Mushkin Chronos and ASUS Sabertooth X58 Speed Issues....

[Almost Tactf]

Hey peeps so I just installed a new Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD in my rig and of course hooked it to the 6GB/s ports. That being said it seems I'm capped at just over 250MB/s write but it's going up to 420MB/read. What on earth would cause this?

I have it set to AHCI in BIOS and I checked my alignment and I'm good there as well, this drive is installed but it is 100% empty as I'm testing it while Windows is still on my HDD.

[Nagoshi]

Go in CP, Device Manager, right-click your SSD > Properties, in the Policy page, check the write-back caching box. that should fix it

[Almost Tactf]

That box is already checked :/

[PommieB]

Maybe you need to experiment with different AHCI drivers, the write figures shouldn't be capped like that, especially bench-marked with compressible data, those write figures are seen with compressed data, check the Mushkin website for performance figures and if you can't change the performance email them, the ssd drive should be attached to the 0 or 1 connectors, try moving the drive to 0 and the Wd digital with the OS to another connector, change your bios accordingly.

Mushkin Chronos uses Asynchronous ONFI memory or I think it as, my database as a ? against the memory, but if it is, the performance will be on the lower part of scale for Sandforce controlled drives and in comparison with toggle memory, still should be getting uncompressed write figures high in the 400's. Problem could even be the motherboard, have you another computer you can try it on, see if it's capped on that computer as well.

Have you updated the firmware the Chronos as been out for a while, check to see that the firmware is up to date.

You could try removing your current OS drive and installing a clean install of win7, don't activate it just use it for test purposes and bench-mark again with ATTO. See if there's any difference. Are the sata3 connections native Intel, you'll get lower write figures otherwise.

The board as JMicron and Marvell sata3 connectors as well as Intel native sata3, make sure you are using the Intel Sata3 native connectors.

[leekirlew]

ive heard theres problems with the marvell drivers for sata3 ports on this board

[PommieB]

Yes that's why it's advisable to native sata ports where available, the Marvell sata3 motherboard controller is hit and miss when it comes to ssd drives, most boards made now have at least two sata3 native connectors, that's why you connect a ssd drive to port 0 or 1 on the Intel native sata3 ports.

[dolshina]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I can tell you from personal experience with the Rampage III Formula board that there is nothing you can do.

The problem is the Marvell 9128 controller. It's one of the worst ever produced. We've tried new drivers, along with most everything else you can think of, and you'll just never get that controller working efficiently.

I have two 256GB Crucial M4 drives, and a Mushkin Chronos Enhanced Deluxe 240GB drive. None of them would reach much more than 1/2 of their rated performance levels with the 9128 controller.

As soon as I switched to the Rampage IV Extreme board, BANG! All Solid State Drives are running at, or slightly above their rated specs.

[PommieB]

Doesn't that board have native sata connections, I did check the specs and had the opinion there was at least two native Intel connectors, if you want the rated performance you use the Intel 0 or 1 connectors on a ssd drive, I notice there's a jMicron sata3 controller on the board, does this controller have the same issues, just curious, may even be worse performance-wise.

Third-party sata3 controllers are known not to work well with ssd drives, even with Marvell controlled ssd drives like the M4.