I/O very slow on quad ssd raid 0

[macsli1]

Awhile ago I setup a new copy of win7 64 on a brand new set of four 60GB Corsair Nova Series 2s in a RAID 0 configuration. I'm running them off of the on board controller on my P8Z68-V (so that's the Intel Z68 chipset) out of the 4 3GB/s ports.

Anyways, I seem to be having painfully slow loading times for everything... slower-than-my-old-5400rpm-drive type of slow. I've been dealing with it for over a month, and now it's getting worse. (Just haven't found the time to deal with it.) Chrome take 5+ seconds to load and webpages take FOREVER to load. (No Internet issues speedtest.net gives me 50+Mbps and 10-ping times) Boot time has risen from 45 seconds to over a min. (This is after POST) Even Microsoft Paint takes over 5 seconds to get started! My UI is blazing fast. CPU & Ram stress tests give normal, fantastic, results. All my games run superbly. (except during load) Yet it seems anything disk related is killing my performance.

I ran ATTO on it and I'm getting peak transfers of 760/625 write/read ratio at 256KB sizes and 13/50 at 0.5KB at the min... Weird. There is no way I'm getting those peak rates. ...Or at least it doesn't seem like that.
(ATTO benchmark file here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12649257/run2.bmk)

Before I beg for your help let me fill you on some of my setup process:
When I started fresh I had BIOS setup properly for the Intel RAID controller to work as specified by the manual. I CTRL-I's in and setup a new RAID 0 array (the details of the cluster size, etc. are escaping me but I did get the optimal #s from Corsair's website.) Upon booting into the win7 disk (non service packed version) I started a fresh install and loaded the latest Intel RAID controller drivers (from Intel's website that day) so I could make sure I had TRIM support (and yes it is turned on as shown by fsutil.) Windows installed without a hitch and I loaded up all my other fun-stuffs after duing a full windows update. (~3hrs)

I've tried removing all essential hardware... (DVD drive, video cards, etc.) No effect. I've tried switching a a bunch of permutations with my SATA ports... (6: 4 3gps and 2 6gps) No effect. I've tried re-installation twice... No effect. I've tried drinking... No effect. I've tried drinking heavily... No effect.

OK, finally here we are:
Please help exercise these demons! :'(

Don't care about formatting. I'm all a go for that, but I will say that I don't exactly have the time for it over the next two weeks. (I'm just using my Linux boxes for the necessary interweb related work and play.) Any suggestions not involving said formatting, it would be appreciated, if they were to be presented first.

On a side note I even tried disabling the page-file just as a why-the-hell-not. No effect.

 

[Mr. President]

I've no idea for a fix but I would try running 'winsat disk' under command line (assuming Win7/8) and see what kind of latencies you're getting. RAID overheads can bump latencies up to the point where it becomes a hindrance rather than help and especially if there is improper alignment. If your latencies are counted in milliseconds then that might give a hint.

 

[el-Capitan]

I could make sure I had TRIM support (and yes it is turned on as shown by fsutil.)

Unfort TRIM does not work on the Z68 and RAID 0 setups (I am in the same boat as you are). This has been verified by several and their tests. Intel has not offered encouragement that support for TRIM on the z68 will come. You will need a 77 series mobo.

 

[macsli1]

try running 'winsat disk' under command line (assuming Win7/8) and see what kind of latencies you're getting.

Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:19.67
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:00.95
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:01:03.35
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:07.99
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Too quick to see.

So yeah... 20 seconds on a sequential read compared to 1 on a random... Sounds great! Don't know what the other stuff is.

Unfort TRIM does not work on the Z68 and RAID 0 setups... You will need a 77 series mobo.

Well crap. I even this will end up being the third mobo on this machine. First one didn't have SLI support when they told me it would and sold me two video cards!

Reference to your claim upon further reading...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6161/...ssd-arrays-on-7series-motherboards-we-test-it


EDIT:
It turns out my server is running a Z77 and is SLI ready so I will be doing a little research on switching over to that. I have a RAID5 4x3TB setup that I do not want going under so I am hesitant in doing so for now. I may just go for the same model mobo with the Z77 chipset which is selling for $120 at the local Micro Center. I'm thinking I can probably fetch around 70-90$ for my current mobo used since it goes for 100$ new online.

 

[macsli1]

I have finally figured out what the issue was. Wasn't Trim. Not Z7x compared to my (still relatively new) Z68. (although I did pony up for the upgrade)...Turn out to be a SSD Firmware issue.

Apparently Corsair doesn't like to offer firmware updates (cheap &*%#) so after plenty of searching I came across the following thread at overclockers...
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700177

I found a step by step guide that walks someone through the process of upgrading their Phison PS3105 controller here:
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/my...im-and-2.5-inch-sata-ssd-firmware-update.html

Now my winsats are off the charts. ^_^

 

[groberts101]

Not sure what that update did for you.. but I can guess that it did actually trim the free space on the drive and allow GC to recover them.

Didn't see your thread before.. but you could have gotten the same exact result previously if you had made an image.. secure erased all drives.. and then reimaged the array to regain a nice plump fresh block reserve.

Now hopefully they have made the GC and recovery more agressive with the newest firmware to help you avoid these issues down the road. That's the newest trend these days now that mfgrs are easing off their concerns for lifespan as we go further into this techs understanding and usage model requirements. Good luck with it all.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Your first mistake was thinking that you were going to get any kind of performance out of an SSD with a Phison controller.

 

[groberts101]

Your first mistake was thinking that you were going to get any kind of performance out of an SSD with a Phison controller.

LOL.. did you not look at his ATTO results, Larry?

4 of those drives in a degraded R0 arrangement is already nearly maxing his Intel controller out.

If it was freshened and having write back cache enabled?(it's off by default).. it wouldn't be something that I would consider kicking out of my system.. that's for sure.

Hopefully he responds back with new improved results too since I'm not sure I've ever seen 4 of those particular SSD controllers on the Intel chip. :hmm: