The OCZ Vertex 3 Thread

xtremedetailz · 7 Apr 2011 at 18:27

Just been trying for the past 3 hours to install windows 7 x64 using AHCI on my Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3...

I have tried god knows how many configurations and have even tried to get it working in AHCI once windows has installed in IDE mode, but have failed as it BSODs on the windows startup...

Now i am getting very stressed... what can i do guys ?

Neph09 · 7 Apr 2011 at 18:33

SteveOBHave said:
Only on the Marvel controlled S3 ports - on the INTEL ones it's fine.

Can we rewind a sec here:

I have a Gigabyte: GA-P55A-UD3 board and on their website it says:

SATA 6 Gbps Support
Yet another onboard feature of GIGABYTE P55A motherboards are Marvell’s new SE9128 chips for high-speed SATA Revision 3.0 compatibility

So i won't be able to hit the 500mb range?

I was not aware of this before ordering the vertex

rjk · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:01

wolvers said:
What stripe size did you use for the RAID0 and is that on the Intel SATA3 controller?

128 from the best of my knowledge. experimented a little and it made no real difference.
perhaps 10mb/s here or there at best

HEADRAT said:
That's why I wondered if the test was a 120GB drive, the 240GB drive is faster than the 120GB:-

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4256/the-ocz-vertex-3-review-120gb/5

HEADRAT

yes, it was the 120gb drive.

Neph09 said:
Can we rewind a sec here:

I have a Gigabyte: GA-P55A-UD3 board and on their website it says:

So i won't be able to hit the 500mb range?

I was not aware of this before ordering the vertex

you wont, the p55 board has a marvel sata3 controller as mentioned already.
the drive wont be getting its full bandwidth potential. whilst the performance will still be better than the sata2 performance of the board, it wont be running flat out.

Hutchy · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:07

I'm starting to see a trend of if you have a Marvell chipset, stay away from these drives.

nicRob · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:17

I knew I wouldn't get full speed before I pre-ordered, but as at the time the price difference between a 120gb Vertex 2 and a 120gb Vertex 3 was £40 or something, it made sense to go for the newer drive.
With the current pre-order offer for 120gb Vertex 2s at £128 then yes, it'd probably be better to get one (or 2!) of those instead now.

rjk · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:40

Hutchy said:
I'm starting to see a trend of if you have a Marvell chipset, stay away from these drives.

its not a chipset, its a controller.
its nothing to worry about really, it still performs well if you are on an older chipset or something like ICH10 where you will be getting 256mbps max read.

its not the best, but its still an improvement over sata 2

nicRob said:
I knew I wouldn't get full speed before I pre-ordered, but as at the time the price difference between a 120gb Vertex 2 and a 120gb Vertex 3 was £40 or something, it made sense to go for the newer drive.
With the current pre-order offer for 120gb Vertex 2s at £128 then yes, it'd probably be better to get one (or 2!) of those instead now.

again, nothing wrong with using the marvel. its not going to set the world on fire but it does the job.

you made the right choice for sure

Mnemonik · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:45

xtremedetailz said:
Just been trying for the past 3 hours to install windows 7 x64 using AHCI on my Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3...

I have tried god knows how many configurations and have even tried to get it working in AHCI once windows has installed in IDE mode, but have failed as it BSODs on the windows startup...

Now i am getting very stressed... what can i do guys ?

Why are you installing it in IDE mode then switching to AHCI? You should install it in in AHCI and leave it there. If that's not working for you, you have to do a registry hack before rebooting and switching from IDE to AHCI to avoid it bluescreening. Search the forums for info on how to do this.

Good luck!

Nameless_87 · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:53

rjkoneill I am confused...

I have the mobo in spec... it is the GA-EX58-UD5 NOT the GA-EX58A-UD5.

I don't understand anything about controllers... but I want to add a Sata 2 SSD (since my board does not support Sata 3).

Say for example I go for the
Vertex 2E 120GB with Read 285MB/s, Write 275MB/s or the
Intel 320 Series 160GB with Read 270MB/s, Write 165MB/s

Would I reach the maximum speeds these drives offer? (spec in sig)

Thanks

xtremedetailz · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:54

Mnemonik said:
Why are you installing it in IDE mode then switching to AHCI? You should install it in in AHCI and leave it there. If that's not working for you, you have to do a registry hack before rebooting and switching from IDE to AHCI to avoid it bluescreening. Search the forums for info on how to do this.

Good luck!

I have already tried installing in AHCI but it bluescreens.

Even when i install it in IDE then do the registy hack it bluescreens.

Mnemonik · 7 Apr 2011 at 19:58

Do you install the Intel RST drivers before switching to AHCI?

xtremedetailz · 7 Apr 2011 at 20:00

Mnemonik said:
Do you install the Intel RST drivers before switching to AHCI?

are they the chipset drivers ? if so then yes.

Mnemonik · 7 Apr 2011 at 20:03

The Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19607&keyword=rapid+storage&lang=eng

Try booting on a different port as well, even a non SATA3 one.

If you have tried those already, I'm stuck. I'd try the Gigabyte forums :-/

Cosimo · 7 Apr 2011 at 20:13

First run on an Asus Rampage III Extreme (Win 7 x64 i7 980X 4.2GHz) using the Marvell 6GBs controller:

Supernaut91 · 7 Apr 2011 at 20:42

Jesus, these new SSD's wipe the floor with the old Vertex2E's

Mnemonik · 7 Apr 2011 at 20:44

Just got around to running Crystal Disk Mark as well:

I'm a very Very happy lad - so far I've not seen faster single disk results on the net

I wonder if OCZ should have put a disclaimer telling those with Marvel SATA3 controllers that they wouldn't see it perform to it's full potential? I can see that there are going to be a lot of disappointed people.

Shaddow · 7 Apr 2011 at 21:01

Mnemonik said:
Just got around to running Crystal Disk Mark as well:

I'm a very Very happy lad - so far I've not seen faster single disk results on the net

I wonder if OCZ should have put a disclaimer telling those with Marvel SATA3 controllers that they wouldn't see it perform to it's full potential? I can see that there are going to be a lot of disappointed people.

Well I've just moved mine from Marvel to Intel and still not getting the results I expect.

Rather than using ACHI mode I am running in RAID mode otherwise I cannot use the other 4 ports for raid!?!?!

Can anyone explain why my results start off slow (Approx 260mb) then at about 25% shoot up to Approx 350mb?)

A mates C300 HDtune result has a very nice flat line result at 300mb/s

Not as big a leap as I expected; I was hoping to see 500mb/s flatline in HDTune!?

Mnemonik · 7 Apr 2011 at 21:06

Shaddow said:
Well I've just moved mine from Marvel to Intel and still not getting the results I expect.

Rather than using ACHI mode I am running in RAID mode otherwise I cannot use the other 4 ports for raid!?!?!

From my reading, RAID mode is AHCI. Can you boot up with it in AHCI mode without the RAID to test it?

You need the Intel Rapid Storage drivers if you haven't installed already. That gave me a massive speed boost over the Microsoft driver.

topdog@OC · 7 Apr 2011 at 21:14

Regarding the IDE -> AHCI blue screens, were you doing BOTH the registry trick AND getting into the bios on a reboot to enable AHCI in there too?

If you don't do both together, blue screens are inevitable. Also to answer/reinforce the earlier question, installing Windows on AHCI can cause it to fail and/or blue screen, so people install it to IDE first and then do the switch. This is all covered in OCZ's SSD guide that's available from the product page of the vertex 3 drives on their site.

wolvers · 7 Apr 2011 at 21:46

rjkoneill said:
128 from the best of my knowledge. experimented a little and it made no real difference.
perhaps 10mb/s here or there at best

Did you try as small as 4kb?

rjkoneill said:
you wont, the p55 board has a marvel sata3 controller as mentioned already.
the drive wont be getting its full bandwidth potential. whilst the performance will still be better than the sata2 performance of the board, it wont be running flat out.

I'm wondering if it would be a better choice to run a vertex 3 on the Intel SATA2 controller if you have an X58 board. I think I'd rather have 300/300 than 380/220, that's assuming it will max the out the controller.

topdog@OC · 7 Apr 2011 at 21:50

Or a 3rd party controller card until you decide to change the X58 to something else?