07-29-2010 12:20 PM
I recently had my Alienware M17x - R1 replaced with the Alienware M17x - R2.
This is a screenshot taken from my R1 (nvidia chipset)
http://img843.imageshack.us/i/4kcrystalformated.png/
This is from my R2 (Intel Chipset, Dell's drivers installed for the chipset, Microsoft's default drivers for storage)
http://img299.imageshack.us/i/slow.png/
This is after a clean Windows installation with only the Dell chipset drivers and the latest RST drivers from Intel
http://img819.imageshack.us/i/latesty.png/
This is in safe mode
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/safemodee.png/
Could someone explain to me why those numbers are so low compared to the R1? Is it Dell's fault or Intel's fault. I have tested the SSD and it's fine and I have also secure erased the disk before each clean Windows installation to make sure the SSD's performance is set back to factory defaults (8 secure erases and 8 clean Windows installations so far).
I have also tried every possible driver combination (Matrix Storage drivers from both Intel and Dell, RST, chipset drivers from both Intel and Dell) and I haven't managed to get the performance close to half of what it was with my R1.
Note, the mode is set to AHCI from inside BIOS, I get the exact same performance when Windows are installed with the RAID option instead of AHCI.
08-09-2010 06:12 PM
I am bumping this post, plus, I have to mention that the same low perfomance affects other laptops from different manufacturers with this chipset (Intel PM55)
Specifically for the Alienware M17x - R2 there are many users that report the same behavior with different SSDs as well.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19340601/19727976.aspx# 19727976
Any suggestions are welcome (especially from Intel representatives)
09-11-2010 07:56 PM
I would like you to take a look at this as well and see how the real world performance is affected due to this problem
http://www.storagereview.com/how_improve_low_ssd_performance_intel_series_5_chipset_environments
09-12-2010 07:55 AM
Interesting article, thanks. It's a shame you have not had any response from Intel or Dell. Have you tried getting through to an Alienware tech guy at Dell?