help with falcon 2 read/write speed

[mgrobins]

hi,

first post but I have been reading a lot of the great advice on here . THanks so much to the folks who take the time to post!

I have a 128GB Falcon 2 and noticed my win 7 install was getting quite laggy so I began to investigate what I could do, made some changes/updates and then benchmarked my drive.

Running AS-Benchmark I see that my 4k read/write is at 20 & 10 respectively. These seem slower than what others are achieving by a long haul.

Other speeds seem ok (I'll post the results up once I get them off my other machine)

My hardware:

Q6600 @3.2GHz
GA-EP35-DS4 m/b - latest bios
6GB RAM in Dual channel mode (@800MHz)
Falcon 2 (on SATA 0 port)
WD Raptors - 15GB and 300GB (on SATA ports 1 & 2)
BR reader (SATA 3 or 4)

AHCI enabled in bios
Falcon f/w is latest available (updated Monday)

O/S: Win 7 Home 64 bit.
SDD partitioned to 3 usable logical drives. OS partition is < half full.

WHat I have done:
Tried wiith C1e enabled and disabled - no change.

imaged SSD, ran parted magic secure internal erase and restored image - no change.

Latest Intel RST driver installed (after trying the drivers from the Gigabyte site for this M/B).

Write cache is enabled.

Have run in IDE mode, with BR drive disconnected (other drives interffering with AHCI mode?? ... didn't try without raptors though) and in Windows safe mode. All no change.

So... is it the benchmark software, a limitation of the P35 boards (ICH9R chipset I think??), or working as intended?

Maybe my win 7 installation is borked?

I'd appreciate some help and advice! I'll get the actual results up asap.

[mgrobins]

Here are my bench results:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
- <ASSSDBenchmark XmlFormatVersion="1">
- <Information>
<Name>FM-25S2I-128GBFII</Name>
<Firmware>2030</Firmware>
<Controller>iaStor</Controller>
<Size>119.24 GB</Size>
<DateTime>16/02/2011 14:10:57</DateTime>
<BenchmarkVersion>1.5.3784.37609</BenchmarkVersion>
<Mode>MB/s</Mode>
<Note />
<Signature />
</Information>

- <SeqTest>
<Read>232.42 MB/s</Read>
<Write>150.03 MB/s</Write>

</SeqTest>

- <Random4K1TTest>
<Read>27.68 MB/s</Read>
<Write>9.62 MB/s</Write>

</Random4K1TTest>

- <Random4K64TTest>
<Read>68.54 MB/s</Read>
<Write>10.26 MB/s</Write>

</Random4K64TTest>

- <AccTimeTest>
<Read>0.138 ms</Read>
<Write>0.442 ms</Write>

</AccTimeTest>

- <Score>
<Read>119</Read>
<Write>35</Write>
<Total>224</Total>

</Score>
</ASSSDBenchmark>

[G.SKILL]

Hi mate,

could you check this SSD health.
Please use HD Tune.
let me know its ID(C7) value and status.

[mgrobins]

HD Tune Pro: FM-25S2I-128GBFII Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 6 0 0 0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 20 0 0 0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 12 0 0 0 ok
(B8) End To End Error Detection 85 0 0 0 ok
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered 0 0 0 0 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 0 0 0 0 ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 0 0 0 0 ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 84 38 0 2869 ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 85 147 0 3733 warning
(C8) Write Error Rate 203 81 0 58 ok
(C9) Soft Read Error Rate 155 215 0 69 ok
(CA) Data Address Marker errors 143 60 0 5 ok
(CB) Run Out Cancel 235 255 0 4 ok
(CC) Soft ECC Correction 0 0 0 0 ok
(CD) Thermal Asperity Rate 136 19 0 0 ok
(CE) Flying Height 1 0 0 0 ok
(CF) Spin High Current 13 1 0 0 ok
(D0) Spin Buzz 13 0 0 0 ok
(D1) Offline Seek Performance 100 0 0 0 ok
(D3) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok
(D4) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok
(D5) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok

Health Status : warning

sorry... I tried formatting it but it loses all the spacing. How do I attach a screen shot here like folks do?

[G.SKILL]

Hi mgrobins,

The information showed this SSD got much bad block.
Please use FW 1916 clean tool.
It can solve this problem then upgrade to FW 2030.

[mgrobins]

ok. I have run the cleaner from 1916 f/w installed the f/w and upgraded to 2030 f/w.

Results from HD Tune still show the warning on C7.

Does this indicate my drive is having issues???? It's still under warranty so I'd rather know earlier rather than after it bombs out on me

No change to benchmark speeds either.

HD Tune Pro: FM-25S2I-128GBFII Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 6 0 0 0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 0 0 0 0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 1 0 0 0 ok
(B8) End To End Error Detection 85 0 0 0 ok
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered 0 0 0 0 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 0 0 0 0 ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 0 0 0 0 ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 118 127 0 78 ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 208 11 0 1112 warning
(C8) Write Error Rate 133 53 0 1 ok
(C9) Soft Read Error Rate 2 146 0 9 ok
(CA) Data Address Marker errors 81 28 0 0 ok
(CB) Run Out Cancel 104 27 0 0 ok
(CC) Soft ECC Correction 0 0 0 0 ok
(CD) Thermal Asperity Rate 136 19 0 0 ok
(CE) Flying Height 1 0 0 0 ok
(CF) Spin High Current 82 0 0 0 ok
(D0) Spin Buzz 0 0 0 0 ok
(D1) Offline Seek Performance 100 0 0 0 ok
(D3) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok
(D4) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok
(D5) (unknown attribute) 0 0 0 0 ok

Health Status : warning

[mgrobins]

having done some more reading of the same issue another memebr had I see the C7 count should have been set to zero after using the clean tool. THe fact tht it is increasing again does not give me confidence...

Should the drive be RMA'd? If so what is the process? I purchased from Umart in Brisbane and they generally will not do exchanges (item returned to them then off to dealer/manufacturer and they will forward me the replacement).

Advice/input will be appreciated

[G.SKILL]

Hi mgrobins,

Actually it should be zero after using clean tool.
If it still showed warning, it is mean you got physical bad block.
Please contact our RMA department to arrange RMA procedure.
http://www.gskill.com/rma.php