SSD - Should I go for better 4K or better Sequential?

[jrichrds]

I have a Sandisk Ultra Plus 120GB SSD connected to an Intel G41 chipset system. I benchmarked with both the native Intel SATA2 chipset (no AHCI) and an Asmedia SATA3 add-on controller in the PCI-E v1.0a slot (which limits its performance quite a bit).

So I'm stuck choosing between worse sequential transfers on the Asmedia add-on controller due to the PCI-E v1.0a slot vs. worse 4K performance at QD32 due to lack of AHCI/NCQ on the native Intel chipset.

Which SATA controller would you go with for general, everyday usage?

Native Intel SATA2 controller:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :   266.434 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   258.533 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :    31.980 MB/s [  7807.6 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :    95.275 MB/s [ 23260.5 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :   263.207 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :   233.440 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    28.907 MB/s [  7057.4 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    68.635 MB/s [ 16756.6 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [D: 22.3% (14.3/64.2 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/06/04 14:13:16
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Asmedia PCI-E 1x SATA 3 Controller:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :   202.578 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   184.147 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   152.018 MB/s [ 37113.8 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   140.725 MB/s [ 34356.7 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :   209.528 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :   181.423 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    29.171 MB/s [  7121.8 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    59.276 MB/s [ 14471.7 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [D: 22.3% (14.3/64.2 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/06/04 14:38:35
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

 

[VirtualLarry]

I was faced with the same dilemma, with a C2D E3400 rig with a G41 chipset (DDR3 mobo).
The system chipset (Southbridge) was an ICH7, which is an IDE / SATA combined southbridge, that lacks AHCI mode for the SATA ports. (IDE mode only.)

When it came to me, it had Win7 64-bit on a SATA HDD. I upgraded to Win10, then I unplugged the HDD (after backing up the user data), and plugged in an ASMedia (Syba branded) PCI-E x1 SATA6G dual-port controller card. (Like $10 at Newegg on sale.)

I then installed Win10 in AHCI mode on the ASMedia card.

I didn't bench both the Intel SATAII ports and the ASMedia ports on the same SSD. (Corsair Force LS refurb).

But I found that there was a certain sort of slight lag to opening programs on the ASMedia controller, which I found somewhat surprising. I thought that the latency was higher with the controller card.

I did it that way, though, because I need to use the two mobo SATAII ports for both the HDD and the DVD-RW drive. (I wiped the HDD once in Win10.)

Edit: As for the question in the title - I don't really know. I would probably personally go for IOPS, because that's often where the bottleneck in disk I/O is. But if you're dealing with lots of large files on a regular basis (like MKVs or ISOs or something), then you might prefer the sequential speed more.

 

[jrichrds]

VirtualLarry - I'm also using the Syba ASMedia PCIE-x1 SATA6 controller card from Newegg. I benchmarked on same platform Win7 x64...just plugged in the ASMedia card, installed the v3.1.8 driver (v3.1.9 would completely screw things up and make my system unbootable), and then moved the SSD's SATA cable over to it.

I would think more IOPS is better for general usage as well, but will watch for the lag that you mention.