Slow speed Intel 520 480GB

[idata]

Hello!

I recently purchased and installed an Intel 520 480 GB SSD to keep games and applications on. The drive is connected to the Intel 6 Gb/s ports on my Asus P8P67 motherboard and i run Windows 7 64. I decided to do some benchmarking on it and used AS-SSD. However I seem to get rather low results.

I read somewhere that one shouldnt use msahci but instead use the iastor? I then decided to download the Intel Rapid Storage drivers, but when i read the readme file for it, it doesnt list the chipset I see in the device manager Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port Serial SATA AHCI Controller – 1C02.

Can anyone help?

[idata · Accepted solution]

The IRST driver you downloaded is correct. Your board has the P67 chipset, which is one of the Intel 6 series chipsets. If the IRST version you downloaded was not correct for your chipset, the installation would stop when it detected the incompatibility.

Your AS SSD results are in general fine for a 520, using the msahci driver. The type of data used by AS SSD for its tests, all incompressible data, will always result in lower AS SSD scores with SSDs that use the SandForce SSD controller, as the 520 does. The majority of data a PC user uses, such as Windows OS files, is compressible. The main specs for the 520 are stated using the ATTO benchmark, which does not use incompressible data. Intel does include specs in the 520's detailed specifications, when it is tested with incompressible data. The 480GB 520 in that case is rated for 500MB/s Read, and 235MB/s Write speeds, and your 520 does better than that.

Here are the detailed specs: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/ssd-520-specification.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/ssd-520-specification.html

The IRST driver usually provides better performance.

Frankly, I have noticed over time that there is very little correlation between AS SSD scores and real world performance, for SATA 6Gb/s SSDs that are installed correctly. I've used SSDs that score much higher in AS SSD than the 520, and IMO the 520 performs better in actual use.

[idata]

Thank you!, so is it safe to swap to the IRST driver? Or could something bad happen 😕 Is it revertable?

Finally, would choosing a Samsung 840 Pro be a better choice? Or is it actually so that I wont notice any difference in real world applications like games etc? Only in benchmarking programs?