SSD hard drive in aging HTPC disappointingly slow

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watman

66 posts

Master Geek

#157190 22-Nov-2014 17:57

Hi All

Iv got an aging HTPC which does the job but as an impulse buy, I saw a Crucial MX100 128GB SSD for sale thinking it would help with boot times and general snappiness.

The specs of my system are:
- Intel i3-2100 3.1ghz processor
- ASUS P8H61-M Pro motherboard
- Geforce 210 video card 512mb
- 1 x 4gb Ram
- 550w PSU
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- Replaced OEM SATA 160gb hard drive with SSD
- 320gb hard drive for other media

But as the title suggest I feel that the boot time is either the same or even slower than with the mechanical drive, it does seem to be snappier when in Windows.

I have just taken out the SATA cable from the old hard drive and put it on to the SSD.

A few things that I have done myself by looking on Google

- Set on AHCI mode in the BIOS
- Updated motherboard BIOS to the latest version from ASUS website
- General SSD tips found on the internet

The motherboard has 4 Intel x SATA 3GB connectors and 2 ASmedia x SATA 6GB connectors. The SSD is currently connected to the number 1 SATA port. I can't seem to see where to use the ASmedia connectors as a boot drive, the BIOS does not seem to recognize them as bootable and when I try Windows 7 install it says its unusable. The internet does say that generally ASmedia controllers are not very good.

Would I need a new SATA cable to get better bandwidth?

Am I doing something wrong? Any tips would be much appreciated, thanks.

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Jase2985

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#1181379 22-Nov-2014 18:01

Intel® H61(B3) chipset :
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), blue
ASMedia® ASM1061 controller :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue

Plug the HDD into the Navy blue sata ports on the motherboard. AHCI wont make much difference in speed.

Athlonite

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#1181391 22-Nov-2014 18:26

when installing windows 7 do you load a driver for the ASM1061 controller

the difference between an SATA 2 (3Gbps) port and SATA 3 (6Gbps) port is like night and day when it comes to boot time

you can grab them from here un-rar them and put them on an USB stick http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=214

freitasm

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#1181478 23-Nov-2014 00:07

Withouth AHCI you don't have NCQ (Native Command Queueing). NCQ will give you better performance in multi-threaded environments. Also AHCI will allow parallel TRIM operations.

From a Samsung whitepaper:

It facilitates the functioning of all storage features, from basic input/output (or read/write) requests to advanced AHCI-enabled features like Native Command Queuing (NCQ), hot-swapping, power management, and RAID.

Released in 2009, SATA 3.0, also known as SATA 6Gb/s, is the third generation of the SATA specification. It is capable of communicating at up to 600MB/s, with overhead taken into account. In addition to its speed improvements, this revision also introduces NCQ management, improved power management features, and queued TRIM support (allowing TRIM commands to be queued with I/O requests, which was not possible on earlier implementations).

If AHCI is not properly configured on your system, the Random Read/Write performance of your SSD will be limited to a Queue Depth of 1 (QD1), severely limiting the performance improvements you will notice over a conventional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) while multi-tasking (by 80-90%). Since the latest versions of Windows, including Windows Vista and Windows 7, include standard AHCI drivers, there is no need to install AHCI drivers manually. Some older systems, however, may not support AHCI even if they are equipped with a SATA 3 (6Gb/s) interface. Samsung’s Magician software can help you determine whether or not AHCI is supported and/or enabled on your PC.

AHCI also affects the ability of Samsung’s SSDs to reach their maximum Random QD32 performance. This is because AHCI is required for Native Command Queuing (NCQ) to function. Because SSDs enjoy extremely fast speeds, storage is no longer the bottleneck of a PC system. NCQ helps an SSD deal with situations where it finds latency on the host, a phenomenon unheard of with traditional HDDs. Additionally, NCQ allows the SSD controller to process commands in parallel, improving performance and reducing latency.

If you have a system that does not support AHCI, or if you fail to enable it properly, your system will run in “IDE emulation” mode, a kind of compatibility mode that mimics the functionality of the older “Integrated Drive Electronics” ATA interface. While your SSD will not display its full performance potential or be able to take advantage of all of the latest SATA functionality, it will still be able to function on your system.

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