MX100 256GB Read degredation? [SOLVED]

[shadytinh]

Hi, I've just recently switch my motherboard from a Gigabyte z68 to a Asrock Z77 WS with the same processor i7 2600k. I decided to do some benchmarks with my MX100 256gb since it has been a couple months now and saw that the Read is slower than when I first bought it.  Using both AS SSD and CrystaldiskMark, I found that both were consistantly 200mb slower than the original Read speed. I'm using a SATA 3 6gb slot with AHCI.

Here's the original score

sequential Read 517.93 mb/s Write 325.58 mb/s

4K  Read 27.17 mb/s Write 85.16 mb/s

4K-64 Thrd Read 359.94 mb/s Write 236.62 mb/s

Access Time Read 0.077 ms Write 0.053 ms

Here's the score after about 6 months of usage

sequential Read 379,.36 mb/s Write 325.58 mb/s

4K  Read 24.91 mb/s Write 85.16 mb/s

4K-64 Thrd Read 220.55 mb/s Write 111.74 mb/s

Access Time Read 0.077 ms Write 0.072 ms

Note that almost everything else is the same but read is heavily degraded. I don't think I write that much to this SSD but can someone explain to me if SSD do run out of Read like it does with Write?

[bogdan · Accepted solution]

My guess is that you have connected the drive to the port controlled by ASMedia controller (SATA3_A1-A4 connectors). Try to connect it to the Intel controlled connectors (SATA3_0_1 connectors).

[shadytinh]

Thank you very much for the quick reply, I will try it and report the result.

[shadytinh]

I really appreciate your help, I check the manual and found the the Intel sata is in the middle not the top (odd choice of position in my opinion) now I can raid 0 my 2 MX100s no problem.

bogdan you're awesome, thumps up forever 

Btw how did you know that it was the ASrock media sata port that was causing the issue?

[bogdan]

Because of that  - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/storage-controller-performance-ssd,3540.html

The read speed you have reported was easy to match with ASMedia controller capabilities.

[shadytinh]

I have another quick question, I want to install the latest RST drivers so that I can enable trim with my Raid0 setup can you help me through the process? Since the executable says "This platform is not supported".  I looked around on some forum and got that I don't need to have RST installed if AHCI is enable since trim is an OS function but other told me that I need to have the latest RST to have trim with raid0 please help.

Sorry for asking so many question in one thread.

[bogdan]

I do not have experience with RAID arrays but the first question I would ask would be "can you set RAID0 without Intel RST" (that means with msahci/storahci driver from MS only)? I guess the answer is no.

So I woud say you need Intel (RAID) driver anyway. I think TRIM is supported on Intel 7 series chipsets on systems running RAID driver version 11.x and newer. 

What driver (what version) have you tried to install with "This platform is not supported" result? Do you have RAID/AHCI modes enabled in BIOS?

I believe that 11.2.0.1006 version listed on ASRock site should work fine for you so I would probably start with this driver.

[shadytinh]

Thanks, that's the version I have install, I'll do raid0 tomorrow when my SSD arrive.

[shadytinh]

Great news, I set up the raid0 array with 2 mx100 and they're running nicely.  Installing RST is a lot easier on windows 8.1, it made the system recognize the raid0 as SSD instead of HDD before I install it. 

Very happy with result, hope it stay stable for years to come.