Samsung 830 128GB SSD read/write speed slow

SimonT · 22 Jul 2012 at 16:32

Hi,

Just built a new PC for basic home use and i chose to use a SSD to boot the system with. The 830 was on offer so chose to use that.

Happy with the kit and how it all went together but after browsing this forum and others on the products i bought i thought i would see if i could check the speed it was working at by using ATTO benchmark.

It appears that it's not achieving even close to the advertised specs. The below pic is the SSD connected to Sata 2 port and AHCI enabled. The speeds really drop when it's connected to the Marvel controlled Sata 3 connection.

Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost
Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB secondary drive
Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
OcUK GeForce GT 430 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case
Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G)
Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter

Any ideas as this is all new to me?

SimonT · 22 Jul 2012 at 19:20

SSD connected to SATA II, AHCI enabled.

SSD connected to SATA III, AHCI enabled.

SimonT · 22 Jul 2012 at 20:11

Kotu said:
are you sure ahci is enabled for the marvel controller? I wouldn't have thought it should say pciide - BAD.

it will likely have a separate ahci setting to the intel sata2 controller.

Yes there is only one option to enable AHCI in the UEFI and it's set.

SimonT · 22 Jul 2012 at 22:17

Kotu said:
I went through the manual, there are 2 options.

Peripherals ->
Marvell ATA Controller Configuration (at the bottom) ->
GSATA Controller -> (IDE/AHCI/Raid)

Well i never! I must have been in there about 7 or 8 times today and there is the option right down at the bottom. Thanks for taking the time to look for that.

I went in and switched it to AHCI which stops the pciide - BAD message. However, the read speeds are the only thing that increase when using SATA III. They go up to 350 and everything else is roughly the same.

I then switched it back over to SATA II and there has been a good bump in numbers all round so it seems that although, apparently, limiting it in SATA II it produces better numbers all round in ATTO, AS SSD and Crystal Disk Mark.

I've been spending a little time researching the Marvel 9172 chip and the consensus appears to be it's better off not using it and using the Intel chip.

Examples:

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=100381

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds#
"If you are using a SSD use the native Intel or AMD SATA 3Gb/s or SATA 6Gb/s ports, I advise that you do NOT use the Marvell or other 3rd party SATA ports for your SSD/HDD."