(Solved)Kingston V+200 SSD slowed down after new Firmware

[I_shot]

Hi guys;

I have a Kingston V+200 90 gb sata 3 ssd with SF-2281 controller.After new 501 firmware (stock was 322)writing speeds reduced by %20.I use AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark for benchmarking and i noticed sequential and 4k writing is lower than before.I know this ssd sucks at incompressible data. Is this normal after firmware update?

(BTW I use native sata 2 ports.dont have sata 3 :sneaky: )

 

[Coup27]

Depends.

Have you checked the release notes of the firmware update to find out if they had to reduce write speed for a specific reason?

Ideally though, no, speeds should not go down on release firmware.

 

[I_shot]

Actually new firmware supposed to improve writing speeds.Release notes say so. AS SSD score with stock firmware was 360 but now it is 300.sometimes below 300.I didn't understand anything.If i knew i wouldn't update the firmware

 

[Coup27]

You could try the age old trick of a secure erase?

Image, secure erase, restore, test?

 

[I_shot]

I've heard that secure erase kills lifetime of SSDs.My disk is 5 days old

 

[Coup27]

What nonsense. Who has said that?

Secure erase will erase all of the NAND so the SSD is entirely blank. It's an excellent way of restoring back lost performance. OCZ often SE their drives during a firmware update as it can cock things up trying to leave data behind.

Edit: I think what that person is trying to say is doing a secure erase will use up one of your erase cycles on your NAND. You will use up this cycle anyway whenever you TRIM the drive and the drives controller decides to erase the NAND as part of its maintenance. Even at 3000 program / erase cycles the drive is good for many many terabytes of storage.

 

[I_shot]

Well if secure erase do any good i'll try it.But i still can't understand how this firmware affected writing speeds ?Writing speed is still good at compressible data. Total read and write was 300 gb when i updated it.

 

[Coup27]

SE will do some good and I think you should try it.

 

[I_shot]

Okay i'll try it.But if it won't help i'm gonna kick ... just kidding =)

 

[Coup27]

If it doesn't help and nothing else in your system has changed since the firmware upgrade, I'd email in a complaint.

 

[I_shot]

Yeah I've already gotten in touch with Kingston but they didn't reply yet

 

[Coup27]

Chances are the first thing they'll do is blame something on your system. Stage 1 response from a large company.

 

[I_shot]

BTW thank you for your time.I really appreciate that.

 

[Coup27]

no worries. let me know how you get on.

 

[I_shot]

Update!

I've disabled c3/c6 state from cpu settings and now 4k random and sustained read,write speed increased This was an issue with most of the gigabyte motherboards.There are so many threads about this and hopefully my disk is faster but i'm sure if i didn't update firmware and disable c3/c6 state,it would be way better than now no doubt.

 

[Coup27]

Have u tried the secure erase yet?

 

[I_shot]

Nope I'll do it this evening. Here is the benchmark result with c3/c6 disabled

 

[Coup27]

Disabling Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology (EIST) in BIOS may also boost your speeds.

You said above about that being an issue. What EIST and c-states do is allow the CPU to clock down, volt down and disable sections of the CPU which are not needed over periods of little use, like spending ages on the AT forum. Obviously this helps power consumpion and heat generation but on periods when you want max output (like a benchmark) it may hold it back.

I rarely tax my PC to its max so I'm happy with EIST and c states on. Right now my i3-2130 which is clocked for 3.4ghz is ticking along at 1.6ghz with a vcore of 0.95v

 

[I_shot]

with c3/c6 enabled 4k read was 11.5 mb/s .i dont disable c1 and eist states.I dont want my cpu fixed at 3.6 ghz.No need to pay extra cash on bills

 

[I_shot]

I did secure erase method but absolutely nothing changed even 5 mb/s and Kingston technical support representative replied like this;

Hello Alper,


Sorry to hear you're having this problem but in order to assist you to the fullest, we will require that you please submit the proper technical support form by clicking on the following link.

http://www.kingston.com/us/support/technical/search



Regards,

Julio C Andrade
Kingston Technology
Technical Support
8am - 5pm PT, Monday through Friday
-------------------------------------------
I had filled every specs they need.Looks like that's not enough for them

 

[Elixer]

I've heard that secure erase kills lifetime of SSDs.My disk is 5 days old

5 days old, and you have already used up many GB (if not TB) of benches on it... and THAT kills your SSD's lifetime.

 

[I_shot]

5 days old, and you have already used up many GB (if not TB) of benches on it... and THAT kills your SSD's lifetime.

Of course I will.I' ve paid that money to see how fast it is.Of course I'll do some benchmarks.I don't care about it's lifetime now.My thoughts changed now and i don't care about the longevity anymore.Sooner or later it's gonna die because of sandforce controller.If i dont like it's performance i'll sell it on half price i bought.That's the deal.No need to worry about nothing

 

[I_shot]

Reply from Kingston;

"The reason why we want you to run ATTO is because some bench marking software i.e., CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD will not provide accurate information for Sanforce based drives due to the drive's getting a lot of it's speed from compressing data. Crystal Disk and AS SSD uses compressed data during its testing. The data cannot be compressed further so much without the write speed being affected.

ATTO disk benchmark uses uncompressed data. So the Sandforce drives can perform its compression and thus the increased speed of this drive is reflected in the benchmark. It is also the program used by our engineering staff to document the speed ratings for the these drives during testing. "

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Well that's not answer to my question.We all know these drives suck at incompressible data but what reason made SSD's sequential and 4k 64 thrd writing speed reduced by 50mb/s ? Damn what a boredom.

 

[fuzzymath10]

Does it feel slower in use? Benchmarks don't tell the whole story. It doesn't have spinning platters and that's the important part. Your SSD will rarely hit peak speeds in realistic use, unless your realistic use is benchmarking all day or copying big files to see how many MB/sec Windows displays

 

[I_shot]

You know it's hard to realize in everyday use but i am obsessed with this firmware bullshit and it pisses me of