Warp 2 64GB in raid O on BFG680i

[Unventor]

I just invensted in 2 warp2 driver (64Gb) however I am far from pleased with performance.

I have set them up in a RaidO configuration on the on-board control of a BFGTech 680i board:
http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgrinf680is.aspx

At first my Windows Vista 64bit (don't have a SP1 installation disk) had great difficulties in completing teh installation and it took ages to copy and expand the files. Then it kept crashing with BSoD on first time boot after OS installation.

I have left out all other drives than my 2 warp drives and a iede dvd-read to beable to install windows. Later I added my sata drd-rw drive to be able to get data out of my system again.

I can't say how or excatly what I did, but after several tries I managed to get it to boot with the shutter and massive amount of waittime during boot.

I have followed the different guide out on the internet to disable prefetch and indexing and disableing windows page file since i have 8 GB ram.

Now after finnally completing all Windows Updates and installing SP1 the system is running btter, BUT....The following remains:

**I very often have shutter or long wait times when trying to open an application. Once the waiting clears it reads blinding fast. But what is the point in have blinding fast read times if you can make and dring a cup of coffe/tea before it starts to read.

**It seems to be even worse when dealing with installations/writing files. We are talking normal applications and windows updates and such.

**There seem to be NO pre-sale advise or guide from Patriot on things to consider before buying warp2 SSD.

**The instruction following the disk are so minimal that it gives no idears to what difficulties to the task ahead when installing Windows Vista (1st edition).

The has left be with a feeling of being mislead big time and that the investment in these warp2 drives are one of the worst system upgrades since i build my own systems (started back in 1991 with my first windows bases system).

Note: I found this article VERY informative and interesting, http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

Now these questions remains:

Do I have a faulty drive?
(doing IT support my trouble shooting can pin point this to be teh case)

Do Patriot have any support and solutions to this problem?
(due to my expireance with teh drives I must say you can only suprise me from reading your responce on other posts, read: I assume I have to turn to last option)

Do Patriot have the option to firmware upgrade the drives as similar other competitors have an option for?
(If so can we please get a firmware that loweres shutter ...maybe at expense of read/write speeds.)

Do I have to return the product to the vendor and battle to get my money back?

(This is the option I think I am most likely to turn out with)

[Patriot_Ben]

Hi,

Have you tried applying the hotfixes from Microsoft?

http://www.patriotmem.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1250

[Unventor]

According to the hotfix you linked to it seems to have been installed or implemented into the SP1 update. Anyway my system reported this hotfix do not apply to my windows installation.

When searching for available hotfix downloads (top left: View and request hotfix downloads) all i get is a release candidate 1 for SP1 for Windows Vista 64-bit.

In short, I have follow most of the instruction from you competitor OCZ for they drives as they use similar technology. and it still boils down to what I put in my first post.

[earls]

It's a pain in the @$$, but my advice would be to dissolve the raid setup, and install only one drive... And reinstall Windows.

Set the SATA port to IDE in BIOS.

If you have a similar experience to the one you described, the drives or your motherboard sata/raid controller is faulty.

However, you may also have the incorrect drivers for the controller.

If you DON'T have any problems, try the other drive as well (just to be sure they're both working properly), then rebuild your RAID 0 configuration. Again, ensure you're using the correct drivers for your SATA/RAID controller. Vista may be using generic drivers.

You may also consider using Windows XP 64.

Oh, by the way, what are your RAID stripe sizes set to?

[Unventor]

Since BFGtech don't make drivers themself, but only referres to nVidia generic drivers, I don't think I have much options to use wrong drivers.

These are the onces I am using which are teh newst official drivers I can find from nVidia: nForce whql 15.25 release date 16-03-2009.

As for teh windows XP 64 bit suggestion that is not a real option as it means i need to spend more money for an OS that is a downgrade from the one i have been running fine.

As for testing purpose I can see you point to test each drive in a non-RAID config but that itself will not solve the issue. The more I have been working on this the more i come to teh conclution that it is down to build-in controler limitations (to the limit where i would call it bugged). I would like again to refer to the article i linked to earlier from www.anandtech.com.

I tried to run HDtach in windows xp compatibel mode in windows vista. Now I am aware it might not be reporting teh full picture but my readinsg are a transfer rate of 30-38MB/sec on a 8Gb test pattern. Since the drives are specified to have a max read speed of 170Mb/sec and mine are running RAID. I still can't help feeling I have a product that is far from what I in fairness would expect compare to an old hdd solution.

Btw, the s.m.a.r.t info have no signs of any problems what so ever on the system. As for powersupply there should be no problem on this either since it has feed 4x sata hdd before and ssd don't use as much power a a normal hdd.

So how would an official Patriot comment be on that statement?
(as times go by the more and more i lean towards my last option in my first post, return product and claim my money back)

[earls]

I don't mean the drivers (package) that is installed after Windows is installed, but before, during setup - specifying additional drivers during Windows Vista setup. I understand that Vista has a much broader library of SATA/RAID Controller drivers by default, but they may be outdated and/or generic. Just perhaps try supplying the driver during Vista setup.

While it's easy to blame the new kid on the block, the SSDs, for the issues, if they are detected by the BIOS and Windows, and you can install Windows on them, then most likely they are on proper working order. But just perhaps, the controllers for whatever reason (x2?!) are "buggy."

I can tell you from experience, that despite what Anandtech says, they make excellent HDD replacements:

http://www.doomforever.com/hdtune.png

They peak just under their rated maximum.

Anandtech gets his SSDs for free, so he gets to be picky and elitist about his controllers. If you have an extra $400-$600 sitting around, by all means, RMA the "budget" Patriot drives and spend your heart out.

The issue boils down to the mobo controller or Windows Vista. I'm personally leaning towards Vista. My brief Google search for 680i and SSD turned up no major issues or incompatibilities.

Without additional testing of various configurations, it's impossible to pin-point the true cause. If you do have ANY copy of Windows XP, I'd try that all the same just for a baseline.

I assure you, if Ben had the "magic bullet" for performance issues with Patriot SSDs on a 680i motherboard running Windows Vista, he would have disclosed the solution a long time ago.

Again, what are your stripe sizes for your RAID setup? 64? 128? 256? This just may be the issues as well.

[Unventor]

The only thing I could change at some point during the installation I choosed 128kb but I can't see any listing in the OS on what this seetings was. I simply forgot the message after 10+ testings times of installations and different configurations options to combat BSoD on what I have connected and disconnected in to the sata/ide controllers. Even with the Patriot drives attached only it still hangs once so often for 20sec up to a few mins.

So looking at the video clips you have in your website to promote your drives do not match my disks performance at all. This can be easly seen during boot and shotdown of Windows Vista. Example the shotdown can take more than 3-4 min before the pc turns off just hanging and never less than 2 min.

I did format the drives with 4kb blocks.

Edit:
I just ran a test and got this result.

[earls]

Unfortunately, I seriously doubt you're going to be able to fix this "after the fact."

I highly recommend taking the drives out of RAID, installing only one drive, set the SATA port to IDE compatability mode, and attempt to install Windows Vista on the single drive. Report back with your experience and performance.

This experiment will give great insight.

In addition, should you reconfigure your RAID 0 setup, I would use no less than 64kb stripes.

What do you have to lose? Good luck.