Vertex 4 256GB bench on W8 Pro 64bit

[thenewoc]

On a fresh install of W8 Pro 64bit with Vertex 4 256GB (FW 1.5) used as System drive with about 10% used so far with the OS install.

This is just using the Windows AHCI driver.

Happyish with the writes but the reads seem disappointing, would using Intel RST help even though am just using a single SSD in AHCI?

Using this as a yard stick..
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18438446

 

[thenewoc]

Hi guys, thanks for feedback. I did give the RST driver a try earlier (11.6.0.1030) but had to uninstall as it said my hdd status was incompatible and wouldn't show up in disk management, explorer or device manager. Was fine with the ms driver and is again now I've uninstalled RST. The 11.6.0.1030 driver was the only one I could find that stated it was for W8 so I guess I'll have to wait for intel to release the next version.

 

[thenewoc]

Just a little update as I managed to solve the issue I was having with iRST AHCI driver. I think the mbr of my hard disk had become corrupted. As I had a utility cd to hand I decided to dban it to restore it to a raw state. It then showed up in device manager & initialised it through disk manager. Using the latest iRST AHCI driver 11.6.0.1030, so when I've got the rest of my drivers installed & things configured I'll do another couple of benches for comparison. I've only done a couple of benches as per the above so I don't think a couple more will do any harm.

 

[thenewoc]

@mikeo

Thanks, yes I have used the OCZ Toolbox prior to this fresh install but I was lucky that my Vertex was received with the latest firmware so I haven't had cause to reinstall those tools at the moment. I would only use dban for a spinning HDD not an SSD, it was just something I realised I had within easy reach and perhaps overkill to wipe out the mbr but I was being lazy to research a simpler way but also thought it was a way to be sure I was starting fresh with the HDD.

Just wondered actually with your bench that you posted above, have you done that with 'write-cache buffer flushing' turned off on the SSD?

In case your not sure what I'm referring to it's in 'Disk Management', if you right click on the tile in the lower half of the 'Disk Management' window for the SSD and choose Properties, under 'Policies' there is an option to 'Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing...'?

 

[thenewoc]

Just did a few tweaks from Sean's SSD optimisation guide over on overclock.net but still left the hibernation file in place as disabling it removes the 'Turn on fast start-up' option from the 'Power Options' > 'Choose what the power buttons do' screen.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1240779/seans-windows-8-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds#

I also tried turning off 'write-cache buffer flushing' but it caused bsod (machine_check_exception) prior to getting to Windows login screen, so wouldn't recommend it with one of these Vertex's.

Using iRST 11.6.0.1030 has indeed improved AHCI SSD performance ...

 

[thenewoc]

Cheers for providing your comparisons.

Just for consistency, also done a Crystal DiskMark one for comparison to the OP.