# Underperforming SSD



## anoobarak (Dec 7, 2011)

Hey,

I have a Kingston SSDNow V200 64GB SSD drive, and I'm experiencing a lack of it's performance.
Kingston advertises speeds of 260MB/s read and up to 100MB/s write, which is good enough for me because it's being used as a boot drive for OS and programs. 
The problem with it is, that write speeds suck. I've tried benchmarks, I tried writing a big file to the drive, and write speed was a sustained 53MB/s , in addition to that, the windows experience index shows a 5.9 subscore for it, while ssd's should be closer to 7 (out of 7.9).
I have AHCI enabled and all. Tried tweaking it by disabling file indexing and superfeches/prefeches etc. (though AHCI was enabled through the windows registry, and then through the BIOS) Nothing seems to make a difference.
Is there something I can do about this?
A few screenies of benches in attachments.


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## happita (Dec 7, 2011)

As far as I know, AHCI should be enabled before the OS is installed on the drive through the BIOS. But then again, I don't know a whole lot about that line of Kingston drives.


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## dark2099 (Dec 7, 2011)

Go to the control panel, device manager, find you SSD, right click on it, select properties, go to the policies tab, and make sure that both boxes are ticked, if not do so and restart.   Should look like below.


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## anoobarak (Dec 7, 2011)

AS SSD bench detects that msahci is working as it should.
After turning off windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device, write speeds degraded even more, though reads were even more consistent and faster through out the range. what does this mean.. 
Do you guys thing a fresh install of windows, with ahci enabled from the start would make a difference? Because reinstalling windows with all the drivers, other apps and updates is a real pain.


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## erocker (Dec 7, 2011)

anoobarak said:


> Do you guys thing a fresh install of windows, with ahci enabled from the start would make a difference?



Yes, I got similar results when I just ghosted my Windows install onto an SSD. It could just be your onboard Sata controller being difficult as well. Do you have your chipset/Southbridge drivers up to date?


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## pantherx12 (Dec 7, 2011)

dark2099 said:


> Go to the control panel, device manager, find you SSD, right click on it, select properties, go to the policies tab, and make sure that both boxes are ticked, if not do so and restart.   Should look like below.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/111207/Capture007.jpg



The second option sounds dangerous


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## 95Viper (Dec 7, 2011)

erocker said:


> Do you have your chipset/Southbridge drivers up to date?



 link:  AMD RAID/SATA Drivers


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## anoobarak (Dec 7, 2011)

My drivers are all up to date, though I didn't have this installed, and when I did, performance degraded even more so. I think I'm reinstalling windows tomorrow. Can't think of any reason why the ssd is performing so poorly. Could it be my motherboard from 2007 or whatever. 
Thanks for the help guys, I'll be posting when I'm finished reinstalling windows.


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## 95Viper (Dec 8, 2011)

anoobarak said:


> Thanks for the help guys, I'll be posting when I'm finished reinstalling windows.



Did you clone or create the SSD from a backup, instead of a fresh install?
It might not be aligned.

A fresh install, like you are doing, should create the aligned partitions.

Some reading.
SSD Alignment Calculator
Partition Alignment Spreadsheet
SSD Speed Tweaks
Make Sure Your Partitions Are Correctly Aligned For Optimal SSD Performance
Disk Alignment on Windows 7 for normal disks and SSDs


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## anoobarak (Dec 8, 2011)

Windows reinstall fixed it.. speeds are up to spec..but.. not always:






Anyway, now I'm happy how it is, and thanks to all for help.


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## anoobarak (Dec 13, 2011)

Screw this ssd. I returned it. Will pay 20$ more and get an OCZ Agility 3 60GB one.
Now I'll have to look for a new motherboard to make full use of the speed that drive offers


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