Arch Linux

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

[Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

I bought an Intel 510 SSD (250GB) disk for my laptop a week ago and I was really impressed by it (hdparm -t got over 410MB/s), so I figured I needed the same disk for my workstation... But after installing my new SSD disk in my workstation and installing Arch there as well, I only get about 218MB/s running the same command...

Is it a hardware problem or driver problem or? (I really thought my workstation would be faster than my laptop, though the Thinkpad W520 has good hardware too...)

I have an ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard with a Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9123 PCIe SATA 6.0 Gb/s controller. Is the problem the controller? Can this be fixed by buying an external SATA controller or is the problem somewhere else?

Regards,

BTJ

Last edited by bjorntj (2011-09-25 10:37:22)

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Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"

biltong

Member

From: South Africa

Registered: 2011-09-01

Posts: 118

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

There is probably a BIOS setting that's different between the two. Do you have AHCI enabled on both machines?

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Yes, I do...

BTJ

---

Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"

biltong

Member

From: South Africa

Registered: 2011-09-01

Posts: 118

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

I can't think of anything else doing anything like that. It's either a controller or BIOS problem. Then again I don't really know much about SSDs

xamaco

Member

From: Corsica, France

Registered: 2010-04-05

Posts: 87

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Did you try playing with different file systems?

gorky

Member

From: Kraków, Poland

Registered: 2010-07-05

Posts: 96

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

bjorntj, are you using the right SATA port? This motherboard has only two 6.0GB/s ports, rest are 3GB/s.
xamaco, hdparm operates at disk level, not taking FS into account. However it's not even close to being a benchmark, so the author really should try using e.g. bonnie++ to measure the real disk subsystem thoroughput.

Last edited by gorky (2011-09-18 19:00:16)

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Yes, I am using the right SATA port...  And the output from the Marvell BIOS during boot tells me the disk is connected at 6Gb/s...
And yes, I know hdparm is not a good benchmarking tool but I thought the result should be similar on my workstation compared to my laptop...

But I will give bonnie+ a try... 

BTJ

---

Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

DItch the marvell controller, it's a poor controller that doesn't outperform regular SATA2 controllers. First issue with this chip is that it doesn't have enough PCIe lanes to support the full speed of SATA600, second problem is that the drivers are very poor.
You will be much happier when you connect the SSD to your Intel SATA300 controller.

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Thx, I've come to the same conclusion and a new controller has been ordered... (Highpoint Rocket 620) 

BTJ

---

Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

I guess you're still disappointed with that controller. It also features one PCIe lane, just like the crappy Marvell Controller. Save your money instead and connect it to the internal SATA300 Intel port, SATA600 controllers with 1 PCIe lane are pure marketing.

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Well, I never managed to get it to work with my motherboard.. Seems like the Asus board don't like that controller for some reasons..
But I tried to connect the disk to the SATA300 Intel port but the hdparm test then showed lower bandwidth then the Marvell controller...?

BTJ

---

Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"

bjorntj

Member

Registered: 2011-05-10

Posts: 150

Re: [Solved, kind of] Disappointed of my new SSD disk....

Ok, connected the disk back on my Intel port and did some more and better tests and discovered that overall is the Intel SATA300 port faster than the Marvell SATA600 port...
So sticking with Intel until I find a reason to buy a real SATA600 controller....

BTJ

---

Someone wrote:
"I understand that if you play a Windows CD backwards you hear strange Satanic messages"
To which someone replied:
"It's even worse than that; play it forwards and it installs Windows"