New firmware for Intel X25-M is out

[skid00skid00]

I'm seeing similar results to you - our 4K Write speeds are around half what other folk are seeing.

No idea why

The write acc. time in this post is double what I get. I bet you aren't aligned on 32K...

 

[Nomgle]

The write acc. time in this post is double what I get. I bet you aren't aligned on 32K...

I installed Windows 7 directly to my brand-new drive, and I was under the impression that Vista and Windows 7 automatically aligned their partitions. Is that not correct ?

 

[Majic 7]

I installed Windows 7 directly to my brand-new drive, and I was under the impression that Vista and Windows 7 automatically aligned their partitions. Is that not correct ?

That is correct, 7 aligned it properly when I installed the OS.

 

[zuffy]

I think I know why my i7 system SSD performance is not as good as some others. Looks like when I used Acronis Home 2010 to clone from my 80GB SSD to the 160GB SSD, it screw up the disk alignment.

 

[MrK6]

Great thread, I ran the AS SSD benchmark out of curiosity and got a 405. My 4K-64 throughput is less than others are showing though. Also, my access latency, especially on reads, is a little higher (~0.135ms read, 0.095ms write, read seems high). I have about 76GB installed on the drive, is that why?

 

[Dubb]

Argh, I'm having trouble.

New 160GB, arrived late last week. left it till today when I had time.

burned the CD, tried to update, got an error message (something like "DOS area cannot be read), tried all kinds of different BIOS options, nothing helps.

I burn a new CD on a different computer and this one appears to go much better. it scans, finds the drive, and then gives me the y/n if I want to update. I hit 'y' and enter, and nothing happens. it's been sitting, stuck like that, for over half an hour now. How long is this supposed to take?

 

[zuffy]

I think I know why my i7 system SSD performance is not as good as some others. Looks like when I used Acronis Home 2010 to clone from my 80GB SSD to the 160GB SSD, it screw up the disk alignment.

Took the 160GB SDD and formatted in my backup PC so I have 1 partition. Confirmed that it's aligned properly. Then, installed Windows 7 on it. Performance is no different from the "bad" disk alignment. 417 vs the old 419.

 

[Thor86]

Took the 160GB SDD and formatted in my backup PC so I have 1 partition. Confirmed that it's aligned properly. Then, installed Windows 7 on it. Performance is no different from the "bad" disk alignment. 417 vs the old 419.

Run msinfo32 and under Component > Storage > Disks, what are your partition starting offsets?

If they are divisible by 4096, they are aligned properly.

 

[rcpratt]

Argh, I'm having trouble.

New 160GB, arrived late last week. left it till today when I had time.

burned the CD, tried to update, got an error message (something like "DOS area cannot be read), tried all kinds of different BIOS options, nothing helps.

I burn a new CD on a different computer and this one appears to go much better. it scans, finds the drive, and then gives me the y/n if I want to update. I hit 'y' and enter, and nothing happens. it's been sitting, stuck like that, for over half an hour now. How long is this supposed to take?

Try changing to IDE mode for the firmware update.

 

[sf8user]

My X25-M 80GB G2 scores a 399 on AS SSD
On a non overclocked E6400, D975XBX2, 4GB RAM with stock Windows 7 x86 ultimate install it boots in 19 seconds. (Loading windows text to desktop when cursor stops spinning)

Is this typical? If I upgrade to an i5 750 how much faster will boots be?

The Anandtech article had a pretty crazy 6 second full loaded boot time.

 

[rcpratt]

My X25-M 80GB G2 scores a 399 on AS SSD
On a non overclocked E6400, D975XBX2, 4GB RAM with stock Windows 7 x86 ultimate install it boots in 19 seconds. (Loading windows text to desktop when cursor stops spinning)

Is this typical? If I upgrade to an i5 750 how much faster will boots be?

The Anandtech article had a pretty crazy 6 second full loaded boot time.

Somewhere between 6 and 10 seconds sounds about right for an i5/i7. It still depends on how many programs you're launching on startup.

 

[MrK6]

My X25-M 80GB G2 scores a 399 on AS SSD
On a non overclocked E6400, D975XBX2, 4GB RAM with stock Windows 7 x86 ultimate install it boots in 19 seconds. (Loading windows text to desktop when cursor stops spinning)

Is this typical? If I upgrade to an i5 750 how much faster will boots be?

The Anandtech article had a pretty crazy 6 second full loaded boot time.

I get about the same. It's only that fast after a new reformat and OS install.

 

[sxr7171]

I think I know why my i7 system SSD performance is not as good as some others. Looks like when I used Acronis Home 2010 to clone from my 80GB SSD to the 160GB SSD, it screw up the disk alignment.

Yes 100%. Those tools are not aware yet and they need to be. For SSDs and for the new 4KB format drives. It's about time, these stupid software makers so far behind the times. I bet the fix takes just a few days.

 

[MrK6]

For those interested, I just deleted about 20GB off my SSD and re-ran the benchmark, got a 432 - that's an increase of 25-30 points from my previous runs.

 

[zuffy]

Yes 100%. Those tools are not aware yet and they need to be. For SSDs and for the new 4KB format drives. It's about time, these stupid software makers so far behind the times. I bet the fix takes just a few days.

Suprisingly, as stated in my previous post, I redid the disk alignment and install a fresh Win7, no loss or gain in performance.

 

[Nomgle]

I think I know why my i7 system SSD performance is not as good as some others. Looks like when I used Acronis Home 2010 to clone from my 80GB SSD to the 160GB SSD, it screw up the disk alignment.

Does anyone know of a way of moving partitions back into correct alignment ?

I ask because we have a few old laptops at work, that I've been thinking about upgrading with SSDs - but obviously the alignment will be screwed up when the old mechanical drives are cloned onto the new SSDs.

Is it as simple as firing up a partition manager tool (GParted ? Partition Magic ?) and simply moving the partition to a certain position ?

 

[Thor86]

Suprisingly, as stated in my previous post, I redid the disk alignment and install a fresh Win7, no loss or gain in performance.

What AS SSD performance numbers are you getting?

Also, when you commenced the fresh install, did you let Win7 create the partitions?

 

[Thor86]

Does anyone know of a way of moving partitions back into correct alignment ?

I ask because we have a few old laptops at work, that I've been thinking about upgrading with SSDs - but obviously the alignment will be screwed up when the old mechanical drives are cloned onto the new SSDs.

Is it as simple as firing up a partition manager tool (GParted ? Partition Magic ?) and simply moving the partition to a certain position ?

Depends on the imaging software you use to restore. If your current disk alignments are not what they should be for Win7/SSD setups, then you will need to create the parititions with either a Win7 install media, or any partition managers, and then depending on your restore options, should be able to restore parititions and keep the existing alignments intact.

 

[dawza]

Suprisingly, as stated in my previous post, I redid the disk alignment and install a fresh Win7, no loss or gain in performance.

This is an Acronis Home 2010 image from a VR150-->Intel G2 80GB, and I also have been unable to detect any performance loss (in daily use or in benchmarks) versus a clean W7 install onto the Intel.

You can easily calculate and see that the alignment is off, presumably from the imaging process:

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5687/ssdbench.png

 

[fleshconsumed]

OK, installed firmware, seems fine so far. Had to switch to IDE mode because it wouldn't recognize the drive in AHCI, but so far so good. Win7 had to be restarted and all.

Anyway, got a question. I just ran AS SSD and I got kind of low scores for my 160G2 (about 70GB free space). Total score is 362, of course that's an OS drive with lots of stuff installed/running in the background. I want to run SSD Toolbox Optimizer, but I can't find it at Intel website. Search on intel website finds the toolbox, but when I follow the link it says page not found. Does anyone has link to the toolbox at intel website?

 

[Thor86]

OK, installed firmware, seems fine so far. Had to switch to IDE mode because it wouldn't recognize the drive in AHCI, but so far so good. Win7 had to be restarted and all.

Anyway, got a question. I just ran AS SSD and I got kind of low scores for my 160G2 (about 70GB free space). Total score is 362, of course that's an OS drive with lots of stuff installed/running in the background. I want to run SSD Toolbox Optimizer, but I can't find it at Intel website. Search on intel website finds the toolbox, but when I follow the link it says page not found. Does anyone has link to the toolbox at intel website?

SSDs are very component dependent. What are your cpu/memory specs? Also PM me your mail address, and I can send you the Intel SSD toolbox.

 

[zuffy]

What AS SSD performance numbers are you getting?

Also, when you commenced the fresh install, did you let Win7 create the partitions?

I got 419 vs 417 in a new install. I didn't use the diskpart to create the partition, instead I plug it in another Windows 7 machine to create the partition.

 

[Thor86]

I got 419 vs 417 in a new install. I didn't use the diskpart to create the partition, instead I plug it in another Windows 7 machine to create the partition.

Does AS SSD benchmark show msahci as the controller driver? Those number seem about right to me.

 

[zuffy]

Does AS SSD benchmark show msahci as the controller driver? Those number seem about right to me.

It's AHCI. What I was trying to say or prove is that the disk alignment does not impact performance as much as people preach, at least in my experience. This is the case in 3 machines with the Intel SSD.

 

[Thor86]

It's AHCI. What I was trying to say or prove is that the disk alignment does not impact performance as much as people preach, at least in my experience. This is the case in 3 machines with the Intel SSD.

Agreed, I think the performance gains from un-aligned to aligned is more reflected on:

1) 80GB drives
2) RAID setups.

Single disks won't