11-09-2009 03:32 AM
Two weeks ago I have successfully updated the firmware of my brand new Intel X25 G2 80GB (to 02HA). I set the ICH9R to AHCI and then installed my brand new Windows 7 OS. I have checked that my ssd was using the MS AHCI driver. So according to Intel, everything was ok to make automatic trim work : 02HA firmware + MS ACHI driver + windows 7.
Two weeks after, all my softwares were installed on my ssd (10 GB are free now). I launched Crystal diskmark and I had only 30 MB/s for the "4k write". All the other tests ( 512 k read/write, sequential read/write and 4k read) were also a bit disappointed (but fortunately not as much as the 4k write).
So I launched the Intel SSD toolbox and ran the ssd optimizer (manual trim). And yes, after that, my ssd is like brand new : 70 MB for the 4k write... (the other values are also higher).
So, does the automatic trim really do its job ? How can I check that it is really active ?
11-16-2009 06:56 AM
I have similar scenes in Device Manager but Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller is listed only once.
This is weird, I mean about that PIO mode business, and all those double listings.
11-16-2009 07:06 AM
I have 2 AHCI controlers and 1 IDE controler = ich8r sata and jmicron (sata + ide).
The other 3x listings its because I have 3x "ata channel 0" and 3x "ata channel 1" (intel controler sata + jmicron sata + jmicron ide).
Pio mode 4 is strange...
11-16-2009 07:20 AM
There appears to be some kind of issue with Windows 7 and SSD, at least with respect to turning off Superfetch. prefetching, and defrag--aside from all that PIO stuff. The one thing I do know is TRIM is working for me without using the optimizer.
11-16-2009 07:29 AM
I just noticed in HD Tune that my SSD's are Supported UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133) Active UDMA 7 (Ultra ATA/512)
Isn't Ultra ATA/512 PATA mode?!
11-16-2009 08:24 AM
From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment# ATA_standards_versions.2C_transfer_rates.2C_and_features http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Attachment# ATA_standards_versions.2C_transfer_rates.2C_and_features
Looks like we have the standard called ATA or ATAPI and the transfer mode called PIO or UDMA.
It also says that the standard ATA/ATAPI-7 supports these transfer modes: UDMA 6 (133) and SATA/150
So if I'm reading it right, ATAPI-7 standard describes PATA and SATA drives with UDMA 6 transfer mode at 133MB/s for PATA and 150MB/s for SATA/150.
This wikipedia article doesn't give much info about ATAPI-8, neither SATA/300.
Anyway PIO mode 4 is a wrong description for SSD transfer mode in windows, pio mode 4 is from ATA-2 standard, it does not use DMA, it is heavy in CPU and is limited to 16.7 MB/s, so I think the windows description is wrong....