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]

UPDATE

After over 7 weeks of INntel doing nothing and making poor excuses I took advice from the Trading Standards Office (via Consumer Direct) here in the UK. They directed me to approach the retailers which I did (see above post). I also informed Intel that I was seeking advice and also wished to make a complaint regarding the awful level of service from Tech Support. I was told to write to mailto:jim.morris@intel.com jim.morris@intel.com which I did.

Ever since then my messages are always answered thus:

Dear Mr. Pugh.

Thank you for your communication below, the contents of which are noted.

We have referred your mail to our legal department for consideration and will contact you shortly.

Kind regards.

or

Good morning Mr. Pugh.

Thank you for your mail below.

Please be advised that any results of our investigations regarding support issues will be dealt with internally and are therefore confidential in nature.

As previously advised, as soon as we receive a reply from our legal department regarding your previous submission, we will contact you accordingly.

Kind regards.

Jim Morris.

Worldwide Compliance Manager.

Online Sales Support - Risk and Compliance.

E-Mail - mailto:jim.morris@intel.com jim.morris@intel.com

And when I try to contact Tech support to see if they have made any progress (hopefully they will release a firmware update so I don't have to send my drive back to the retailer) I get this response:

Dear Mr. Pugh,

Your case is currently being investigated by Mr. Jim Morris and the Intel Legal Team as advised to you by Mr. Morris on Friday 23rd September.

Please direct any further communications regarding this case to Mr. Morris at mailto:jim.morris@intel.com jim.morris@intel.com as we are unable to comment further at this time whilst investigations are taking place.

Kind regards,

Mario H.

Intel Customer Support (EMEA)

If this isn't an example of stonewalling then I don't know what is. Quite incredible for a company like Intel. I suppose us little people don't matter and if we make too much fuss they just start using terms like "legal department" in the hope that it will make us go away. Unbelievably bad!

[Vegan]

I suggest checking to see if there is an updated BIOS for your machine. This may have an impact on performance and compatibility.

[idata]

That's something I check for every week but nothing from Dell yet. Not sure how that could fix a firmware clash (PPG2 vs PPG4) but I'd be glad of any solution really.

[idata]

Just an update on the situation. Intel did send me a new 510 SSD 120GB with firmware PPG4 to replace the one I sent in for RMA. In 2 SSD configuration, the speed randomly drop from 6Gbps to 3Gbps.

So I moved one drive into my laptop. Now, I notcied, even in a single SSD environment, the speed randomly drop from 6Gbps to 3Gbps.

I hope they release a new firmware for the SSD or new version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Obviously, something is not right.

-----------------------------

Update: After installing iRST 10.8, the SSD doesn't drop to 3Gbps any more.

[idata]

I still haven't heard anything more from Intel. It's now been 8 weeks since Intel were first informed of this problem. I guess they just don't give a sh*t?

8 weeks? It looks like they don't think it's important enough or not enough people have the problem for it to be worth the effort. I recommend just taking the drive back to the retailer and asking for an exchange. It's been proved that there is an issue so they shouldn't give you too much trouble. Howeber, I thought the same of Intel but they've turned out to be utterly useless! /report.php?p=32404585