X-25M 160GB noticeably slower

[NiL8r87]

About a month ago I bought a new X-25M G2. When I first benched it the speeds were fine, Windows 7 would take about 10 seconds to boot, apps loaded instantly.

These days, I've still got about 110GB left on the drive, TRIM is enabled, AHCI has always been on, ran the SSD Toolbox Optimizer, Indexing/System Restore/Hibernation is disabled, but speeds have gotten alot slower. OS takes about 25-30 seconds to boot up, apps don't load nearly as fast.

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

CrystalDiskMark:

 

[Spikesoldier]

windows bloats as updates are applied.

 

[Nothinman]

If the benchmarks are still about the same, then yea it's something with Windows and not the hardware. Disabling Indexing and System Restore seem pretty stupid to me too.

 

[NiL8r87]

If the benchmarks are still about the same, then yea it's something with Windows and not the hardware. Disabling Indexing and System Restore seem pretty stupid to me too.

Windows 7 disabled them by default when I installed on the SSD.

Also, I believe the 4K read/write speeds are alot slower than they should be. No idea why this is.

 

[Nothinman]

I know Windows is supposed to disable defragging on SSDs, but I can't imagine it would disable Indexing or System Restore automatically.

 

[Idontcare]

OP u r doomed, only salvation will come if u sell me ur G2 4 cheap, will take it off ur hands 4 $50...act now b4 i come to my senses! limited time offer!



Seriously though I suspect this apparent slowdown is as Spikesoldier suggests and it is just the facts of life situation with windows plus your apps.

FWIW I installed Win7 on a 160GB G2 about a month ago as well and the bloat comes from Win7 updates (a little bit of it) but for me a healthy dose of installed applications causes the system to be a tad less snappy for sure.

The only remedy is more cowbell! Wait, no, I mean faster SSD's!

 

[allthatisman]

I have had three SSD's, including the one that you have and they all did the same thing, which is why I am back to my Velociraptor. It "feels" just as fast as the SSD and I don't see nearly the speed degredation, oh and its twice as big and costs a third of the price. SSD's, while they are clearly the future of storage, is still the bleeding edge....

 

[flamenko]

K...lets diagnose your problem here....

Hit the power button and do a hard reset. Hold it down until it completely shuts off not goes into sleep.

Reboot into safe mode and then do another Crystal sciore and post it.

Do you have System Restore turned on and yes...updating automatically is not really a wise choice as things slow over time.

And yes your 4k reads and writes suck...

If you have System restore on, read this...

EDIT... I see restore is off. How long did the optimizer take?

 

[killster1]

I know Windows is supposed to disable defragging on SSDs, but I can't imagine it would disable Indexing or System Restore automatically.

why are you so keen on system restore. i think anyone that uses it should be shot in the head! hehe jk but it is pointless ive never seen it work for anything, if your system is fuct the restore prob gunna be fuct still.. (ive only tried to use it twice but my friends all like to leave it on and it never fixes their problems.

thats one the few things i do no matter ssd or regular hd when installing, uncheck remote assistance, disable updates, disable system restore, and most the time disable indexing (who cares about indexing i never search for anything except *.Iso a few times and hardly am in a rush about it)

 

[Hacp]

Try filling your drive with large files then deleting them.

 

[Emulex]

thats what the intel toolkkit does every week or day , essentially a baloon driver. watch it work somtime

 

[killster1]

so your suppose to use intel toolkkit?

 

[flamenko]

TRIM does the same as toolkit. Toolkit can identify whether or not TRIM is functioning properly by the time it takes to manually optimize. Many people with system restore observe performance degradation and it is because Restore and TRIM dont get along. I dont believe TRIM works at all in many cases.

Shut down restore and watch how fast the Toolkit optimizes. Alls well.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Do what Hacp says. A sequential write across the whole drive should fix the problem.

 

[Emulex]

i had a x25-m -3200 hours never trimmed XP - took a minute or two first time run.

windows 7 box same # of hours takes like 0 - 1 seconds.

both using latest intel rapidstore 9.x (8.x is evil bad)

 

[flamenko]

Try filling your drive with large files then deleting them.

Could u explain the reasoning for this to the OP??? I am curious as well...must be having a brain cramp.

 

[Hacp]

Could u explain the reasoning for this to the OP??? I am curious as well...must be having a brain cramp.

Filling the space up forces the drive to undergo garbage collection. Old data that isn't useful is wiped using an algorithm and the drive organizes the rest of the data into fewer blocks.

 

[MagickMan]

yeah, your numbers are definitely off. Mine is almost the same state as yours, and same age.

 

[Tempered81]

Tried the TRIM option? I used to use a small program that did something to the SSD in my netbook. It was a PATA intel 8GB mini PCI card SSD, and this program greatly increased the performance.

Hearing all these gloomy threads concerns me about reliability of SSDs over time. I am certain they are responsive & quick, but after reading a few threads like this I went on and ordered a WD320BEKT 7200 Caviar Black for my laptop instead of getting an X25-m or X25v. I figure warranty, reliability, and a spacious 320GB outweighed a slight boost in "snappiness". It's also on sale at NE for $64 FS, while the good intel SSDs are $200+ - which made the speed trade-off even easier for me.

Off topic, I found I cannot upgrade my lap-top's T7700 CPU. So, this 4GB of CAS4 Gskill, WD Caviar Black 320, and a copy of Win 7 64-bit will be the final upgrades my lap-top receives for a long while.

 

[MagickMan]

It isn't "slight", for a laptop it's massive boost in performance. Also, despite a few detractors, SSDs are still more reliable. I'm afraid you made a mistake.

 

[flamenko]

Seconded on that. I have been using and testing SSDs since 07 and have had very few problems all around. One must realize that people dont come to brage how great their ssd is for the most part but they do speak up when there is a problem and need help making it appear much different than reality.

At the end of the day, there are far less disk failures than HDDs and there is no doubt that they will be running long after the HDD. When combined with all the other fenefits, the only real negative if the price per Gb for some people.

 

[erdemali]

Seconded on that. I have been using and testing SSDs since 07

You have been using and SSDs since 07???? And yet you have no idea about how the SSD works.
ie.

Originally Posted by flamenko
Could u explain the reasoning for this to the OP??? I am curious as well...must be having a brain cramp.
Filling the space up forces the drive to undergo garbage collection. Old data that isn't useful is wiped using an algorithm and the drive organizes the rest of the data into fewer blocks.

And still advertising your site for people to follow????
"Little fish in a creek thinks it is swimming in an ocean"

 

[flamenko]

Well actually, with respect to that, TRIM takes care of all deleted information and if it hasn't been deleted than it wont be removed by filling and removing data . The hiccup with this is if someone allows System Restore to allocate restore points and TRIM functions poorly or not at all which can be identified. In this case, that may also work although I havent heard of such prior to this post. I didnt comment as, on many non-intel drives there is no way to optimize and that may be a viable option although I am not sure how many people want to continuously fill their ssd for the heck of it as it is a killer on lifespan.

Now if we are looking at garbage collection with respect to data that isnt filling a 512 kb block, this process is doing much the same as defragmenting ones drive in that it is taking many partially filled 512k blocks, consolidating the data, deleting data from old blocks and then clearing the blocks. This was much more valid in non-TRIM ssds and was spoken of by Anand in detail, however, with the overprovisioning and quality of present firmware, this can all be done by the ssd behind the scenes with little or no problem.

Perhaps you could point me to other articles relating to that which make it a common practice.

1 post/new member...nice bait though eheh

 

[erdemali]

Well actually, with respect to that, TRIM takes care of all deleted information and if it hasn't been deleted than it wont be removed by filling and removing data . The hiccup with this is if someone allows System Restore to allocate restore points and TRIM functions poorly or not at all which can be identified. In this case, that may also work although I havent heard of such prior to this post. I didnt comment as, on many non-intel drives there is no way to optimize and that may be a viable option although I am not sure how many people want to continuously fill their ssd for the heck of it as it is a killer on lifespan.

Now if we are looking at garbage collection with respect to data that isnt filling a 512 kb block, this process is doing much the same as defragmenting ones drive in that it is taking many partially filled 512k blocks, consolidating the data, deleting data from old blocks and then clearing the blocks. This was much more valid in non-TRIM ssds and was spoken of by Anand in detail, however, with the overprovisioning and quality of present firmware, this can all be done by the ssd behind the scenes with little or no problem.

Perhaps you could point me to other articles relating to that which make it a common practice.

1 post/new member...nice bait though eheh

I am not talking about dictionary definitions of TRIM and Garbage Collection terms.

If someone is asking "why fill up and wipe", I don't think they have yet comprehended how SSDs work. And I don't think they should advertise their sites for people to follow.

I know it is a learning process for everyone and have no issue on that.
But (yes but), if someone with this kind of website shouldn't have asked this kind of question. At least he could have worked it out on his own, since it is a common sense.

 

[flamenko]

Again, can you find me articles relating to the process? I can stand by my views and advise and respond to any logical argument whereas you seemingly just popped up out of nowhere (post 2) to take a crack at things.

Welcome to the site and good luck.