Why is my Samsung 850 Evo 500GB underperforming?

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:03

To begin with, I'malready assuming it's the SATA cable bottlenecking but I can't tell for sure.

Today I discovered http://www.userbenchmark.com and thought I'd see how my PC performs just before I upgrade the GPU. The only thing that surprised me is that my SSD is "Performing way below expectations (4th percentile)" which can be seen on my results page here where I get 289 MB/s under sequential.

I have a Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3 motherboard and I have my SATA cable plugged into SATA3_0 which is 6Gb/s according to the specs page of my mobo.

Finally, the cable I am using has "GIGABYTE P/N: 12CF1-2SAT01-02R" on the packaging and has "E329903 ? AWM 21149 80°C 30V VW-1" and "Serial ATA Cable 26AWG DINGSHENG 6Gbps/3Gbps" on the cable.

What is causing my low score?

Thanks.

EDIT: Sorry for posting a link to a competitor for the cable. I'll try and find an alternative link.

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:16

Have you updated the firmware to the latest?, if not do so.

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:18

khemist said:
Have you updated the firmware to the latest?, if not do so.

What do you mean by that?

On my benchmark it says "Firmware: EMT02B6Q Max speed: SATA 3.0 600 MB/s" but I can't tell if that is specific to me or the latest for the hardware that has been released.

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:20

Yeah, that's the latest firmware, have you installed Samsung magician?.

If not install it and run performance optimization and try the benchmark again.

Edit - just noticed that isn't supported on win 8 or later, try it if on win 7.

RJC · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:21

What ports have you installed the SSD on and also are you running in IDE or ACHI mode?

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:25

khemist said:
Yeah, that's the latest firmware, have you installed Samsung magician?.

If not install it and run performance optimization and try the benchmark again.

Edit - just noticed that isn't supported on win 8 or later, try it if on win 7.

I'm on Windows 10. Is it still worth giving it a go?

RJC said:
What ports have you installed the SSD on and also are you running in IDE or ACHI mode?

If by port you mean physically what did I plug it into on my mobo, then I'd refer to my first post where I plugged it into one of the two SATA 3 ports.

I don't have any idea what IDE or ACHI is, so I'd guess which ever one is default?

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:25

I would.

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:26

I accidently wrote Windows 7 the first time when I'm actually on 10. Still try Samsung Magician?

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:36

So I installed Samsung Magician. This is what it shows.

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:38

Select deactivate ide or raid mode, it's running in ide.

Let us know if that fixes it.

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:41

khemist said:
Select deactivate ide or raid mode, it's running in ide.

Let us know if that fixes it.

That isn't an option, it's just text.

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:42

Sorry, you have to go into your bios and change from IDE mode to AHCI mode.

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:44

khemist said:
Sorry, you have to go into your bios and change from IDE mode to AHCI mode.

Is it safe to do that? Will it affect anything else?

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:46

No, it will be fine, should be under sata controller or similar, just change to ahci save then reboot.

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 21:58

khemist said:
No, it will be fine, should be under sata controller or similar, just change to ahci save then reboot.

After reading/watching guides on enabling AHCI, many say you first have to change some stuff in the registry - just doing it in the BIOS causes blue screen.

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 22:01

Just do it in safe mode then, i don't remember having any problems.

http://www.tenforums.com/drivers-ha...-ahci-mode-after-windows-10-installation.html

Akryn · 17 Aug 2016 at 22:31

I was worried for a bit when I kept getting "BOOTMGR is missing" but somehow I solved it. SSD is now performing as it should be but now I seem to have an extra black and white screen listing all my drives shortly after hitting the power button.

Thanks for all the help!

khemist · 17 Aug 2016 at 22:32

Nice!.

ED209 · 18 Aug 2016 at 07:24

Akryn said:
I was worried for a bit when I kept getting "BOOTMGR is missing" but somehow I solved it. SSD is now performing as it should be but now I seem to have an extra black and white screen listing all my drives shortly after hitting the power button.

Thanks for all the help!

that's just the PC checking the sata ports and seeing what is there. Mine does the same thing

Akryn · 18 Aug 2016 at 09:17

Not sure if I should post this in a new thread but I'll try here for now.

So I actually have 2 drives in my PC. The first is the SSD and the second is the HDD. The HDD seems to have been affected by changing from IDE to AHCI. First of all, it's speed went from 75.3 MB/s (as seen on my results page) to 100 MB/s, so that's good. However, whenever I access the drive, I can now hear it working as it produces stuttering/vibrating noises. I'd much rather take the hit in speed and go back to not having those noises.

Does enabling AHCI usually cause this? Is it purely the fact that it is now working faster? What's the best way to solve the issue - I still want to keep my SSD running at the new faster speed. I read somewhere that you can get some ports to be IDE and some AHCI.