intel 520 degrading performance over 6 months

docp · 12-13-2012, 07:59 AM

Hello all,
here is my benchmark of intel SSD 520series 120 gb.
this is used in dell latitude 6520 laptop as OS drive.
I have seprate 500 gb seagate to store all data.

this drive is half filled and 55 GB free and intel SSD toolbox is scheduled to do SSD optimizations every 1 week.which is confirmed working.remaining space is in another partition.

this is my crystal diskmark score.

do have a look.

is it time to get rid of this?
another issue I had last week was,laptop refused to boot saying no operating system found.
I managed to repair it via windows 7 usb drive.
but i dont know why it all of sudden became un bootable?
thanks.

docp · 12-13-2012, 09:17 AM

here it is.

it says 100 percent health.SSD toolbox also says same.
thanks,

dmoney1980 · 12-13-2012, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docp

here it is.

https://www.box.com/shared/static/w3...1uprxzs6gv.JPG

it says 100 percent health.SSD toolbox also says same.
thanks,

linky no worky....

Please run an AS SSD benchmark on it and post the screenshot if you can

groberts101 · 12-13-2012, 09:44 AM

I would secure erase it and reimage that same install back over to the drive to see if the problem persists. That will give you back a nice big fresh block pool for the controller to work with and likely eliminate the speed issues.

From there we start looking at the install itself and potential driver related issues. Especially if you are running into no boot situations.

docp · 12-13-2012, 10:02 AM

that boot issue was like this.
i was done with my work and had shutdown laptop.
then I remembered to put one game on my iPhone.went to start pc.
I saw dell boot screen and followed by no boot device.
I thought must be temp,I restarted couple of time no luck.
at least 5-6 times I tried to restart.but no luck,
finally opened up system bay,re seated the disk firmly but no luck ,ended up putting it in place of DVD drive caddy,from their it worked.

docp · 12-13-2012, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmoney1980

linky no worky....

Please run an AS SSD benchmark on it and post the screenshot if you can

I fixed up links.
do have a look.
thanks.

groberts101 · 12-13-2012, 10:50 AM

couple of things to look at then.

the bay or enclosure it's housed in can make all the difference in the world with some systems. Especially on a Dell.. Intel or no Intel SSD.

Also consider that software power saving options and bios energy mgmt implementation can still wreak havoc with SSD's. Intel or no Intel SSD.

Just out of curiosity.. was the laptop on battery power at the time.. or plugged in?

jhansman · 12-13-2012, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groberts101

the bay or enclosure it's housed in can make all the difference in the world with some systems. Especially on a Dell.. Intel or no Intel SSD.

How so? I have my 520 in a 3.5"->2.5" adapter that is in turn housed in a snap-in drive bracket for my Antec case. I would be interested to know if this is somehow affecting the drive. BTW, I am getting numbers similar to those shown by the OP.

docp · 12-13-2012, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groberts101

couple of things to look at then.

the bay or enclosure it's housed in can make all the difference in the world with some systems. Especially on a Dell.. Intel or no Intel SSD.

Also consider that software power saving options and bios energy mgmt implementation can still wreak havoc with SSD's. Intel or no Intel SSD.

Just out of curiosity.. was the laptop on battery power at the time.. or plugged in?

it was plugged in power adapter and when it went bad it was in default system bay and it was swapped later.

docp · 12-13-2012, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhansman

How so? I have my 520 in a 3.5"->2.5" adapter that is in turn housed in a snap-in drive bracket for my Antec case. I would be interested to know if this is somehow affecting the drive. BTW, I am getting numbers similar to those shown by the OP.

I am glad that our no. are similar .
I do not understand --- this drive is rated for 550 read and 500 write.
why this is not even touching 500?

jhansman · 12-13-2012, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docp

I am glad that our no. are similar .
I do not understand --- this drive is rated for 550 read and 500 write.
why this is not even touching 500?

Mine has never hit 500, not even immediately after a fresh install of 64-bit Win7 and updated chipset drivers. I seem to remember my first M4 (64GB) did turn in 500+ numbers, but since, no drive I've used has. Everything still performs well, though.

Seven · 12-13-2012, 11:13 AM

I am getting similar results on my 520 120GB. I don't see anything wrong with it.

docp · 12-13-2012, 11:18 AM

then its fine with me also but how do we explain no boot device found issue?
it was within minute of shut down.why it died all of sudden and came back after installing at another sata port after few tries?

on original port of SSD,now seagate 500 gb drive is installed and its working as always.

Seven · 12-13-2012, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docp

then its fine with me also but how do we explain no boot device found issue?
it was within minute of shut down.why it died all of sudden and came back after installing at another sata port after few tries?

on original port of SSD,now seagate 500 gb drive is installed and its working as always.

I cannot explain that. It might be a driver issue. I guess re-install/secure erase everything on the SSD and see if it helps.

docp · 12-13-2012, 11:59 AM

i will try it after exam.secure erase and all.
what i do not like is sudden no boot device.
rest all is fine.

reliability goes down to zero.

groberts101 · 12-13-2012, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhansman

How so? I have my 520 in a 3.5"->2.5" adapter that is in turn housed in a snap-in drive bracket for my Antec case. I would be interested to know if this is somehow affecting the drive. BTW, I am getting numbers similar to those shown by the OP.

Too many variables to give a quick answer.. but if you're seriously asking me that question.. and not trying to debate with me.. then I will gladly take the time to answer it later on this eve when I'm back in the office again.

The answers were eluded to in some small degree with my previous input to the OP.. so hopefully it may help him with the no-boot situation as well.

PS. SF based drives use compression so it stands to reason that an INCOMPRESSIBLE banchmark like the one popsted above will never give top rated speeds. Especially on a somewhat crippled and reduced power environment in a laptop. Use ATTO since that's where all the advertising comes from. Highly compressible and linear test data will give top speeds.. minus the slower hardwares performance hit.

jhansman · 12-13-2012, 01:56 PM

No, no debate needed. I am genuinely curious about any variable that can affect drive performance, so yes, please do share. Thanks.

blackened23 · 12-13-2012, 02:31 PM

Do you have TRIM and AHCI enabled? If it's an old laptop it likely does not support TRIM. That means performance may vary slightly over time.

Secondly, you're benchmarking with a 1GB file size; I believe most websites test at different settings.

Zxian · 12-13-2012, 04:55 PM

Are you testing the drive with random data, or 0-fill?

Run the CrystalDiskMark again, but make sure to test only using 0-fill. You'll likely see figures much closer to the advertised speeds.

There's likely nothing wrong with your drive. It's simply a matter of how Sandforce controllers handle incompressible/compressible data.

docp · 12-13-2012, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackened23

Do you have TRIM and AHCI enabled? If it's an old laptop it likely does not support TRIM. That means performance may vary slightly over time.

Secondly, you're benchmarking with a 1GB file size; I believe most websites test at different settings.

its dell latitude e6520 with second gen.core i5 based system on qm67 chipset.
both TRIM and AHCI are enabled.

I do agree with you that I am testing at 1 GB size.
as many others got similar no.I am okay with it.

only thing I am not okay is sudden apparent death of drive resulting in no boot device error.
I did check it all over again just to make sure its not loose connection.
its not case of loose connection or anything.
it plainly refuses to work or even get detected in bios.

this is what is worrying part to me.

after words it did work for me but after 4-5 tries.

docp · 12-13-2012, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groberts101

Too many variables to give a quick answer.. but if you're seriously asking me that question.. and not trying to debate with me.. then I will gladly take the time to answer it later on this eve when I'm back in the office again.

The answers were eluded to in some small degree with my previous input to the OP.. so hopefully it may help him with the no-boot situation as well.

PS. SF based drives use compression so it stands to reason that an INCOMPRESSIBLE banchmark like the one popsted above will never give top rated speeds. Especially on a somewhat crippled and reduced power environment in a laptop. Use ATTO since that's where all the advertising comes from. Highly compressible and linear test data will give top speeds.. minus the slower hardwares performance hit.

I did AS benchmark as suggested here,
no. are somewhat worse.

docp · 12-13-2012, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhansman

No, no debate needed. I am genuinely curious about any variable that can affect drive performance, so yes, please do share. Thanks.

I also checked the adapter again,its just converter plug like normal SATA to DVD drive adapter.
max to max their will be some pin layout might be diff.in rare of scenario.
nothing else I could think of.
port wise,it supports 6 gbps bandwidth as checked in HW info.
DVD drive sata port also is mapped on SATA 3.
so I dont think it makes much diff.

pls elaborate what other causes can be their.

thanks.

Seven · 12-14-2012, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docp

I did AS benchmark as suggested here,
no. are somewhat worse.

It's an average score for the 520 120GB.

Do a secure erase and score might go up by 200 points, but will settle down overtime.

Again, this is completely normal.

docp · 12-14-2012, 01:12 PM

Can I do secure erase from say some boot disk or is it only via ssd toolbox?

Seven · 12-14-2012, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docp

Can I do secure erase from say some boot disk or is it only via ssd toolbox?

If you are using a laptop, you may not be able to do a secure erase using a toolbox. You might need to connect your SSD as an external disk in order to do a secure erase.

However, you can format the SSD during the OS installation process.