the problem is a missing driver (on PCI-Bus), but I think that is probably the webcam.

Thank you for your help

 

solved wrong driver was installed

 

Right, so what's your score now? Out of curiosity.

 

Hmmmm...wondering if i need a different driver for m Samsung 256Gb ssd???...6.9 on mine...

Are you sure that is the reading of the hard drive specifically and not your overall score? Mine falls to 4.8 on graphics.

 

7.1 here on my Corsair 128gb SSD using the default Win 7 driver?

What driver were you using?

 

^^ 7.1, impressive. I get 6.7 on my little ol' netbook in Sig, limited by SATA I speeds.

 

I only got a 5.3!
What is wrong with my 256GB SSD?
Only about 30GB are on there.
What should I do??
thank you!

 

I have the same problem, my x25m 80g only got 5.9 in windows 7. please help me solve this problem. should I install some specific drivers?

 

Sell your ssd and buy a new one. obviously this one is broken

 

Obviously if it still works, then it isn't broken. It may be that these people have the same problem as the OP, who didn't have the right driver.

Don't know why you would need a driver for a hard drive though...

 

I'm having the same prob with my G1 X-25m 80gb. Only getting 5.9 when it should be more like 7.7.

I updated the Intel chipset driver, and confirmed the controller is running in AHCI mode. What exact driver did the OP use? It's sort of annoying to just say "wrong driver" and move on (sorry - pet peeve of mine. OP's not wrapping up the threads they start - this is supposed to be a community, not a one-way "help me, but once it's fixed I don't care" kinda place).

Thanks...

 

I had the same problem. I had windows 7 RC (64 Bit), Intel i7 940 @ 3.33 Ghz, Dominator @ 1600 Mhz, Asus P6T, GTX 260, and this x25m. It had been registering around 5.9 on windows benchmarks (and that means it is not being utilized to its full potential).

Yesterday, I installed Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate Final. To my surprise, after everything was installed, I ran the test again and it came back with a 5.9. I have AHCI on, etc. etc.

I looked under device manager and it had the SSD drive listed as a standard disk drive (with options that should not be inherent to these drives, like defrag.). I changed the driver with another windows 7 generic, still nothing.

Finally, I unistalled Intel Matrix Manager 8.9, the computer restarted, device manager showed the disk as an Intel SSDXxxxxxxx. I reran the benchmark test and now its shows 7.5 (much better). I installed the matrix manager that came with my mobo (version 8.6), its listed as "disk drive" in device manager, but it is treating it as a SSD (can't defrag, etc.). Reran the benchmark again, still a 7.5. My problem was Matrix Manager 8.9.

Now:
Processor 7.6
Memory 7.6
Graphics 7.2
Gaming Graphics 7.2
Primary hard disk 7.5

Hope this helps. I only registered at this site to hopefully solve your problem (I ran across it when trying to fix my identical one), as I too dislike when someone solves a problem and doesn't show the work for it......

Cheers

 

Nice thread... I'm having a similar issue, although performance isn't bad 7.3 in Win 7, I still see defrag as an option and under my HD i can see the stripe but not sure Win 7 knows it's an SSD RAID 0. With that said, is there a driver for the Samsung 256GB Solid State Drive in a Radi 0 config?

 

Some laptops that are in SATA I will score a 5.9 (like mine).

 

I was frustrated like everyone else, I had updated the ssd firmware and i had AHCI on and still 5.9, but I finally have a solution for everyone.

I had to install an updated storage controller. Mine was called Silicon 3132 Satalink controller. I also had to install an intel -rapid storage technology driver along with the the intel matrix storage manager utility. This got my score up to 7.8 from the 5.9 I previously had.

The Intel driver and utility url for my computer was:

Drivers & Downloads

Hope this works for everyone else.

 

Running X25m 160gb G2 on a Samsung X50 (Sata I) and getting 7.1

 

Asus P6t, Intel I7 940, 6GB Corsair Dominator, Intel X25MG1 80GB Nvidia GTX 295

Hey, I don't know if anyone is still watching this thread but I'm having the same problem, I'm currently running Windows 7 Pro 64bit, I have a Asus P6T motherboard and a Intel X-25M 80GB drive that is showing a score of 5.9, I have AHCI on, I've updated the Intel drivers as well as all of my other ones, every time I try to install the Intel matrix storage manager or the Intel rapid storage technology it says my system doesn't meet the min requirements. I also tried installing the Intel SSD Toolbox running it, but of course it doesn't help at all. If anyone who has had this problem has any other ideas I would really appreciate the help.

Processor: 7.5
Memory: 7.8
Graphics: 7.5
Primary hard Disk: 5.9

 

Make more free space on it and try again.

I believe you should have about 30% (20% for Intel) of the SSD free for optimum speeds.

This can be lower though depending on overprovisioning and controller based use of that space. i.e. some drives still perform well when nearly full due to overprovisioning.

If it claims your system does not meet the minimum requirements then your SSD is running in PATA mode... and AHCI might not be turned on in the BIOS.

 

Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver... Unless one uses other SATA controller than Intel's.

 

Running Intel X25-M G2 80GB on Sony VAIO F and getting 7.7

 

I get 5.9 on my original equipment 500GB HDD 5K RPM so you should expect an SSD to beat that by a bunch.

 

I do have it set to AHCI in bios so that shouldn't be a problem, I actually have two controllers on my board, 6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports with Intel Matrix Storage Technology and 2 x SATA 3Gb/s JMicron JMB322 and I believe it is plugged into the Intel controller. I'm attaching my CrystalDiskMark score because it looks right to me on speed, what do you guys think??

 

Sequential write is a bit slow, the rest is fine - or better than on most systems.

-> for the highest possible numbers, try running the benchmark in Safe Mode.

At least on Vista, for some reason Random writes take a fair hit in normal operation - still significantly more than a HDD but much slower than in Safe Mode.

Oh, and the queued writes are way too slow...
-> it's acting as if it is PATA...

 

I found it, when I went in and configured my system I configured the JMicron in AHCI but I didn't think about the dual controllers and I didn't configure the Intel one, so I went in a did that just now, but as I figured it would do it wouldn't boot and gave me a blue screen. It was time for me to format my system anyway so I'm going to reload everything with it in ACHI mode, thanks guys, i guess I just over looked it, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

Duh... go to the MS website, change one registry entry and you are set.
No need to reformat.

Link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

 

Oh I know, I just got done with finals and I was planning on doing a format anyway, I wasn't just doing the format to make this work, but thanks man.

 

I hate reinstalling the OS... just a plague to me, not matter how quick or long.

But if you want to reinstall it anyway.

 

Okay, I decided to get this working before I formatted so I went through, updated my setting in bios for the intel controller, did the registry fix and then installed the intel rapid storage technology Version:10.1.0.1008 and it let me this time, but I'm still at a score of 5.9 and my crystaldiskmarks are now here.

 

looks more like the benchmarks people get but queued writes are still slow

 

Well I guess I will just keep messing with it, I know some people were saying to install the matrix storage manager with it but when I tried it told me I had a never version installed and it gave me the number off of the Intel rapid storage tech, also I noticed in device manager though it still shows it's using a Microsoft driver for the drive. If you guys have any other thoughts I'd appreciate it but as of now I'll just keep tinkering with it.

Thanks

 

My Dell Latitude E6500's SSD scored a 7.7 on Window 7's WEI using an Intel X25-M G2 80GB in AHCI mode.

 

My X25-M is a generation 1, but I would still think it would be doing better than 5.9

 

Windows EI is a terrible benchmark...

 

For detailed results yes - but then technically any benchmarks run on hardware on which something runs is useless to judge that hardware.

But it's useful to figure out whether something is wrong.

If he gets 5,9 and other people get something like 7,7 then something is wrong.

 

is the 5.9 the overall number or is that the primary hard disk rating?

 

It's my Primary hard disk rating, I know this isn't a good way of measuring my drive, to do that I really use crystaldiskmark, which like DetlevCM said, still isn't a great way of testing anything, but it can give me a decent idea of what is going on with the drive and compare that to others. It's just annoying when you buy something like this and you know what it is capable of and then you see this, plus I like to tinker with things and make them as fast as possible.

 

Are you CDM results in line with the expected results? Have you updated the firmware and everything? If it runs as fast as others in synthetic tests and feels snappy, then just ignore the WEI.

 

I've played with it enough now that my scores are pretty close or better than others I have found. I don't think I can or need to do anymore to it. I really appreciate all the help guys and the responses. Here is my latest CDM test for everyone to check out.

 

Has anyone gone into the Performance folder within Win7 and deleted the files within? Those are the stored files from each WEI assessment run. I've had inaccurate numbers before and found that throwing out the files, rebooting, and then running the WEI again sometimes gets things right.

That said, the two Intel SSDs I have both show 7.7 for me. I also think if it's showing weird numbers, something is wrong, like it thinks the SSD is a platter drive.

 

Here are some benchmarks I once did for I think a Storag Review thread - filling the drive, benchmarking.

All in safe mode - file names tell you when I did a trim...
Inte SD Test - Windows Live

 

Yo guys,been using OCZ Vertex 2 80GB for little more than a month,very pleased with performance.
As for benchmarking,i have heard from various sources that doing that will actually severely stress the SSD & shorten its lifespan,especially using CDM & AS-SSD.
As for the scores in Windows Experience Index,its not really accurate & at most considered as a rough guideline(or cheap sales tactics to convince first-time pc buyers to go for the ones with "better scores")
I initially also obtained only 5.9 in Primary Harddisk score,after going to "Advanced Options" & running "Clear all Windows Experience Index & re-rate the system" a few times,final score is 7.6. see attached WEI pic.
In short,there is most probably nothing wrong with the SSDs we have,as long as it is fast in our everyday application.

 

Yes, it does stress the SSD - but a good SSD should not be negatively impacted. -> If it is, it's not a good SSD

 

I agree there are "Good" & "Bad" SSDs,just as there are good & bad comparisons with just about everything else in this world.That said,perhaps SSD owners can have a look at this extremely long,but insightful article about what's going with our dear SSDs.
Guide OCZ Sandforce (Agility2/Vertex2) expected Benchmarks and General Info
Guide How it is very easy to cause severe issues with a brand new Sandforce based ssd drive I know both articles are about Sandforce-based OCZ SSDs,but if you have the patience to read on,you will realise that its about all SSDs in general & the various stuff we are doing to it is slowly & quietly killing it.

 

Well, the only things that's "killing" an Intel drive is the limit of writes to the MLC flash.
If you read the Intel documentation they are pretty much guaranteeing 20GB per day over 5 years - and that's a low estimate.
It might even take as many as 10.000 writes to a cell.

-> Now Intels don't throttel as apparently the sandforce drives do -> which to be honest seems like utter rubbish from a logical point of view. I buy a SSD because I want fast read & write -> that might mean writing 70GB in a few minutes, I had 30,40GB temp files from Microsoft ICE and Photoshop on my Intel drive with NO issue.

-> On that note, I did quite a lot of benchmarking at the very start when I got my Intel drive, still, overall writes are actually within the Intel spec - I've written over 6TB to it, Intel allows me 7TB per year.

If you can't write 70GB to a drive in 5 minutes, bin it and buy an Intel drive.
-> Yes, there is a limited amount of write cycles on a SSD, but it shouldn't matter throughout the life of a high quality SSD - if it does it's a rubbish product.

 

you don't need an an extreme long article(no matter how insightful it is) in order to use an Intel X25M(or other good SSD). leave a bit of free space and just forget that it is a SSD.

If an SSD has a lot of 'do and don't', better don't touch it IMO.

 

Point taken guys,thanks for the info.I am no techie,BTW,just wish to share with SSD owners about what's going on inside their drive.For advanced users who know what they are doing,by all means no problem at all.
In the end,it doesn't matter as long as we are happy with it,regardless of what SSD we have.

 

would a 120GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA II) be enough for the WIN 7 HOME EDITION OS and a few games such as WOW and Starcraft 2?

 

most likely yes - at least with some adobe cs products I only use around 50gb