gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Hello All, I recently bought this SSD (the 120GB version) during a promotion for $125 here in Canada. I installed windows 7 x64 in it and everything is fast and snappy, however I think my speeds are too low compared to what reviewers are getting. My motherboard is SATA 3 capable, and SATA mode is set o AHCI in the BIOS. Is there any way I can confirm via software that my SSD is running in SATA 3 mode ? My motherboard is the ASRock 970 Extreme3, I believe I have he latest AMD SATA driver. I tried both the AMD and Microsoft SATA drivers Attached are a few screenshoots. I'm worried more about the HD Tune and AS SSD ones, I've seen reviews of the same SSD model where they got much better speeds (Avg close to 500MB/s in HD Tune) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 This forums are my last resource, I couldn't find help in other places. Someone indicated that there are problems between AMD 9XX motherboards and this SSD, in this case there would be nothing that I could do. Is that possible ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synbios Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Those are clearly beyond SATA II speeds so there is no doubt that it is operating in SATA III mode. I don't know what the numbers are supposed to look like for that setup but it sounds like everything is configured properly and if you tried both microsoft and AMD drivers there is not much else you can do to increase performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 thanks for the reply. Anyone has any ideas ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 looks good especially if the OS runs on it. the scores would be slightly better if it werwe a data only drive not subject to overhead by the OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Ok, but look at this results: http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/corsair-force-series-3-120-gb-ssd-sata-3-review-hdtune-pro-testing/ 516MB/s for HD Tune Pro Average Speed. This is just one example, I've seen other reviews where my speeds are much bellow. My HD tune pro not only is bellow in average speed by my line keeps going up and down, it's not constant like the one in the review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 This forums are my last resource, I couldn't find help in other places. Someone indicated that there are problems between AMD 9XX motherboards and this SSD, in this case there would be nothing that I could do. Is that possible ? That link you provided shows testing with a Z68 chipset. The AMD controllers in general are not as fast as the current Intel SATA3/6Gb controllers. Your speeds look normal for your configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Cool. So this is an issue related to the AMD 970 chipset. How would this be fixed ? Via a SATA driver release by AMD, a BIOS update from the motherboard manufacture or an update to the SSD's firmware ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synbios Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 It is a hardware bottleneck, get a P67 or Z68 based chipset down the road and you will be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Really ? The solution is to change half my system for one component to work properly ? I don't mean to offend but this is a terrible solution. When I search for AMD 970 chipset and SSD issues I don't find anything bad. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 the on board chipset is holding you back not the drivers. its not bad, just not as fast as the intel ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsec Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Part of what you're seeing in AS-SSD is the result of its use of incompressible data, which the SandForce controller is not as adept at working with compared to compressible data. The AMD 900-series chipsets are several years old now, and while AMD was the first to offer SATA 6Gb/s interfaces, they have not updated them and they apparently are not as fast as the latest Intel chipsets (I don't own an AMD 900 chipset, so I must say "apparently".) Drives with SATA 6Gb/s capability were introduced to the public this year, so any of the chipsets that support that speed, such as the Marvell 91xx series and the AMD offerings, were never truly tested with them, and their limitations have only been noted recently. The minor issue you have is not the fault of the SSD, any manufactures models would perform the same way on your chipset. Intel did not have a 6Gb/s SATA chip until the Sandy Bridge platform was introduced, so they have spent a long time optimizing their performance. PC hardware review websites all use the newest Intel chipsets when testing SSDs, just take a look at any SSD review. They have not explicitly stated that the AMD chipsets are not as fast, but given the hardware they use for testing, their preference is clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gihad Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Is this issue documented anywhere ? AMD 970 chipset and SSDs not performing as well as they can ? I can't find this anywhere on the internet and it is a shame, because if I knew this before I wouldn't have built my latest system using the AMD chipset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 468/530 speeds are nothing to balk at, its still duck snot lickety quick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synbios Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Really ? The solution is to change half my system for one component to work properly ? The drive is working fine. At this point SSDs are so fast the limiting factor is the southbridge of the chipset and the SATA controller. Don't take our word for it, see if you can find some benchmarks for that chipset and SATA controller you're using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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