[AyeYo]

Am I the only one? I get stutter at least ten times per day (~5 hours of usage time). It's a quick little freeze, about one second long.

The SSD did this in IDE mode and it continues to do it in AHCI mode. I can't really understand why. I thought this issue was resolved after the JMicron controller drives went out of style.

The drive seems to work fine otherwise, at least so far. Should I be RMA'ing this thing or is stutter still the norm these days?

Not even sure if these drive health programs are worth anything, but here it is anyway...

 

[rollinsoundzboy]

i get stutter myself and mine freezes for around 5 secs then seems ok again don't know why doing it a little less now it seems. *touch wood* maybe raid 0 not sure.

 

[u238]

Stutter is not normal. The Sandforce drives have good performance in all respects and shouldn't ever stutter.

 

[AyeYo]

So what could the issue be? Bad drive, something not set right, something else?

 

[TheSSDReview]

Yes very unusual for any newer drive. Is it possible a software issue?

 

[AyeYo]

I have no idea, that's why I'm asking.

I'm going to give the Intel AHCI driver a try, since that's what G.Skill recommends.

I've also seen in a few reviews that very fast drives like the Sandforces can actually be CPU limited. I wonder if the fact that I'm Folding (so CPU is pegged 100%, even though it is at idle priority) while doing a bunch of other things could be causing issues with data transfer when IO's get high enough.

 

[AyeYo]

Just installed the Intel driver (iaStor), so we'll see how this goes. Benchmarks stayed basically the same, lost some here and gained some there. Oddly, though, the write side of things for both drivers is down significantly, almost a 50% loss from where it was when I first got the drive. I wonder if TRIM isn't working... although people say TRIM isn't necessary with a Sandforce...

 

[AyeYo]

Changed from the default W7 AHCI driver to the Intel's iaStor. Haven't had a single stutter since and boot time dropped by about 50%.

 

[Kramy]

Did you have buffer flushing turned off before?

http://www.windowsreference.com/wind...s-server-2008/

I believe Intel's drivers force "write-back cache" or "disable buffer flushing" on. (same tweak, different names)

 

[AyeYo]

Yes, write caching was enabled previously. Buffer flushing was not enabled previously and is not enabled now. I've heard it's not worth the risk.

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AyeYo Yes, write caching was enabled previously. Buffer flushing was not enabled previously and is not enabled now. I've heard it's not worth the risk.

That is what is probably causing your stutters.

Buffer flushing tells the OS to wait when a write doesn't complete - so for optimal performance, you want "Disable Buffer Flushing" turned on. Sandforce drives can handle dozens of write requests in parallel, but if your OS stops sending them, you get a gigantic stutter!

It's not really that dangerous. I mean, if your power goes out when you're doing something (copying files back and forth), you have to deal with mucked up files regardless.

It does mean that after a system crash or power outage, you should run CheckDisk.

P.S. Linux and OSX turn it on by default, and have for... almost a decade?

 

[djsi38t]

Benchmarking can have a pretty drastic effect too if you use crystal disk.Have you used hdd erase to restore the drive before installing windows?Or are you on the original install?

Did you install in ahci mode or ide then switch to ahci?

And no haven't even seen a hint of a stutter for the 3 months I have had it.

 

[AyeYo]

^The drive was fresh from the factory, so I didn't see a need to do anything special before install. I originally attempted to install in AHCI mode, but was having issues, so I installed in IDE and switched to AHCI.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy That is what is probably causing your stutters. Buffer flushing tells the OS to wait when a write doesn't complete - so for optimal performance, you want "Disable Buffer Flushing" turned on. Sandforce drives can handle dozens of write requests in parallel, but if your OS stops sending them, you get a gigantic stutter!

That's good to know, but I still don't think it's worth the risk. I haven't had a stutter issue since changing the driver, so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[ukic]

I actually have this stutter issue too when I upgraded to ssd but it was fixed with a video driver... /scratches head...

 

[Ragsters]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djsi38t Benchmarking can have a pretty drastic effect too if you use crystal disk.

 

[AyeYo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ragsters

Benchmarking dirties the NANDs with unnecessary writes.

 

[Ragsters]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AyeYo Benchmarking dirties the NANDs with unnecessary writes.

Does it become clean again after a reinstall?

 

[AyeYo]

Reinstall of what?

The NANDs hold their charge, so if there's a bunch of them that have been written to, then they'll remain written to (even if the data is deleted) until something like TRIM or grabage collection zero's them out.

 

[Ragsters]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AyeYo Reinstall of what? The NANDs hold their charge, so if there's a bunch of them that have been written to, then they'll remain written to (even if the data is deleted) until something like TRIM or grabage collection zero's them out.

Reinstallation of Windows. If trim or garbage collection zeros them out then why is that even mentioned?

Edit: The only reason why I am concerned is that I recently ran Crystal Benchmark and while my read speeds are better then ever my write speeds have decreased dramatically.

 

[AyeYo]

A reinstall of Windows will not clean the drive.

It's possible that TRIM isn't working. Keep in mind that, although TRIM can show as OS enabled, that doesn't necessary mean it's actually working.

The dirtying of the NAND by excessive benchmarking was actually something G.Skill told me, not just some interwebz hear-say.

There's some conflicting information on TRIM and I haven't gotten a straight answer on it. Some people say it's set it and forget it, yet from others I've heard that the computer needs to be left to idle on the login screen for an hour or so every week in order to let TRIM work. Like you, my write speeds have been steadily dropping. I'm going to rerun Crystal later today and see what they're at now after using the iaStor driver for a awhile.