terrible performance in raid0 SSD

[Jtaylor]

Need some help in getting my raid set up & running please. This has me pulling my hair out!

I have two intel x25-v setup in a raid 0 and they're not performing as well as they should.

motherboard is gigabyte 965p-ds3.

So here's a list of what i have done:
ACHI is set in bios along with raid.
Created the raid0 array with a 128k stripe size.
Went to install win 7 64bit and loaded the gigabyte 64bit sata raid drivers because win7 wouldnt detect my raid array w/o them.

I've also reinstalled windows this time loading the jmicron raid drivers released in march 2010. Still no dice, same performance issues.

It looks like my read speeds are capped at 170-180MB, which is what the drive is advertised as a single SSD. The drive write speed is advertised as 35MB, yet in these benchmarks, im getting 80MB writes, which would mean the raid0 is working in a way, i guess?


Here's a couple pictures of some benchmarks and device manager:

Atto: http://i43.tinypic.com/1zxmlnk.png

HD Tune: http://i40.tinypic.com/212h6qs.png

AS SS D http://i41.tinypic.com/28i3rwg.png

Device manager: http://i42.tinypic.com/11bko5k.png

Any ideas?

 

[Idontcare]

try 64k stripe size

that board is kinda old isn't it? how robust is the raid-0 performance with spindle-drives? maybe just a buggy implementation that has since been rectified with newer gen boards.

 

[tcsenter]

Its probably the old JMicron controller.

 

[Zap]

I would also blame the on-board add-in. See Anand's recent SATA 6Gb/s write-up where he found that it didn't really add much over the native Intel 3Gb/s controller, and in some cases underperformed.

EDIT: Are you getting the complete capacity? If you are only getting 40GB (formatted out to 36GB or whatever) then maybe you set it up for RAID1? Do try smaller stripe sizes.

 

[Jtaylor]

thanks for the replies fellas!

I am going to try and switch to a 64k stripe and see if there's any improvements.

idontcare: i havent tried any spindle drives and on the sata raid ports, so i cant comment there.

zap: i am getting the complete storage capacity. when in raid setup pre-windows, the available space to format is 79GB, though i left 10gb as unallocated space, based on anand's review.

how low should i try on stripe sizes, 32k/64k? if this doesnt work im not sure what im going to do next. i wasnt intending to completely setup a new system (cpu/mobo/etc) to get this to work. Maybe i'll just sell the drives and buy 1 ssd.

 

[Sunburn74]

Hi,

use the 128k stripe. its fastest and the most comfortable stripe for SSDs

the problem is you're using the gigabyte sata port and not the intel sata port. the intel ports are much faster and have better performing drivers (go to tweaktown gigabyte motherboard forums and there's a lot of proof discussing that). switch over to the yellow intel ports and use the latest RST drivers and you should see your performance get back to expected levels. Also, if you've been doing a lot of writing and erasing, you may want to consider a secure erase before performing your OS install again.

those gigabyte ports are really only there for that backup system they push as a feature, not for your main drive.

 

[tcsenter]

I don't think this particular model uses the RAID Intel ICH, only the non-RAID ICH.

 

[Sunburn74]

then thats your explanation.