Intel 510 SSD Seen as 3Gbs Drive

[idata]

I just built a system on an Asus P8Z68 Deluxe motherboard that includes two Intel 510 256Gb drives. One is drive C and the other is drive D on ports 0 and 1 respectively of the Intel controller. I am not using the Marvell controller. I was dissapointed in the Primary Drive WEI score so I opened the Intel RST Management panel and noticed the C drive is reporting a SATA Transfer Rate of 3Gbs while the D drive is reporting a 6Gbs transfer rate. The only difference between the two drives is the C drive is running the PWG2 firmware while the other one is running the PWG4 firmware. Does anyone have any thoughts on what may be holding this drive back?

[idata]

I just put the phone down on a "technician" from Intel who was utterly useless and completely unhelpful. Before I could even give him any details he told me that Intel had never had this problem with any of their own systems so it must be Dell's fault. He wasn't intersted in the fact that there is another open case (yours) which is non-Dell. Likewise he wasn't interested in the fact that our drives run at different speeds depending on the firmware. In fact, he didn't know anything about PPG/PWG numbers and when I told him that was the information in the RST tool he said that tool was for developers only and as such he couldn't talk about anything it may report!?

So no progress made apart from learning that even Intel can have rubbish technical support. I have asked for someone else to call but who knows when that might happen.

Is there any chance you could give me your case ID so that I can show them that it's not just Dell when I next speak to them?

[idata]

Ok - just had a conversation with a more senior technician called Mario. He was interested in knowing your case ID but it's possible you've contacted Intel in the USA, not Europe where I am, so they haven't found it yet.

Anyway, he started off by telling me that it was probably a controller issue and therefore not Intel's problem. I pointed out that my SATA controller was an Intel chipset but he said that as it was on a Dell motherboard it was their responsiblity! I then asked him about the speed difference even when both drives were on 6gb/s and he couldn't say much. He tried to finish the conversation along the lines of "I'll do some research and if I find anything out I'll get back to you" which is frankly unacceptable. When I told him what I thought about that he then admitted he wasn't an SSD technician and would escalate this to a product and SSD engineer. I suggested that as it was an SSD problem it might have been an idea to get an SSD engineer to make the call in the first plalce but he didn't have anything to say about that either.

So far not very impressive response from Intel. I hope you have more luck and if you could post your case ID maybe it ight make some difference over here.

[idata]

I am disappointed to read that. I chose Intel based on my experience with their X-25 series of drives and their positive reputation. I chose not to go with Corsair or OCZ to avoid having probelms even though their drives are reportedly faster. I wanted to just plug it in and have it work. I still hope to hear something more constructive from Intel and if I do I'll pass it along.

[idata]

It is disappointing but do post your case ID if you get chance.

I'm going to buy a PCI-e SATA 3 card to put in my system to see if it really is the onboard controller.

[idata]

My US case number is: 8000297531.