Intel 80GB SSD after 3 weeks...here we go again?

Just as I had problems with the X25-M last September/October, I don't know what to make of the fact that it has slowed down on the sequential WRITES. The reads are around 250, which is just fine of course.

The X18-M that I am talking about had been doing just fine. It was consistently 250/70MB/s.

This may be a dumb question, but should I defragment it? Also, should I AVOID defragging it.

The 128GB Samsung MLC is just like it was before. 250/170. It's usually a bit slower in the reads, and it continues to have poor 4KB writes. Although the Intel drive has the write issues I was talking about, the Intel still does GREAT at the 4KB random writes. The Samsung is around 6-8Mbps, and the Intel is always around 30-40MB/s

Any ideas?

Thank you very much!

 

Don´ t defrag SSD, what is your write speed now?

 

Yes, you should avoid defragmenting SSDs. How new is the X18-M, does it have the firmware update?

 

I got it in late July, and I just recently bothered installing it.

Firmware update I am not sure about. Do you mean the whole Gen 1 and 2? Where do I check???

 

No, Gen1 and Gen2 are two different hardware revisions, not firmware.

I can't remember how to check if you have the update or not. The simplest way would be to just download it and try to install it. It automatically detects whether or not your firmware is the latest and, if not, installs the update.

See instructions and download link here: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/04/20/review_update_storage_ssd_intel_x25_m/print.html

 

The defrag code in Vista and Windows 7 will do it for you. That code will not defrag an ssd.

 

If it is degradation due to the inherent problems of how an SSD works, Vista or Win7 aren't going to do any good. TRIM is going to be the solution for these sort of issues but if he has a G1 drive (which I suspect) he wont get a firmware update for that eventually.

That being said it is very odd that it decreased in performance so quickly...unless you were doing A TON of writing on it everyday.

There are tools to completely clean the drive like it was stock but that requires killing your data. There are manual TRIM like tools from other brands, but not sure if they work with Intel drives. You'd have to google to see what people are doing.

 

I believe the Intel X25-M inherently has trouble with sequential writes. See this write-up:

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=21

 

Actually did op specify a speed in which it dropped to. Sequential writes and even really that important in real world usage... More for benchmarks.

 

Thanks! Very informative! I'll check into it. Looks like the firmware upgrade was made the SSD MUCH more reliable and faster, especially write speeds (both seq & small blocks)

Old firmware: 8610

New firmware: 8820

Never heard of TRIM. I should have the 8820 (with FW update), as it came out in April, and miine was manufactured in late July, and yes, it is a Gen 1 drive. If this is degradation...that drive will go bye bye. Could that be? It was brand spanking new, and even if it hadn't been...that baby was born a tad over a month ago. Where's all that MTBF?? Supposed to last 3-5 years. Not even close if it's like this. It almost feels as though the firmware was reversed to 8610, because in the graphic (linked above), it was precisely like what they had for 8820 (NEW fw), and very consistently again, the OLD fw is what it looks like now.

I like consistency, so at least it's consistently crapola. lol...if it was one day 75MB/s, one day 35MB/s, that would be a deal breaker, too.

I realize that, and yes, I do have before and after shots, and one thing is very curious to me. It went from around 75MB/s (which apparently it only has been able to each since April?? wow ) but anyway, it went down virtually overnight, or at the very least something close to that. I don't think it's possible to "undo" the firmware update. I certainly didn't try to.

Do I use it often and transfer a bunch of large files. Well, yea, it's my main drive, and I have done some file transfers when I was organizing my files, so as to make the new drive feel at home, and also because the former drive was bigger in size. Then there were days (very rare) when I didn't turn my system on at all.

I'm also running a mirror of the Intel SSD once every two to three weeks now, so as to cushion the blow if the X18-M disappoints as the X25-M did after three weeks of ownership last October, so that's another 60-65GB or so.

Thanks very much, guys. I tried to be as detailed as possible. So now what?

 

Degradation of SSD speeds are not necessarily related to the mean time failure...it has to do with the inherent issues an SSD has with flash. Look up anandtech's articles about SSDs and TRIM is a method to combat that. G1 drives wont get a firmware update to support TRIM for windows7...

But you could look into manual solutions as I mentioned.

But ya the fuller an SSD is the slower it might be because of how it has to erase an entire area of 512k for every 4k it must write if the drive is already written to fully (having free space in windows does not mean you have not written to the whole drive before). Anyways read the anandtech articles. If you want to know more.

 

How far from the 101 is jaredy university? Didn't see one when I was in your town. Thanks for some more great insight. I did read a laundry list of anandtech and tom's guide regarding SSDs.

I will get a Gen 2 drive then, since Windows 7 supports TRIM, which is great.

Anyway, bottom line: Will I likely never see anywhere 70MB/s writes again? Currently, it is 50% full. However, I DID have it completely full at one point, and 85% full for a while. Did I do the drive in??? Alright, that's dramatic. lol...

But seriously, I had never had this information before you told me about it. Is there anything I can do, or am I expecting too much? I can accept that if that's what it is. I would have just liked to know these SSD idiosyncrasies.

 

Well, if you want to refresh the drive to factory condition, use HDDerase.

 

Ya, what zephir said is a manual method of putting the drive back into its factory state (though erases your data).

There are tools for some of the other controllers that does the TRIM like function that you manually initiate, but I am not sure they work on the Intel drives as of yet. I am sure they will eventually.

 

Thanks guys! So am I supposed to do that every what? 2 months? I haven't even had it for that long. TRIM won't completely resolve that issue, but only slow it down. Is that about right? Do you wipe your respective drives on a schedule, or once a year, what? I'm honestly interested.

 

TRIM pretty much makes it the same for all intensive purpose. The % decrease is negligible.

I wouldn't think the degradation issue would be that bad though. All SSDs potentially have this issue and when it was discovered that the Intel drives could have this it was highly tested and Intel needed help to try and replicate it. So it shouldn't just be a time bomb in that simplistic of a sense.

My prior SSD was a Samsung SLC and I never noticed any drastic slowdowns but SLCs are not as susceptible with a good controller as far as I know. I have the G2 80gig Intel drive right now and I have that in for a week so I don't know if there will be any noticeable slow down, but I don't expect it.

Edit: I looked into this a little further. The 8820 firmware update really changes how data is stored, so if you updated with a drive that was already in use with data on it there is a lot of data written according to the old method, while the new writes are organized under the new firmware. Anand think this could make it take a lot longer. He says it should go away once the drive is secure erased. Alternatively you could try a bunch of sequential writes to fill it up.

 

YES!!!!! Back to 65-75MB/s sequential writes. I found a very recent (8/24/09) firmware update on Intel's site. It was 8630, and now it's 8820.

It also runs faster in booting up and 10MB/s better in add'l read speeds.

I did a quick mirror, just in case, and now, with about 45% full, it works incredibly well. Are the G2's out yet? Maybe mine is G2 and I don't know it. Howdo I find out? Thanks again for your time.

I guess I can secure erase it, and mirror all the files back onto the Intel with its new firmware. Woohoo! Would that be beneficial??

 

Secure erase is recommended if you filled your drive past 90% at any one point with data. This is merely my own parameter, and there's no official document telling you when to do secure erase.
And yes, the 8820 firmware is quite good in trying to get back to factory performance.
No, I'm 99.99% sure you don't have the G2, especially if you get the drive 2 months ago, because the G2 isn't available then. Just as a FYI, G2 drive has a silver casing.

 

Great. Well, I did have it filled to over 97% capacity when I forgot to empty the recycle bin one time, which had a whopping 30GB(!) worth of files in it. Still, I'm getting better-than-ever read speeds, and write speeds between 60+ and 75+.

It also runs significantly more consistent . My read speeds have been between 256 and, well, 256. So I'll get a 256.1, followed by maybe a 256.7...

And the 4K block write speeds are consistently stunning. The WEI score has not changed either. It has the Intel 80GB X18-M MLC at a whopping 7.5 out of 7.9.

Secure erase I'll do one of these days, but no rush. Amazing what software alone can do, looking at this firmware upgrade as an example, especially considering everything I've put the thing through.

Thanks to all! This has been a fun exercise in SSD technology, as it is evolving right in front of our eyes.