Low Read/Write Speeds SSD and USB 3.0

[Juan Vazquez]

Hello! I'm new to this forum.... Maybe my question has already been posted or answered, but I can't seem to find a definitive solution... My Random 4K Read/Write speeds for my notebooks Samsung 840 SSD 250GB is really low... Here are latest results from CrystalDiskMark:

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http/crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 514.179 MB/s
Sequential Write : 260.255 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 449.539 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 200.420 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.252 MB/s [ 5921.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 45.642 MB/s [ 11143.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 254.315 MB/s [ 62088.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 179.794 MB/s [ 43895.1 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [D: 30.9% (26.4/85.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2013/12/02 21:26:06
OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

My system Specs are:
Asus K55A-MX1-H-Red Notebook
Windows 8.1 Pro (x64) Build 9600
Intel i3-3110M @ 2.4GHz
Kingston 8GB (4GBx2) Dual Channel DDR 3 @ 1600MHz
Samsung 840 SSD 250GB
(Partition0 300MB: *Recovery (Non-functional due to Asus Recovery Partition Hotfix)
Partition1 100MB:*SYSTEM (EFI Boot)
Partition2 128MB: *MS RESERVED
Partition3 100GB: C: OS
Partition4 108GB: D: DATA
23.19GB OP Using Samsung Magic

AHCI Enabled in BIOS and Windows

Intel RST SATA AHCI Drivers v12.8.0.1016
Intel Chipset INF v9.4.0.1026
(Device Manager shows v9.3.0.1029...)
***Should I use OEM INF from Asus???
Transfer speeds from C: to D: or viceversa starts between 1.6Gbps or 650MBps depending on contect and drops to 55MBps-75MBps...

This also happens when transferring from and to USB 3.0 Seagte HDD or IS888 to SATA USB 3.0 HDD... Transfers start fast then drop quickly to MAX 75MBps... Sometimes I get around 150MBps for a second or 2 then drops to 35MBps.... I have tried with ZIP, RAR and ISO Files... between 500MB upto 3.5GB in size.... Zip Files tend to present this problem when the bulk is less than 1GB of files...
Now the interesting thing is that USBTreeView says that my USB Host Controller Bandwidth Total is 56MB/s and 11MB/s Reserved Limit... I have 1 USB 2.0 Port and 2 USB 3.0 Ports... I can't seem to understand the issue.... I have System Restore disabled, Indexing Disabled for CD: I do have hibernation On only due to Asus InstantOn software that provides sleep resume and hybrid boot in 2 Seconds flat... I have a BIOS Boot time between 3.8 and 4.4 Seconds... I have all non-essential programs disabled trough TuneUp Utilities 2014... Only boot with Eset Smart Security 7 and Asus Power4Gear incl. InstantOn, TuneUp and Intel HD4000 persistence module...

Did I install the IRST Driver the wrong way??? Or do I need a different driver???

Here are CrystalDiskMark results for Seagate USB 3.0 HDD

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 Shizuku Edition (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http/crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 61.168 MB/s
Sequential Write : 55.296 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 27.517 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 34.798 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.362 MB/s [ 88.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.953 MB/s [ 232.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.439 MB/s [ 107.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.970 MB/s [ 236.9 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [G: 41.4% (192.6/465.8 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2013/12/02 17:25:57
OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

I don't understand the problem... With a 16GB Kingston DT111 USB 3.0 stick I get much much better results... But I do have it formatted as GPT - NTFS...

Please any and all help will be appreciated!!!! ASAP!!!

 

[Juan Vazquez]

I didn't expect that no one posted any advice for me... But I found an unexpected solution... Turns out that my notebook doesn't have a RAID setting in the BIOS... Only IDE & AHCI... So after trying various drivers from Intel SATA AHCI and IRST driver.... I get better transfer rates and performance using drivers from Intel 7 Series/C216 Chipset SATA AHCI INF file, than IRST drivers for some reason... Maybe it has to do with my Samsung 840 SSD having issues with IRST... And strangely the USB 3.0 rates were fixed during Win 8.1 Automatic Maintenance and Windows Update... Last Tuesday that Microsoft released their scheduled updates... the Intel 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller (100) (Microsoft) was updated and now I get way better transfer rates.... Thx anyways....