M14x R2 and mSata performance

I recently installed a Mushkin Atlas 120GB msata drive on my Alienware m14x R2. I enabled AHCI mode in the bios coz i wanted it to use as the primary OS drive. The OS installed fine but the performance is not noticeably better than the 5400 rpm HDD that came installed with the laptop. Is there is any way I can improve the performance the msata drive and also is anybody else having the same issue with the mushkin msata?

 

running this:

Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT60GB-DX mSATA 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

as my OS drive with RAID set in the Bios (however i am not using a RAID) and my system is running stupid fast. no benchmarks but here is a quick vid of real world use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft9fTX6ONnM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Just as a comparison, here's the numbers I am getting, also in AHCI. Did you do a fresh install of the OS?

 

I did a fresh install......not sure if its a faulty ssd or the laptop

 

I did a fresh install on a 256GB Crucial M4 mSata SSD

 

Do you have any partitions on the drive? All drivers updated/installed after the fresh install? It could be worthwhile asking about this problem over on the SSD forum here.

 

Hate to bring up an old thread, but have you figured this out at all?

I want to go the same route with an Atlas.

 

I believe that you need to set it as RAID in the BIOS even though you are not using RAID and do a clean install to get some better speeds.

 

yes install with raid. Its very simple. Open your laptop, insert mSATA SSD, close laptop, boot to mSATA SSD, install OS, reformat HDD, enjoy.

 

I didn't install my mSATA M4 in raid and I get normal SATA 3 speeds. I used AHCI and respawned to install the OS.

Seems strange that the OP shows 119GB usable on a 120GB drive...

 

Is your mSATA drive a 120GB or 256GB? Your signature threw me off. I was not able to get my Crucial M4 mSATA drive to boot in AHCI.

Take a look at this post, it explains what I encountered.

256GB m4 mSATA SSD Works in M6500 (... SORT OF) - Crucial Community

 

Its a 256GB mSATA M4 running as the C: in a M14xR2. The 7200rpm Seagate is the data drive D:

Setup is AHCI mode. Runs fast.

 

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of AHCI vs RAID? Can I switch my SSD over to ACHI without having to reinstall the OS?

 

The best thing to me about AHCI is that I can have 2 dissimilar drive technologies and sizes installed on the M14xR2 (ie. a fast, low capacity SSD + a slow, high capacity HDD) and leverage the strengths of both, while minimizing their weaknesses.

 

TBH not sure why you'd use RAID for a non-RAID system... I have seen that used as a hack to get some drives running, but prob not needed w the r2.

 

I have this same setup but only in RAID. I'm not sure why it's that way either. Can/should I go to the bios and change it to AHCI? Will that damage any files on the SSD?

 

I have mine set up in AHCI. I had a tech come out to do some work on my M14X and when he finished he had set it to RAID. Whenever I started the computer it would flash a black screen asking which drive I wanted to load. I went in to change it back to AHCI and got a warning that I might lose critical files or even have to reinstall the OS.

I did it anyway and it booted up fine and has been running fine ever since.

 

My old school understanding of hardware RAID on a 2 storage drive system is:

RAID0 writes half of every batch of data to each drive letting them share the workload for a good gain in overall speed when similar drive technologies are used. But if one fails, half of every file, program, whatever, is lost. Therefore all the partial data is unusable on the remaining drive. Additionally, if you have two 500gb drives, you will be able to use roughly 1TB for total storage. It's a good way to combine multiple small storage drives you may have laying around into one large logical drive for your computer to see.

RAID1 writes the same data on both drives. It mirrors the data. Speed is slightly increased over a single drive, but the key feature is that if one drive fails you still have the mirrored copy to continue running on. However, in this case if you have two 500GB drives, then you will only be able to get 500GB for storage because both drives MUST contain the same data.

The downside to RAID is when you use different speed drives, or drives of different capacities, or both.

Using different SPEED drives in RAID is like trying to get from point A to point B with your little brother...you are going to be slowed up by his slow little legs on long trips even if you carry him a bit.

Using different SIZE drives in RAID is a waste because the RAID utilized size is limited by the smallest drive's size. They must match. So if a 500GB HDD is paired with a 128GB SSD drive in RAID 0 or 1, it will be seen only as two 128GB drives and the remainder of the 500GB will be ignored.

Using differing SPEED and SIZE drives in RAID brings out the disadvantages of both situations. Slower speeds AND lower capacity.

That being said, the M14xR2 can use Intel Rapid Storage Technology which was formally known as Matrix RAID. If someone else would like to explain in simple terms the differences of this, I would be much obliged.

 

Thanks HavocATX for the RAID explanation. However, even though my mSATA is set to RAID in the bios, my hard drives are not setup in a RAID configuration.

What I am trying to figure out is why my bios is set to RAID. I am not using RAID 0 or RAID 1.

All I want, and what I'm currently using, is my mSATA 256 GB SSD for my OS and programs, and my 750GB HDD for my storage (movies, music, pictures, documents...)