[Caustin]

A while back I bought a crucial C300 specifically to take advantage of the sata 6Gb/s capability on my motherboard but my read speeds over sata 3 were no where near what they were supposed to be (around 190 MB/s when the drive is rated for 355 MB/s). I posted a few threads in various forums including one on here but I never had any luck getting my speeds right. When I use the drive through sata 2, the speeds are right around what they are supposed to be so I know the drive isn't bad. I got so sick of messing with it, I stopped using it and starting using my F3s in raid0 for my boot drive. It's been a few months and I think it's about time I start using what I payed for.

Things I have tried:

I have done a fresh install of Windows in IDE and AHCI modes.

I have been told that there was a difference between Sata 2 cables and Sata 3 cables so I tried them both.

Enabled and disabled write cache on the drive.

My board has two ports for sata 3, I tried them both with various cables.

I have updated the firmware on the drive to the latest version.

I ran the benchmark with and without the sata 3 drivers installed.

I have tried everything that has been thrown at me and I never got anywhere. The only thing that made a difference was the write cache but it only lowered my speeds when it was disabled (to around 140 MB/s). I personally think it is something in the BIOS that is causing this issue. I read that some people had this problem with a different motherboard and the I/O level up setting in their bios was the problem but I can't find anything like that in my BIOS.

If anyone has any ideas at all, I would appreciate the help very much!

 

[kckyle]

i'm not exactly familiar with that motherboard but it sounds like the mobo's sata 6's controller, is it a Marvel?

 

[Raxus]

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P55A-Fuzion.html

I'm assuming this is the board hes using.

• SATAIII controller integrated in Marvell® SE9128 chipset
- Up to 6Gb/s transfer speed.
- SATA7 & SATA8 support RAID 0/1 mode by Marvell® SE9128

Newest drivers for the controller?

Ive also seen people get pretty different results from various benching software.

 

[Norlig]

did you enable AHCI for the marvel controller (sata 3) ?

the AHCI setting for SATA2 and SATA3 are not in the same place

 

[Caustin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raxus;13093778
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P55A-Fuzion.html

I'm assuming this is the board hes using.

• SATAIII controller integrated in Marvell® SE9128 chipset
- Up to 6Gb/s transfer speed.
- SATA7 & SATA8 support RAID 0/1 mode by Marvell® SE9128

Newest drivers for the controller?

Ive also seen people get pretty different results from various benching software.

I have tried both the newer and older versions for the marvell chipset. As far as the speed results go, I would understand if it were in the ball park of the rated speeds but the speeds I am getting are about half of what I am supposed to be getting. If it were at least faster than the sata 2 speeds, I would probably be okay with that.
Quote:

Originally Posted by pangeltveit;13093810
did you enable AHCI for the marvel controller (sata 3) ?

the AHCI setting for SATA2 and SATA3 are not in the same place

I haven't checked in a while but from what I remember, I thought they were in the same place. I will certainly look after I finish this post to see if I tried that or not.

 

[Blameless]

The SATA 2.0 ports on the chipset are going to be faster than most SATA 3.0 controllers attached to a PCI-E 1x lane.

 

[Caustin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pangeltveit;13093810
did you enable AHCI for the marvel controller (sata 3) ?

the AHCI setting for SATA2 and SATA3 are not in the same place

Just checked and the options for the sata 3 controller are either disabled, AHCI, or IDE. So I know I would have enabled it in AHCI mode since it's right there when I turn sata 3 on. Sucks because I was hoping you were right about me missing it.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Blameless;13095595
The SATA 2.0 ports on the chipset are going to be faster than most SATA 3.0 controllers attached to a PCI-E 1x lane.

Hm, that seems pointless to even bother putting it on the board in the first place. Would it really be THAT much slower? I mean 265MB/s over sata 2 compared to 180MB/s over sata 3 is a pretty significant difference especially when sata 3 is supposed to be marginally faster. Could anyone else elaborate on this?

 

[Old Hippie]

Those small drives perform no where near what it's larger brothers do but in your case it seems that only the write speeds seem to suffer.

Generally the SATA6Gb/s 3 party controllers do open the sustained read/write speeds to the SATA6 limit but fall short on the 4K speeds.

In your case, I'm totally lost.

 

[Caustin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Hippie;13095855
Those small drives perform no where near what it's larger brothers do but in your case it seems that only the write speeds seem to suffer.

Generally the SATA6Gb/s 3 party controllers do open the sustained read/write speeds to the SATA6 limit but fall short on the 4K speeds.

In your case, I'm totally lost.

Yea I was really only worried about the read speeds. I don't mind the slower write speeds, I didn't intend to put much on it other than my OS and a few games. I get the exact write speeds that this drive is rated for which is good but my read speeds are terrible. I never expected to get exactly 355 MB/s but I was expecting better than what I am getting.

Theres gotta be something I am missing...

Oh also off topic, I am purchasing a sound card shortly and I seen that you had the Xonar Essence and was wondering if you could tell me what the differences are between the Essence and the DX.

 

[Old Hippie]

Quote:

wondering if you could tell me what the differences are between the Essence and the DX.

I purchased the Essence for the built in headphone amp and didn't really look at other differences.

Sorry.

 

[XSCounter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blameless;13095595
The SATA 2.0 ports on the chipset are going to be faster than most SATA 3.0 controllers attached to a PCI-E 1x lane.

This. Plus I had the same problem with Marvell being slow. At Crucial it was confirmed. Intel SATA II > Marvell SATA III.

Switch to Intel port and install Intel® Rapid Storage Technology.

Good luck!