Patriot Torx M28 128gb Raid 0 Question

[Hunt3r]

I hate for my first post here to be with an issue but here it is, the drives perform great, my HDTune and HD Tach scores average well above 400 mb/s but I am a bit confused ....
When I first installed Windows 7 I ran the Windows Experience Index and my drives were rated at a 7.6. Now after performing the tweaks and running the system for a few weeks the WEI is at 5.9 but my HDTune and HD Tach score are still the same ? Any idea's as to what could have caused this?

Yes, I am aware that it is still in development and has bugs I was just checking to see if anyone had similar experiences. All and all I love the M-28's and it was refreshing to purchase a product that actually surpasses rated speeds and my expectations.

[Patriot_Ben]

I hate for my first post here to be with an issue but here it is, the drives perform great, my HDTune and HD Tach scores average well above 400 mb/s but I am a bit confused ....
When I first installed Windows 7 I ran the Windows Experience Index and my drives were rated at a 7.6. Now after performing the tweaks and running the system for a few weeks the WEI is at 5.9 but my HDTune and HD Tach score are still the same ? Any idea's as to what could have caused this?

Yes, I am aware that it is still in development and has bugs I was just checking to see if anyone had similar experiences. All and all I love the M-28's and it was refreshing to purchase a product that actually surpasses rated speeds and my expectations.

Honestly, I wouldn't place too much concern on the "Windows Experience Indexing." If all is well with the drive and the benchmark scores are still the same, I don't think it should be that big of a deal performance-wise. The only thing I can think of the is the drivers inititialized and running now that the W7 installation has settled.

Your M28 drive carries a 10 year warranty should anything go wrong with it. We will be more than happy to replace it with a new one if you are experiencing any major malfunctions with the drive. ;)

[Hunt3r]

Thanks for the reply Ben, I was just curious, not overly concerned and I definitely don't think there is anything wrong with the drives.

[Hunt3r]

If anyone is interested I performed a quick review of my drives on my gaming communities website, in the review I performed single vs raid 0 tests as well as standard and velociraptor drives. Here is the link (http://www.straferight.com/forums/game-hardware-reviews/181889-patriot-torqx-m28-128gb-solid-state-drives.html)

[Zabulon]

how did you get those good of benchmarks with 1 m28 in Windows7? I am running windows 7 64bit RTM and got a brand new m28... however I only was able to get 195mb/s not 250mb/s read.

whats your secret?

I am running a Asus P6T - i7 920 setup.

[Hunt3r]

I think that the single drive numbers were higher because there was no operating system installed, it was just a blank formatted drive. Once I installed Windows 7 on the 2 M28's in Raid 0 I lost about 20 mb/s, I believe that is caused by the program being run from the disk it is benchmarking. But that is pure speculation on my part and now that I have all my programs and games installed I have dropped another 30 mb/s.

Have you tried all the tweaks for SSD's that are in the SSD set-up guide?

[Zabulon]

Thanks man... yea i have run all the tweaks and now with all my games installed i am only getting around 175mb/s reads. This is probably because im about 60% full on my drive.

Overall have a had a great experience with this drive however I was hoping it would support TRIM but maybe the next firmware will?

[Hunt3r]

I don't think its a firmware thing but more of a Windows 7 not recognizing either the controller or SSD as an SSD. When I installed Windows 7 I had to manually disable defrag and a couple other options that I thought should have been automatically disabled if Windows 7 recognized the SSD properly. I am still looking for clarification on that and I will let you know if I hear anything.

[Zabulon]

thanks Hunter! keep me posted!

[msp116]

How in the HE** did you get read # that good I have tried everything myself and only get a min of 70 and a max of 210 in a raid 0????? have a i7920 P6T deluxe V2 cant figure out what im doing wrong even in a single drive config I wasn't getting #'s anywhere near what you were? have lateest firm ver

[Patatorz]

Hello, I just installed Windows 7 64bits on a Raid-0 M28 SSD. I must say that I'm a bit confused because when I run HD Tune, I'm very far from Hunt3r performances (around 420Mb/s). I reach only 230Mb/s !!!!!

http://blogdeludo.free.fr/photos/25-10-200918-33-53.jpg

With CrystalDisk Mark, I reach these performances :

http://blogdeludo.free.fr/photos/25-10-200918-40-16.jpg

I made nothing in terms of installation and optimization. Should I make something in order to increase the performances ?

Thanks for your help.

Best regards
-------------------------
Configuration :
MB : Asus P5Q-E
HD : 2 M28 SSD in raid0 on Intel Raid Matrix + 2x 500Go in Raid1 on Intel Raid Matrix
OS : Windows 7 64Bits (without adding Intel Raid drivers - only once installed with Win 7)

[Hunt3r]

Patatorz, Have you run all of the performance tweaks listed in the other threads? Your numbers look very low for 2 M28's in raid 0 are you sure that you have enabled write cache and disabled write cache buffer flushing? I just reinstalled Win 7 from rc to pro and after the optimizations my numbers are right back where they were. I am still a bit disappointed in the lack of support for the controller on these drives from Samsung, but overall I am happy with the performance.

Here is a link to the post by AGlobalThreatsK which contains the tweaks: Link (http://www.patriotmem.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5509&postcount=2)

[Patatorz]

Hello, I just change Prefletch and Superflech to 0 (before it was 3).
Concerning the cache here is a picture of my configuration (sorry it's in french but it could be understand) :
http://blogdeludo.free.fr/photos/25-10-200919-50-50.jpg

I don't if there is other optimizations...

Thnaks for your help.

Patatorz

[Hunt3r]

Check the lower box on that screen to disabled write cache buffer flushing, restart and try HD Tune again. Let me know if it doesn't work, I'll be on for a bit longer and I'll keep checking this thread.

[Patatorz]

Ok thanks, I'm going to check right now. Just for informations, did you realized all the optimizations of the link ?
Did you install Intel Raid drivers instead of microsoft ones ?

BR

[Hunt3r]

I did almost all of the Win7 tweaks in that thread and I did install the Intel ICH10R chipset drivers from Intel's website. Here is the link to the latest chipset drivers on Intel's website: Link (http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-028823.htm)

[Patatorz]

The issue is perhaps here. I checked the box you asked, remove indexing but the performance is still low : around 200Mb/s !!!!
I did not install Intel drivers because it does not support TRIM, but as the M28 do not have a firwmare that support TRIM I'm going to install the drivers and let you know.
Best regards

[Hunt3r]

Patatorz, something is definitely not right with your performance in the HD Tune bench, here is a screenshot I did the other night after my fresh install. However, your crystalmark looks really close to mine and your seq and random writes both spank mine, what stripe size did you use in your raid array?

http://www.straferight.com/photopost/data/788/thumbs/Torqx_M28_raid_0_all.jpg (http://www.straferight.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/11597)

[Patatorz]

Hello, I had the ssame conclusion than you : should I have an issue with HD Tune as yours and mines CrystalDiskMark are pretty closed !!!!!

I installed this morning the Intel drivers but ir's still the same issue.

I use the standard proposed (I think) concerning Raid Stripe : it should be 128. Is it a good value ?

Best regards

[Patatorz]

Ok, I try several tests (Raid 0 Stripe 64, Raid 0 stripe 128, IDE,...) and I will let you know.
Just in order to be sure of what I'm doing.
In my Asus P5Q-E Bios, I choose RAID (instead of IDE and AHCI). I configure (CTR+I) raid controller asking for a Raid 0 (64 or 128k).

I ask to boot on this array.

I launch Win 7 installation with the DVD. Win 7 see the array and ask me for creating partitions.

I create the C partition (70Go) and win7 create automatically a 100Mo partition in order to restore the system. I create a second partition (170Go).

I launch installation on the 70Go partition, expecting that Win7 make the alignment....

Am i wrong ?

Best regards

[Hunt3r]

Yeah, that's the same the process I follow as we are on the same chipset, I tried several different configs and the 128k raid 0 stripe seamed best. I reran crystal mark and my writes were real close to yours as well. I think maybe there is a glitch in you HD Tune test, as long as it runs well I wouldn't sweat it or your could try a couple other benches to verify. :D

[earls]

Patatorz, please consult this thread and see if it helps:

http://www.patriotmem.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1933

[Patatorz]

Hello Earls, thanks for the link.
I saw this post yesterday evening but I did not have any time left to test. i'm going to do that tonight.

In fact It seems that I have results near Hunt3r performances. The issue comes from HD Tune measures. If I choose a 8Mb file for benchmark, the performance in reading goes up 400Mb. The initial value was about 64Kb and I reached only 225kb....

Thanks for your help and I will let you know.

Best regards

EDIT :

Performances here with ATO : http://www.pctunerup.com/up//results/_200910/20091027212612_ATO Win7 SSD Raid0 M28.PNG