SSD isn't mind blowingly fast, Actually slower than 3 x Raptor HDD Raid Array

[cheez]

I recently got the SSD for the first time. It's an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 100GB. System memory is 4GB.

I had two different configuration sets in the past long before I got the SSD.

One was running three WD Raptor 10k rpm drives running in raid 0 array through Intel ICH8r raid controller on Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard.

I then tried just running two WD Raptor drives in raid 0 using same controller, same board.

This is hands-on real world applications guys. I don't rely much on benchmarks much.

SSD seems to be noticeably faster / more responsive when randomly firing up applications while running something in the background compared to when I was running 2 x Raptor@ raid 0. But when downloading large files@ 20 Mbps from internet and play high def 1080i (MPEG2-TS ~20Mbps bitrate) files from the SSD the video often jerks, or lose some frames so the video playback isn't smooth. It doesn't happen at consistent rate, just happens randomly. It's minor.. not to the point where it bugs me really bad. It appears the SSD is struggling. My 2 x raptor drives@ raid 0 seems to be a tad better, but sometimes still makes that quick pause once a while. With 3 x Raptor drives@ raid 0 was bloody fast. I was copying large files over the gigabit LAN, while downloading a large file from the internet, and play same 1080i video files, I get no hiccups. Almost no frame drop at all. The video playback was rock smooth. Here's more, I only had 1GB of RAM. I did hear hard drives screaming, working their ass up rigorously. I'm actually shocked how much difference I was getting from 2 x Raptor raid0 to 3 x Raptor raid0. A single SSD in comparison, is way slower than the 3 x raptor setup.

Just wanted to report my findings with SSD... it's not all that. Looks like I will need SSD raid 0 at least 2 of them to keep up....





cheez

 

[Berryracer]

Run AS SSD Benchmark then tell me does everything on the top left say ok? or do you have anything that says misaligned?

Take a screenshot please and let me know, I have an easy fix for you. Here is a screen shot of the results of my LiteON LAT-256MS drive with IRST driver 11.7.0.1013:

 

[cheez]

^ Ok I will run the bench and post up later..


cheez

 

[smakme7757]

Your SSD is rated for 285/275MBps in a best case scenario. A single raptor would get would be like ~140MBps i guess.

So obviously the raw data throughput on 3x Raptors will be higher than your SSD. However random data access will and should be noticeably faster on the SSD due to it's extremely fast seek time .

That's why opening applications and so on are much faster on the SSD.

Writing large amounts of sequential data to the Raptors will be faster because with 3 of them you have more throughput over the single SSD.

With that being said you're comparing 3 drives against 1 and saying that your unimpressed with a single SSD...

 

[jaqie]

1) IOPS and throughput speed are very different things. IOPS is where SSDs shine.
2) your vertex 2 is a very outdated design based on a really outdated controller, vertex 4 is out now.
3) ICH8 cannot take full advantage of SSDs, if my memory is accurate (it may not be, I do have a degenerative neurological condition, FYI)

Don't take me wrong, I much miss my old 10 disc raid 50 SCSI80 array of 18GB seagate 10k RPM barracudas (or was that cheetahs? meh) with a DPT PM2865U3 controller with 128MB cache and PCIX bus, but times change. I now have a single 60GB ocz agility 3 drive... the transfer rates aren't that stellar in real world performance but the IOPS are incredible compared to any array of spinning discs, and that alone makes things POP way way faster especially when I am accessing multiple files at once, even more when those files are small to tiny.

 

[Blain]

Just curious why you didn't get one of the more popular SSD's, like Samsung 840 or Crucial M4, rather than the older Vertex 2?
Is it the slower SATA II support of your MB?

BTW, You say you have 3 WD Raptors... Are they original "Raptors" or VelociRaptors?

 

[Zap]

Your SSD is rated for 285/275MBps in a best case scenario.

Not only that, but SandForce controller. Running compressed data such as high bitrate videos, the actual throughput would be lower.

 

[cantholdanymore]

But when downloading large files@ 20 Mbps from internet and play high def 1080i (MPEG2-TS ~20Mbps bitrate) files from the SSD the video often jerks, or lose some frames so the video playback isn't smooth.

I don't have your SSD but this doesn't sound right. Do you have the latest drivers?

 

[Berryracer]

I am still waiting for his AS SSD Benchmark screen shot I am 90% sure that he has mis alignment on his SSD which can be EASILY fixed and almost double his performance

 

[BrightCandle]

That SSD should still be able to more than cope with the load you are putting on it, 100MB/s plus 20mbit/s + 20 mbit/s is well below the peak performance of the SSD.

 

[cheez]

Here is my first-run benchmark on my OCZ Vertex 2 SSD.

How is my score? How did I do? Is it bad?



cheez

 

[cantholdanymore]

Can't really help you here but your score sucks. Put your mouse where it says "31K -BAD" and see what message you get.

 

[Berryracer]

Here is my first-run benchmark on my OCZ Vertex 2 SSD.

How is my score? How did I do? Is it bad?



cheez

dude, why didn't you show me the image of the AS SSD Benchmark so I can tell you if your SSD is aligned or not. you 90% have it misaligned which is leading to your bad benchmark scores

 

[cheez]

^ Well I just did....

I aligned the SSD before. But my system would get stuck when detecting my SSD in boot process... I had to mount it on a computer at work to have drive partitions wiped out so I can get my home PC to work...

I'm on Windows Server 2003.


Oh well.... I guess I'll have to flash my motherboard BIOS. They try the aligning thing again, to see if it will work this time. I'm not in rush. My real goal is to have lower power consumption and reduced noise.




cheez

 

[cheez]

Your SSD is rated for 285/275MBps in a best case scenario. A single raptor would get would be like ~140MBps i guess.

So obviously the raw data throughput on 3x Raptors will be higher than your SSD. However random data access will and should be noticeably faster on the SSD due to it's extremely fast seek time .

That's why opening applications and so on are much faster on the SSD.

Writing large amounts of sequential data to the Raptors will be faster because with 3 of them you have more throughput over the single SSD.

With that being said you're comparing 3 drives against 1 and saying that your unimpressed with a single SSD...

Thanks. It makes sense to me.

Just curious why you didn't get one of the more popular SSD's, like Samsung 840 or Crucial M4, rather than the older Vertex 2?

Because the OCZ Vertex2 was on refurb for $55 at the time. I'm broke right now. And I wanted to try out the SSD to study... to get my hands-on experience.

Is it the slower SATA II support of your MB?

Yes it's SATA II @ 3.0 Gbps.

BTW, You say you have 3 WD Raptors... Are they original "Raptors" or VelociRaptors?

They are the original Raptors... almost 10 years old since I bought them. They run like freakin tank, not a single issue.

1) IOPS and throughput speed are very different things. IOPS is where SSDs shine.
2) your vertex 2 is a very outdated design based on a really outdated controller, vertex 4 is out now.
3) ICH8 cannot take full advantage of SSDs, if my memory is accurate (it may not be, I do have a degenerative neurological condition, FYI)

Don't take me wrong, I much miss my old 10 disc raid 50 SCSI80 array of 18GB seagate 10k RPM barracudas (or was that cheetahs? meh) with a DPT PM2865U3 controller with 128MB cache and PCIX bus, but times change. I now have a single 60GB ocz agility 3 drive... the transfer rates aren't that stellar in real world performance but the IOPS are incredible compared to any array of spinning discs, and that alone makes things POP way way faster especially when I am accessing multiple files at once, even more when those files are small to tiny.

Thanks for the info. I now have better understanding about the drives. This makes good sense.

 

[Berryracer]

^ Well I just did....

I aligned the SSD before. But my system would get stuck when detecting my SSD in boot process... I had to mount it on a computer at work to have drive partitions wiped out so I can get my home PC to work...

I'm on Windows Server 2003.


Oh well.... I guess I'll have to flash my motherboard BIOS. They try the aligning thing again, to see if it will work this time. I'm not in rush. My real goal is to have lower power consumption and reduced noise.




cheez

I used Paragon Alignment Tool 4.0 to align my SSD and HDDs, the system rebooted and did its thing within a few minutes. Ever since then, my SSD has been giving me excellent performance

 

[nightspydk]

But when downloading large files@ 20 Mbps from internet and play high def 1080i (MPEG2-TS ~20Mbps bitrate) files from the SSD the video often jerks, or lose some frames so the video playback isn't smooth.

If it's not a controller problem keep in mind that ssd is no miracle cure for a system imo. Many seems to think that but fact it all got to answer to bigger master cpu/gpu.

 

[MrX8503]

Those are some pretty bad benchmarks for an SSD. If you move to a top end SSD on Sata3, you'll get 500MB/s r/w. this would be faster than your raid 0 raptors.

 

[cheez]

Pissed as hell.


Flashed to the latest BIOS for my Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard. Decided to install Windows 7 64bit to go all out the hope that my SSD performance will gain. Installed it!

Got excited yoooohooooo~~!!

Well, when I was trying to install sound card driver, I received "Please plugin your Asus Xonar DX Audio device" WTH..... Did a little bit of searching. It may have overwritten EPROM chip on card which I find it non-sense... Wonder if BIOS flash screwed it up or if it was the Windows 7 that hiccuped. Don't know.

So I tried going back to Windows Server 2003. I aligned the SSD from boot using Windows 7 disc repair tool (diskPart). This time, my system didn't hang when detecting the SSD when rebooting... Good! Uh oh, but guess what? It says it can't find the Operating System! (Yes, the correct boot drive was selected). Great.

Installed Server 2003 after wiping out all partitions (no aligning this time). Booted to desktop... I am getting the sound card driver error again
"Please plugin your Asus Xonar DX Audio device"

Checked the device manager. The sound card is not even listed.

Oh f#@kin great. Looks like my sound card is shot.

Decided to use onboard sound (SoundMax) from motherboard.

I ran the SSD bench, but the score was lousy as before.

I decided to go back to Windows 7 64bit! Installed it. NOW MY SYSTEM HANGS AGAIN WHEN DETECTING SSD..... Exact same issue I have been having off and on. I can't boot with this SSD attached.

Removed the SSD.

Popped my good'ol beloved WD Raptor hard drives back in, running in raid 0. System recognized my raptors and booted instantly. SPEED AND POWA.



So what do we have here? Ever since I got the SSD I have been getting all kinds of problems. Wasted 500 man hours. Lost my sleep time. Updated to the latest motherboard bios for nothing. Took out my sound card. Wasted my MONEY.


p.s. I took my SSD to work and mounted on work PC. It boots up fine. SAME F#@KIN CYCLE.


I don't know what to do now. I am pissed as freakin hell.


HA HA


cheez

 

[nickbits]

500 man hours?

 

[cheez]

^ Well, with a little of exaggeration... 500 man hours.^_^


cheez

 

[jacktesterson]

500 man hours?

You can go on Umemployement in Canada with 400 man hours.

 

[cheez]

Man, I'm so pissed as hell.

Now I'm left with a system with no good sound.

What should I do????

I don't want to waste time with OCZ manufacturer support for my SSD. Only thing it will do is waste more of my time.

Go buy another sound card (Asus Xonar DX)???

Or ditch that stupid system and buy me an Apple Mac Mini?

It's really not smart for me to spend money right now... I have renewal plates ($400+) and home owner's association fee ($150) coming up soon.


I'm so mad as hell...

 

[cantholdanymore]

You said your raptors works fine in raid configuration; did you change the sata mode to AHCI when you connected the SSD (does this even matter?)

 

[Hellhammer]

1) IOPS and throughput speed are very different things. IOPS is where SSDs shine.

Technically IOPS and throughput (MB/s) are the same thing as throughput is just IOPS * IO size. Manufacturers like to use IOPS for marketing reasons as 100,000 IOPS looks better than 400MB/s.

Well, when I was trying to install sound card driver, I received "Please plugin your Asus Xonar DX Audio device" WTH..... Did a little bit of searching. It may have overwritten EPROM chip on card which I find it non-sense... Wonder if BIOS flash screwed it up or if it was the Windows 7 that hiccuped. Don't know.

I find it rather funny that you have no problem spending over $50,000 on some audio cables, yet you cannot afford to pay $50 more for a decent SSD.

The SSD did not do anything to your sound card. It's usually recommended that you unplug all peripherals before performing a BIOS update.