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Issue with SSD RAID 0

S

Senaurus

Junior Member
I welcome any help on my issue. So here is my story:

I have a computer with 2 SSDs in RAID 0. They are same size 256 GB but not same model. One is Corsair Perfomace Pro and another is Crucial M4. Now to the problem itself. So I turn my computer on and it works like a charm. Everything launches instantly and no issues with switching to full screen in flash videos (Hulu, amazon prime), but as time goes on there is a delay building up, and after 4-6 hours there is at least 10-20 second delay whenever opening any application or whenever switching between full screen on Hulu or Amazon Prime Videos.
Restarting the computer removes the delay, but in another 4-6 hours delay is back.
I searched the internet and could not find anything that would explain my problem.
Here is what I know for sure:
1. Restarting computer is like fresh boot.
2. Logging off and logging back on does not help
3. Cristal Mark reports same performance just after the boot or in 4-6 hours, but after 4-6 hours it takes longer for it to load. I do have to verify this for random read.
4. It does not seem to make difference how the computer was used in the period of those 4-6 hours. Sometimes I would turn the computer on and not really do anything, but after some time the delay is there.

Things I'm not so sure about:
1. I do not think that I had an issue when I was only running single drive, but I do not remember for sure. It was too long ago, and I only had a single drive for a week so I might have not noticed.

Here is my computer config:
Mobo: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
Proc: i7-2600K@3812 MHz
Memory: G.Skill F3-17000CL9 16GB kit
Primary Video: EVGA GTX 580
HDD1: Corsair Perfomace Pro---RAID 0 with 477 GB total
HDD2: Crucial M4---------------and only 96 GB used.

Here the numbers just after the re-boot:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 907.465 MB/s
Sequential Write : 501.231 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 448.244 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 419.222 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.871 MB/s [ 6071.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 328.225 MB/s [ 80133.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 339.454 MB/s [ 82874.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 426.637 MB/s [104159.3 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 21.0% (100.2/476.8 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2012/04/02 23:20:53
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Here are the numbers after computer was on for about 7 hours without much use and has a dely of about 3 seconds now:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 903.426 MB/s
Sequential Write : 502.192 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 435.527 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 465.879 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.804 MB/s [ 6055.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 272.268 MB/s [ 66471.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 337.681 MB/s [ 82441.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 380.997 MB/s [ 93016.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 21.0% (100.3/476.8 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2012/04/03 7:09:11
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

I do not see anything that would explain the drop in performance. There is drop in random write for 4k (funny that 512 actually increased), but it is still really fast and I do not think that is the issue, but it might be a symptom.

Thank you guys in advance for your help.
 
Last edited:
3. Cristal Mark reports same performance just after the boot or in 4-6 hours, but after 4-6 hours it takes longer for it to load. I do have to verify this for random read.
Click to expand...
Do you mean to say you only tested sequential performance?
The problem sounds like it is random performance so please do check that.
 
No, I did test the random also. I do not remember it being being low or anything strange, but I'm not sure. The reason I remember the sequential is that they are hard to forget being at ~900 MB/Sec for read and ~500 MB/sec for write.

I will re-run the test once my computer slows down again, which will be tomorrow.
 
Here are the numbers just after reboot (I will test my computer again once I'm experiencing the issue again, which will be tomorrow morning):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 907.465 MB/s
Sequential Write : 501.231 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 448.244 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 419.222 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.871 MB/s [ 6071.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 328.225 MB/s [ 80133.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 339.454 MB/s [ 82874.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 426.637 MB/s [104159.3 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 21.0% (100.2/476.8 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2012/04/02 23:20:53
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
 
Last edited:
I am not sure if this makes a huge difference with SSDs but --

Both SSDs you have use the same controller chip but different NAND manufacturing processes. The M4 uses 25nm NAND and the Corsair uses 32nm NAND.

They are both from different manufacturers with their own unique fimware. This could be playing a role in the performance degredation. Even if they both had the most updated firmware from their respective manufacturers, they still could have issues when playing nicely with each other. You should really separate them.

You stated you did not have these issues when you ran them separately - but then you RAIDed them any you started having issues.......
 
jstern01 said:
Might help if we had all of your hardware specs (cpu, amount of RAM ...). Also have you done any tweaking of Windows 7 to optimize your SSDs?
Click to expand...

Sorry forgot the amount of ram. It is 16 GB, but I did list CPU. It is i7-2600K@3812 MHz

jstern01 said:
You might want to check out this link if you have not optimized Windows 7 yet.

http://unkool.com/misc/windows7-and-ssd-tweaks.
Click to expand...

I did all of that some time ago and has no effect.

Also, I'm already experiencing the issue, but not as dramatic as I described only 2-5 second delay. Here are the CrystallMark results for current state of the system:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 903.426 MB/s
Sequential Write : 502.192 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 435.527 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 465.879 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.804 MB/s [ 6055.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 272.268 MB/s [ 66471.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 337.681 MB/s [ 82441.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 380.997 MB/s [ 93016.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 21.0% (100.3/476.8 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2012/04/03 7:03:11
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

The only thinkg I can see is that Random writes are slower, but they are still really fast

Also, my Raid has total 477 GB and 377 GB are free so it is less than a 25% used.
 
I' try downloading Process Explorer from Microsoft and look for a memory leak.
That will at least confirm whether it's the drives or not.
 
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