My Samsung SSD seems slow

[justnotcricket]

Ive had a 128GB Samsung SSD (I have no idea which model it is, have checked in control panel but only seems to give me a serial number) that Ive had for almost exactly 2 years. I feel as though its nowhere near as fast as it used to be (example, boot up takes a bit longer than it did originally, programs seem to take a bit longer to open).

I did some googling and ran a CDM bench mark and the 4K results seem really bad?

TRIM is enabled (have Win7). I want to clean up my computer a little before next year and hopefully make it run a little faster so I was going to format my SSD and re-install but I read that this is a horrible idea for SSD drives?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, seems slower than my OCZ Agility 30GB SATA2 drive.

 

[Zap]

Hello justnotcricket, and welcome to AnandTech forums.

Which exact model Samsung SSD do you have? Without giving us a model, it would be like saying, "My Ford vehicle gets 20MPG, is that bad?" without telling us WHICH Ford vehicle it is. A Focus? Yeah, something is wrong. An F150 truck? Give yourself a pat on the back.

Samsung's SSDs are reliable but they used to be slow. The only "fast" Samsung SSDs are the model 470 and model 830.

Note when I say "slow" I mean compared to other, better SSDs. The "slow" Samsung SSDs would still be faster than hard drives in day to day use.

 

[Coup27]

Check partition alignment, AHCI mode and is write-caching enabled?

And yea, a model number is a must. Open your case boy.

 

[pitz]

Yeah definitely figure out the model number on that. I have a 128gb Samsung SSD ("PM800") that is a little bit newer, and it required a firmware update to, among other things, improve its garbage collection, and implement TRIM.

The old Samsung SSDs certainly aren't as fast as the latest/greatest, but they don't tend to lose data, and reports of data loss in these forums, or even elsewhere, are extremely rare.

Here's my ~2 year-old Samsung PM800 MMCRE (Dell-supplied) SSD on that same benchmark:

edit: yeah, its pretty awful. But such is the price one pays for being an early adopter.

 

[pitz]

I feel as though its nowhere near as fast as it used to be (example, boot up takes a bit longer than it did originally, programs seem to take a bit longer to open).

Just comparing our numbers (which, on reads, are virtually identical), I suspect you're suffering what I would describe as expectations creep.

Look at doing the firmware update....but also look at replacing the unit outright, and/or upgrading other relevant parts of your gear, if expectations aren't being met. What's the rest of your system anyways? Mine is installed in a Dell Latitude D830 laptop, with a SATA/300 interface, and the Intel 965gm chipset.

 

[justnotcricket]

Thanks Zap, I've read plenty of the articles from Anantech when considering buying computer parts but in general Im pretty useless

Ok, how do I get the model number? My control panel gives me a code of sorts that it is MMCRE28G5MXP-0VB but when I put that into the samsung website it finds the part and tells me its an SSD but doesnt give me anything else.

Yeah, I suppose it still does what I need it to do better than a normal HDD (I use it for a large database program for my work) but even that has got a little slower. Queries used to be done in <10 seconds and now theyll take about half a minute and longer. Like I said, my computer was a pretty good setup 2 years ago, but definitely showing its age now: i5 750, GTS 250 1GB, 6GB DDR3. SSD is SATA2.

Ive never updated the firmware. I know win7 runs TRIM automatically and I have checked to see that its enabled (it is) but how would I find out what FW is on it and what I need?

 

[pitz]

Thanks Zap, I've read plenty of the articles from Anantech when considering buying computer parts but in general Im pretty useless

Ok, how do I get the model number? My control panel gives me a code of sorts that it is MMCRE28G5MXP-0VB but when I put that into the samsung website it finds the part and tells me its an SSD but doesnt give me anything else.

Yeah, I suppose it still does what I need it to do better than a normal HDD (I use it for a large database program for my work) but even that has got a little slower. Queries used to be done in <10 seconds and now theyll take about half a minute and longer. Like I said, my computer was a pretty good setup 2 years ago, but definitely showing its age now: i5 750, GTS 250 1GB, 6GB DDR3. SSD is SATA2.

Ive never updated the firmware. I know win7 runs TRIM automatically and I have checked to see that its enabled (it is) but how would I find out what FW is on it and what I need?

Download CrystalDiskInfo, and it will spit out the firmware revision. I have the MMCRE personally, so we might have the same drive! You'll get a number such has VBM25D1Q or similar.

CrystalDiskInfo will also tell you what 'features' are enabled, such as AAM, NCQ, and TRIM.