Optimal performance from G.Skill Falcon in Windows 7

JimX · 14th December 2009, 7:44 PM

I wanted to post this up on the G.Skill forums but they still haven't authorised my account to post anything and I wanted to write it up somewhere for others to benefit from before I stopped caring

After a lot of research on the G.Skill and OCZ forums regarding performance degradation of the Falcon/Vertex SSD's and people's mixed results of various methods to fix lost performance, I have found the following seems to work:

1. Back up any data from the drive that you want to keep.
1a. If necessary, upgrade your firmware to 1819 (available on the G.Skill forums)
2. Perform a sanitary erase to zero all the sectors on the drive (available on the OCZ forums, needs to be done on a non-booted drive, I recommend Hiren's Mini XP for doing this)
3. Install Windows 7 as normal.
4. During your driver update/install, do NOT install the Intel AHCI driver, the default MS driver is both faster and more reliable at sending Windows 7's Trim commands to the drive.

That's about it really. If you don't want to re-format/erase the drive first, I have found that rolling back to the MS driver and then updating Windows partition map by using IOmeter to fill up all unused space on the SSD and then deleting it (also discussed on the OCZ forums) will also work.

I always feel a bit weird using an older version of any driver, especially when the driver is the default MS version rather than the updated one provided by the manufacturer. In case anyone else feels the same way I did, here are some screenshots of my ATTO benchmarks that should help make it easier to leave the default MS driver in place. They are in chronological order.

ATTO benchmark, Intel driver v8.9 immediately after fresh install just after I got the brand new drive:

Click to view full size!

ATTO benchmark, Intel driver v8.9 immediately fresh install after a few months of use without sanitary erase first:

Click to view full size!

ATTO benchmark, default MS Driver after several days use without any cleanup:

Click to view full size!

kripz · 14th December 2009, 7:51 PM

Quote:

During your driver update/install, do NOT install the Intel AHCI driver, the default MS driver is both faster and more reliable at sending Windows 7's Trim commands to the drive.

Benchmarks?

ir0nhide · 14th December 2009, 8:12 PM

Assuming a 128gb Falcon ver1?

t8y · 14th December 2009, 11:14 PM

version 2 will have the 1819 firmware from the factory (aswell as the newer v1 models like mine), so most likely v1.

thanks for that, will roll back to the MS driver

Audionut · 14th December 2009, 11:20 PM

Here's mine with MS driver, win7 and a heap of progs, been running for about 3 months.

Firmware 1571

wiper.exe run about 2 days ago.

As you can see, it's quicker in the 2,4 and 8k.

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showpost....&postcount=151

JimX · 15th December 2009, 5:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t8y

version 2 will have the 1819 firmware from the factory (aswell as the newer v1 models like mine), so most likely v1.

thanks for that, will roll back to the MS driver

Yes, I have version 1.

Here are a few more benchmarks I did, they are the same as what I put into the other Falcon thread.

AS-SSD

Click to view full size!

HD Tach

Click to view full size!

HD Tune

Click to view full size!

ATTO after running all the above, no maintenance (wiper) run at all since my previous OS install. This ATTO is 3 days after my previous one:

Click to view full size!

JimX · 15th December 2009, 5:24 AM

Below are some older ATTO's I did while I was still trying to work out the best way to reset the drive's performance. All were done with the Intel driver with various types of experimenting with wiper.exe, sanitary erase.exe, IO Meter temp file creation/deletion, registry tweaks etc.

In the end I think the most important thing I did was to use the MS AHCI driver instead of Intel, because the current version of the Intel driver doesn't seem to do the Trim properly (or at all). Even if you do nothing else than use the MS driver, I would imagine that eventually the Trim commands would clear up your SSD properly and performance would start to pick up and become fast again.

The main thing I discovered when using the IO meter partition remap trick which wasn't made clear in the G.Skill and OCZ forums was that the IO meter temp file needs to be increased from the default 10gb size to fill your available space so that Windows maps out the whole drive instead of a random 10Gb block. I think that explains why the 1st and last of these ATTO's is fast in the middle but slows down again at the end as the transfer sizes increase.

After doing IO meter temp file creation/deletion trick:

Click to view full size!

After running G.Skill's wiper.exe in Windows 7 x64, I can't explain why the write performance in this one is so uniformly crap:

Click to view full size!
Note: The OS shat itself after a reboot and I needed to re-image, as it always seems to do when I run wiper.exe from 64 bit Windows (as the G.Skill admins say it probably will do). Luckily I don't seem to need to run wiper.exe at all anymore. If you have to and only have a 64 bit Windows install, it runs fine from Hiren's Mini XP. It may also run fine from 64 bit Windows with the MS AHCI driver (I've never tried it).

After re-image without running wiper or sanitary_erase prior:

Click to view full size!
Note that the drive's performance tapers right off at the end, presumably in all those blocks that haven't been trimmed. I think it's fair to say that doing a full erase (sanitary_erase or wiper) of the drive before reinstalling is a good idea, or at least do the partition map reset trick with IOmeter afterwards. Maybe both depending on how your backup Windows image is stored and written back to the drive.

ocyrion · 15th December 2009, 12:02 PM

What are people using for imaging software, preferably to keep the alignment correct?

14th December 2009, 7:44 PM	#1
JimX Goldmember Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Sydney, NSW Posts: 3,693	Optimal performance from G.Skill Falcon in Windows 7 I wanted to post this up on the G.Skill forums but they still haven't authorised my account to post anything and I wanted to write it up somewhere for others to benefit from before I stopped caring After a lot of research on the G.Skill and OCZ forums regarding performance degradation of the Falcon/Vertex SSD's and people's mixed results of various methods to fix lost performance, I have found the following seems to work: 1. Back up any data from the drive that you want to keep. 1a. If necessary, upgrade your firmware to 1819 (available on the G.Skill forums) 2. Perform a sanitary erase to zero all the sectors on the drive (available on the OCZ forums, needs to be done on a non-booted drive, I recommend Hiren's Mini XP for doing this) 3. Install Windows 7 as normal. 4. During your driver update/install, do NOT install the Intel AHCI driver, the default MS driver is both faster and more reliable at sending Windows 7's Trim commands to the drive. That's about it really. If you don't want to re-format/erase the drive first, I have found that rolling back to the MS driver and then updating Windows partition map by using IOmeter to fill up all unused space on the SSD and then deleting it (also discussed on the OCZ forums) will also work. I always feel a bit weird using an older version of any driver, especially when the driver is the default MS version rather than the updated one provided by the manufacturer. In case anyone else feels the same way I did, here are some screenshots of my ATTO benchmarks that should help make it easier to leave the default MS driver in place. They are in chronological order. ATTO benchmark, Intel driver v8.9 immediately after fresh install just after I got the brand new drive: Click to view full size! ATTO benchmark, Intel driver v8.9 immediately fresh install after a few months of use without sanitary erase first: Click to view full size! ATTO benchmark, default MS Driver after several days use without any cleanup: Click to view full size!

15th December 2009, 5:24 AM	#7
JimX Goldmember Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Sydney, NSW Posts: 3,693	Some older ATTO's Below are some older ATTO's I did while I was still trying to work out the best way to reset the drive's performance. All were done with the Intel driver with various types of experimenting with wiper.exe, sanitary erase.exe, IO Meter temp file creation/deletion, registry tweaks etc. In the end I think the most important thing I did was to use the MS AHCI driver instead of Intel, because the current version of the Intel driver doesn't seem to do the Trim properly (or at all). Even if you do nothing else than use the MS driver, I would imagine that eventually the Trim commands would clear up your SSD properly and performance would start to pick up and become fast again. The main thing I discovered when using the IO meter partition remap trick which wasn't made clear in the G.Skill and OCZ forums was that the IO meter temp file needs to be increased from the default 10gb size to fill your available space so that Windows maps out the whole drive instead of a random 10Gb block. I think that explains why the 1st and last of these ATTO's is fast in the middle but slows down again at the end as the transfer sizes increase. After doing IO meter temp file creation/deletion trick: Click to view full size! After running G.Skill's wiper.exe in Windows 7 x64, I can't explain why the write performance in this one is so uniformly crap: Click to view full size! Note: The OS shat itself after a reboot and I needed to re-image, as it always seems to do when I run wiper.exe from 64 bit Windows (as the G.Skill admins say it probably will do). Luckily I don't seem to need to run wiper.exe at all anymore. If you have to and only have a 64 bit Windows install, it runs fine from Hiren's Mini XP. It may also run fine from 64 bit Windows with the MS AHCI driver (I've never tried it). After re-image without running wiper or sanitary_erase prior: Click to view full size! Note that the drive's performance tapers right off at the end, presumably in all those blocks that haven't been trimmed. I think it's fair to say that doing a full erase (sanitary_erase or wiper) of the drive before reinstalling is a good idea, or at least do the partition map reset trick with IOmeter afterwards. Maybe both depending on how your backup Windows image is stored and written back to the drive.

15th December 2009, 12:02 PM	#8
ocyrion Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Melburn Posts: 1,172	What are people using for imaging software, preferably to keep the alignment correct? __________________ Good dealings with: wookie_man, gaz86, ravennoir, veetor, Super Crazy, justakid, aalu, tyb1987, ravescar, kenny34, Display Name, goofydave, ironpaw, redmarine, ANTeek, Kelvin, Sambo69

14th December 2009, 11:20 PM	#5
Audionut Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 526	Here's mine with MS driver, win7 and a heap of progs, been running for about 3 months. Firmware 1571 wiper.exe run about 2 days ago. As you can see, it's quicker in the 2,4 and 8k. http://www.gskill.us/forum/showpost....&postcount=151