Sandforce and HD Tune "roller coaster" issue"

[mauro]

I have been looking arround the net for people with recent sandforce drives and their benchmarks.

I searched for people with ocz vertex 2, corsair force and mushkin callisto.
I have a gskill phoenix pro.

First time I benched my 1 week old drive in HD Tune (after secure erase and clean win 7 install in AHCI mode with latest intel RST), I noticed this:

My Gskill Phoenix Pro 80GB:


I have tested firmware 2.1 and 3.1 and the result is the same.
Something is very wrong with the first 20% of the drive. I have seen a lot people with phoenix pro drives with the same issue. AND I have seen some people with Mushkin Callisto with the same issue, AND some people with OCZ Vertex 2 too.

But most of those strange looking benchs I have seen, came from gskill drives.

Here are some examples of some drives performing solid in HD Tune:

Mushkin Callisto:


OCZ Vertex 2:


So, my question is, why only some of us have this strange looking result like mine? And why others have a solid straight line result?

Maybe some drives are being shipped with low quality nands?

I really hope this is a firmware issue or some other issue that can be solved with a new firmware, but I really don't think it is.

[Ranxerox]

Everything depends on how you installed the SSD.
This is my FM-25S2S-60GBP2 with firmware 3.1 as c:\

This is my FM-25S2S-120GBP2 with firmware 3.0 as G:\

HD Tune is a program unreliable

Receive my best regards

[eva2000]

remember different capacity drives can have different performance

ie

120gb > 60gb > 40gb

not sure where original poster's 80GB fits in ? are 80GB > 60GB or 60GB > 80GB ?

[mauro]

Ranxerox,

Wrong. If you wanna say this strange behavier in HD Tune depends on how you install the ssd, then you need to show two screenshots of THE SAME SSD where in one shot it is messed up, and in the other shot it is ok. And then tell us what the fix it, so we can confirm it in our problematic ssds too. Only then your post will make sense.

Your post makes no sense, since you are showing 2 screenshots of 2 different drives.

Look at your 60GB ssd... it is messed up. Try to reinstall it the way you want, and I doubt it will fix it. That SSD will have that behavier forever.

I know this, because I have tryed everything with mine phoenix pro 80GB.
I have tried:
winxp, win 7
x86, x64
secure erase with gparted and parted magic
64kb, 128kb, 1024kb and default win 7 alignment
AHCI and IDE mode
Different SATA ports and different mobos.

So, basicaly, your 60GB ssd is a bad one.


eva2000,

No one said anything about performance alone. Its not the number itself, it is the strange behavier in HD Tune (and others benchmarks too). Read more carefuly. I couldn't care less if all the sandforce drives were showing this strange behavier, because that could be the way it works. The problem here, is that we have THE SAME PRODUCT (i.e. two different phoenix pro 60gb) showing different results. Some of them show a "normal" bench in HD Tune (straight line) and others show a messed up result.

Look at Ranxerox's phoenix pro 60gb bench in HD Tune. I would be EXTREMELY UNHAPPY to spend money on such a messed up drive like that. For sure something is wrong with it. My 80gb is messed up too, just not as much.

[mauro]

I thought my first post was clear enough, but looks like it wasn't.
So I made this screenshot, to make the point more clear.

This are two different phoenix pro 60gb. My point here, is how the hell can one show such a bizarre result like that? And I am using Ranxerox's bench here.



To me, looks like gskill is shipping some "bad" drives. Not only gskill, because I have seen this happening with ocz vertex 2, etc...

I hope the point is more clear now.

I am extremely unhappy that I ended up buying one of the "bad" drives. And it has nothing to do with how full the disc is, or if it is the disc holding the OS. I have tried to bench my drive with zero data on it, and it shows the same strange behavier.

I hope the point is clear now.

[Betao]

I have the same kind of roller coaster on my Phoenix Pro 60GB.

[Betao]

P.S. Mine is like Utah?s landscape! Or a Norwegian fjord?

[Inebriated]

Ranxerox,

Wrong. If you wanna say this strange behavier in HD Tune depends on how you install the ssd, then you need to show two screenshots of THE SAME SSD where in one shot it is messed up, and in the other shot it is ok. And then tell us what the fix it, so we can confirm it in our problematic ssds too. Only then your post will make sense.

Your post makes no sense, since you are showing 2 screenshots of 2 different drives.

Look at your 60GB ssd... it is messed up. Try to reinstall it the way you want, and I doubt it will fix it. That SSD will have that behavier forever.

I know this, because I have tryed everything with mine phoenix pro 80GB.
I have tried:
winxp, win 7
x86, x64
secure erase with gparted and parted magic
64kb, 128kb, 1024kb and default win 7 alignment
AHCI and IDE mode
Different SATA ports and different mobos.

So, basicaly, your 60GB ssd is a bad one.


eva2000,

No one said anything about performance alone. Its not the number itself, it is the strange behavier in HD Tune (and others benchmarks too). Read more carefuly. I couldn't care less if all the sandforce drives were showing this strange behavier, because that could be the way it works. The problem here, is that we have THE SAME PRODUCT (i.e. two different phoenix pro 60gb) showing different results. Some of them show a "normal" bench in HD Tune (straight line) and others show a messed up result.

Look at Ranxerox's phoenix pro 60gb bench in HD Tune. I would be EXTREMELY UNHAPPY to spend money on such a messed up drive like that. For sure something is wrong with it. My 80gb is messed up too, just not as much.

Keep in mind that you are testing on the OS volume. If you want real numbers, use the SSD drive as a secondary volume, not your main Operating System volume. You will get those spikes as windows will halt I/O to issue it's own commands.

[mauro]

Keep in mind that you are testing on the OS volume. If you want real numbers, use the SSD drive as a secondary volume, not your main Operating System volume. You will get those spikes as windows will halt I/O to issue it's own commands.

I have tried to bench the drive both with the OS in it, and on another computer as a secundary drive with zero data on it, and that behavier won't change.

So, NO, it has nothing to do with that.

I would like to hear something from GSKILL here.

[Ranxerox]

I am bad with my FM-25S2S-60GBP2 and the firmware 3.1

Receive my best regards

[G.SKILL]

I have tried to bench the drive both with the OS in it, and on another computer as a secundary drive with zero data on it, and that behavier won't change.

So, NO, it has nothing to do with that.

I would like to hear something from GSKILL here.

Hi mauro,

please use secure erase tool (parted magic ) and test with zero data again.
it will not the same absolutely.
if you got the same result, please let me know.
I will assist you to replace and test this strange SSD personally.

[mauro]

Hi mauro,

please use secure erase tool (parted magic ) and test with zero data again.
it will not the same absolutely.
if you got the same result, please let me know.
I will assist you to replace and test this strange SSD personally.

Thanks for your assistance and attention with my problem.
Yes, I get the same bizarre result after a secure erase and benching the drive with zero data on it, as a secundary drive (not the OS drive).

I want to give you evidence that I have done all the tests. So I just took this pic for you.



1) I've done the secure erase procedure with GPARTED and PARTED MAGIC (HDErase won't work with my drive / mobo).
I tried parted magic following gskill tutorial, AND using the hdparm method witch is an even better method. Take a lot at it here:
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase
2) I've used that RAPTOR-X HDD for my OS drive, and benched my phoenix pro 80gb with zero data on it as secundary drive.
3) I've tried win xp, win vista and win 7 (32b and 64b), all with clean install.
4) I've tried different sata ports.
5) I've tried different mobos / computers.
6) I've tried IDE mode and AHCI mode.
7) I've tried 64kb, 128kb, 1024kb and win 7 default (101mb) alignment.
8) I've tried intel RST 9.6 and 10.
9) I've tried old intel matrix storage.
10) I've tried msahci.
11) I've tried firmware 2.1 and 3.1.
12) I've tried with and without TRIM.

All of that, and nothing fixed the problem.
Everytime, I get the same bizarre result. Also, HD Tune IS NOT the only benchmark where my phoenix pro 80gb won't perform as expected.

Here in Crystal Disk Mark, I am missing about 60MB/s in sequential and 512k read.
That means I am missing about 30% of its performance.



I don't know what to say. I am very frustrated. This is my first SSD and I picked gskill because I liked gskill's ddr2 and ddr3 memory.

I hope you can help me with this issue.

[eva2000]

weird indeed... do you have any background tasks running ? windows indexing etc ? what motherboard ?

haven't run hdtune on v3.1 for mine yet first run here

DFI UT X58-T3H8 as AHCI mode with microsoft AHCI drivers

I have 12x 60GB Gskill Phoenix Pro which run pretty much the same







probably get the ssd rma/replaced to see if it's just that unit

[mauro]

eva2000,

No, no background tasks, I have benched with zero data on the ssd (secundary drive, no OS installed on it), and got the same bizarre and capped result.
Mobo is Asus Maximus II Formula (P45 + ICH10R).

I have considered RMA, but I live in Brasil. It will be a very painful process and probably take about 1 month the be completed. Also, its written on the gskill warranty term, that they can / will send you refurbished parts in the RMA process. So I am not confortable with that.

If there is no other way, I will probably need to RMA this unit.
BUT, I am still waiting to see what gskill support can do for me and my issue here, and if it comes to RMA, I hope gskill can do something special for me.

[grits]

Same here

Greetings,

My transfer speeds are inconsistent as well:

FM-25S2S-60GBP2 (36% free space)


FM-25S2S-120GBP2 (44% free space)


Both Phoenix Pros were purchased from NewEgg in November 2010. Firmware is 2.1 on both drives. CrystalDiskMark 3 shows only 157 mb/s read and 61 mb/s write speeds on the 60 GB model.

Purchased two years ago:

INTEL_SSDSA2M080G2GN (X-25) (14% free space)


grits