Samsung 830 installed, slow benchmarks

Raswan

Senior member
Jan 29, 2010
702
6
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Just put this into the rig in my signature, attached to the SATA III port with this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123107 cable.

Installed the magician software, changed everything recommended (IDE to ACHI, etc.) and ran the magician benchmarks as well as AS SSD :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<ASSSDBenchmark XmlFormatVersion="1"> -<Information> <Name>SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series ATA Device</Name> <Firmware>CXM03B1Q</Firmware> <Controller>pciide</Controller> <Size>238.47 GB</Size>
<DateTime>8/21/2012 8:04:54 PM</DateTime> <BenchmarkVersion>1.5.3784.37609</BenchmarkVersion> <Mode>MB/s</Mode> <Note/> <Signature/> </Information> -<SeqTest>

<Read>286.76 MB/s</Read> <Write>165.37 MB/s</Write> </SeqTest> -<Random4K1TTest> <Read>18.05 MB/s</Read> <Write>32.47 MB/s</Write> </Random4K1TTest> -<Random4K64TTest> <Read>21.02 MB/s</Read> <Write>45.10 MB/s</Write> </Random4K64TTest> -<AccTimeTest> <Read>0.116 ms</Read> <Write>0.107 ms</Write> </AccTimeTest> -

<Score> <Read>68</Read> <Write>94</Write> <Total>199</Total> </Score> </ASSSDBenchmark>

Boot times are around 50 seconds, which seems super high, but maybe my expectations were too great. Apologize not having just a screenshot, can't get the attachment function to work atm.

Thoughts? Advice? Is this just a bad drive?
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
146
106
Move the SSD to an Intel SATA2 port. Seems people got alot of issues with those bolted on Marvell controllers.

I assume you reinstalled Windows on your SSD. And also made sure its not actually booting from a HD.
 
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CubicZirconia

Diamond Member
Nov 24, 2001
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50 seconds is not an acceptable boot time. Something is definitely not right, this much is true.
 

ronbo613

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2010
1,237
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Move the SSD to an Intel SATA2 port. Seems people got alot of issues with those bolted on Marvell controllers.
Yep. The Marvell controller on my Gigabyte motherboard does not work well with SSD's. A Samsung 830 runs best on the Intel controlled SATA II port.

50 seconds is not an acceptable boot time. Something is definitely not right, this much is true.
My computer with an SSD does not boot super quick. Pretty sure it has to do with the Intel Storage Controller.
 

jimpz

Member
Oct 25, 2008
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Also, remember with boot time, if you are counting from when you push the power button & have a standard BIOS, approximately 30 seconds of that IS the bios, which the SSD has no effect on.. That means your boot time is probably in the 20-30 second range.
To get fasre than the '50 second' you need a motherboard that uses UEFI (some gigabyte boards do - but need the bios updated to UEFI)

Jim
 

Raswan

Senior member
Jan 29, 2010
702
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Yep. The Marvell controller on my Gigabyte motherboard does not work well with SSD's. A Samsung 830 runs best on the Intel controlled SATA II port.

Will the manual just tell me which of those ports is the Intel-controlled one?

Edit: also, that is dumb, if true. Get your shit together, Marvell.
 

ronbo613

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2010
1,237
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Will the manual just tell me which of those ports is the Intel-controlled one?
Yes. The Marvell controlled SATA ports are called "GSATA" ports, usually on the end of the row of SATA ports, most likely ports 6 and 7. I don't recall for sure, but they may be white or yellow, the SATA II ports controlled by the Intel chipset are blue.
 

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
2,574
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Intel Sata 6gbps ports are typically white on newer 7 series boards.
 

Raswan

Senior member
Jan 29, 2010
702
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81
Yes. The Marvell controlled SATA ports are called "GSATA" ports, usually on the end of the row of SATA ports, most likely ports 6 and 7. I don't recall for sure, but they may be white or yellow, the SATA II ports controlled by the Intel chipset are blue.

Makes sense. At school now but I know I've got 6 blue GSATA-labeled ports and two white SATAIII ports right under the end of the gpu.

I did initially have it plugged into the SATAII ports, however, before putting it into the SATAIII, and benchmarks were the same (though I hadn't switched to ACHI or run the OS optimization from the magician software, don't know if that would make a big difference but I can't really see it). I'll switch if back this afternoon, rerun everything, and see what happens. Silly me for assuming that the SSD would run at rated speeds right out of the box.
 

ronbo613

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2010
1,237
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Silly me for assuming that the SSD would run at rated speeds right out of the box.
I don't think it's the SSD. Pretty common knowledge that the Marvell controller on the Gigabyte P55A boards is not really going to pull 6G speed. Remember that the drive specs are for SATA III, since the Gigabyte mobo you(and I) have is only good for SATA II, it's not going to reach those advertised benchmarks.
I can tell you that even with an SATA II interface, the Samsung 830 is much faster than any mechanical hard drive. Switch over to AHCI and run the Optimization Wizard. Are you running Windows 7?
 

bigsnyder

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2004
1,568
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Also depends on where the primary boot sector is located, may still be on the HDD. Just because your OS is on the SSD doesn't means that it is booting from it first. On my setup, Windows 8 is installed on a separate partition on the HDD, not on my SSD with Windows 7. The computer hits the Win 8 boot manager on the HDD first, then the SSD depending on my OS selection.
 

kmmatney

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2000
4,363
1
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Those scores do seem REALLY slow. I normally don't take benchmarls too seriously, but your scores are just too far out. My 256 830 SSD gets an ASSD benchmarl of:

Read - 348
Write - 178
Total - 704

One thing about As-SSD is that the benchmark scores greatly depend on cpu power. So my scores are much higher now than there were when I had this same SSD in my old laptop. The old machine was a Core 2 Duo, and the4 total score was around 300. You setup should score a bit higher, though.

it looks like you might still be using IDE mode...

My scored below, for comparison, using a Core i7 (gen 3) laptop:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ASSSDBenchmark
XmlFormatVersion="1">
<Information>
<Name>SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series</Name>
<Firmware>CXM0</Firmware>
<Controller>iaStorV</Controller>
<Size>238.47 GB</Size>
<DateTime>8/22/2012 11:26:35 PM</DateTime>
<BenchmarkVersion>1.6.4237.30508</BenchmarkVersion>
<Mode>MB/s</Mode>
<Note />
<Signature />
</Information>
<SeqTest>
<Read>495.37 MB/s</Read>
<Write>390.53 MB/s</Write>
</SeqTest>
<Random4K1TTest>
<Read>18.97 MB/s</Read>
<Write>44.20 MB/s</Write>
</Random4K1TTest>
<Random4K64TTest>
<Read>279.48 MB/s</Read>
<Write>94.90 MB/s</Write>
</Random4K64TTest>
<AccTimeTest>
<Read>0.155 ms</Read>
<Write>0.076 ms</Write>
</AccTimeTest>
<Score>
<Read>348</Read>
<Write>178</Write>
<Total>704</Total>
</Score>
</ASSSDBenchmark>
 
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Raswan

Senior member
Jan 29, 2010
702
6
81
I don't think it's the SSD. Pretty common knowledge that the Marvell controller on the Gigabyte P55A boards is not really going to pull 6G speed. Remember that the drive specs are for SATA III, since the Gigabyte mobo you(and I) have is only good for SATA II, it's not going to reach those advertised benchmarks.
I can tell you that even with an SATA II interface, the Samsung 830 is much faster than any mechanical hard drive. Switch over to AHCI and run the Optimization Wizard. Are you running Windows 7?

Well, I did not know it, so shame on me. I know it's faster, I just want it to be SUPER fast.

Switched to AHCI, ran the optimization wizard, and yep, Windows 7. Processor is the i5-760, which I didn't know would influence SSD speeds, so maybe you're right.
 

Raswan

Senior member
Jan 29, 2010
702
6
81
So plugged it into the blue intel SATA_0 port, went into Bios and made sure it was in AHCI (there was a second option further down, in addition to the one the interactive manual said I should switch to AHCI, that I switched to as well, don't know what it did specifically), rebooted, re-ran the OS and SSD optimization software, then re-ran AS SSD.

Benchmarks look better, significantly in fact, and boot-up time is about five seconds quicker as well:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<ASSSDBenchmark XmlFormatVersion="1"> -<Information> <Name>SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series ATA Device</Name> <Firmware>CXM03B1Q</Firmware> <Controller>msahci</Controller> <Size>238.47 GB</Size> <DateTime>8/23/2012 11:04:42 PM</DateTime> <BenchmarkVersion>1.5.3784.37609</BenchmarkVersion> <Mode>MB/s</Mode> <Note/> <Signature/> </Information> -<SeqTest> <Read>254.20 MB/s</Read> <Write>245.74 MB/s</Write> </SeqTest> -<Random4K1TTest> <Read>13.59 MB/s</Read> <Write>41.61 MB/s</Write> </Random4K1TTest> -<Random4K64TTest> <Read>184.73 MB/s</Read> <Write>102.64 MB/s</Write> </Random4K64TTest> -<AccTimeTest> <Read>0.121 ms</Read> <Write>0.093 ms</Write> </AccTimeTest> -<Score> <Read>224</Read> <Write>169</Write> <Total>511</Total> </Score> </ASSSDBenchmark>

Only other thing I can think of is bios revision, but that would only affect startup times, right? I suppose this may be the best I can hope for. Perhaps a new processor, like someone above mentioned, may be the thing keeping me from ~450MB/s speeds. I just can't think of anything else...
 

ronbo613

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2010
1,237
45
91
That's not me, it's someone else. I'm still seeing little more than half of that
That's because your motherboard does not have a 6G Intel port, the 6G port on the P55A board is a Marvell port which does not pull 6G.
Google "change to AHCI without reinstalling Windows". There is a registry key you may need to change for max performance.
 

yvesj

Member
Dec 28, 2011
72
0
0
My Samsung 830 -256GB connected to white Intel 6G port:

sorry to but in but how do you get this as ssd benchmark in inglis .
i did download it about 10 time and every time it in german
 
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