Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

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Major_A
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Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

http://www.corsair.com/ssd/accelerator- ... rives.html

I give up wondering how well this caching stuff works. I broke down and ordered one Sunday night. After I get it installed I'll post some benchmark results. Hopefully I didn't just waste my money.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by FZ1 »

It works pretty well for boot and loading apps. Some file operations won't always see improvements because the data will likely not be cached depending on what you are doing. From a spend/return standpoint, I think it's a decent investment. Benchmarks aren't really going to tell the story but you should feel a difference. How much will depend how fast (or slow) your OS drive is to begin with.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

The host drive is a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB. The main reason I went with this drive is because, for whatever reason, the boot on this computer takes upwards of 5 minutes!
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by FZ1 »

That will certainly change...prolly below 30 seconds.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

Hope so, I dread having to reboot the damn thing. I think the issue is with a .NET Framework update via Windows Update. The computer runs fine until I apply all the Windows Updates then the boot time takes a dive.

*EDIT*
Ran BootRacer and it confirmed my 5 minute suspicion...

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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

Ok got the drive installed along with the PCIe 1X USB 3.0 card I ordered. So far I'm getting really annoyed. Nothing is working like I hoped it would. The USB card is transferring slower than the onboard USB 2.0 ports did.
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Then to top it off the boot times have gotten worse. The only thing that's interesting is after installing the cache drive and USB card the computer booted fine (under a minute). Installed the cache software rebooted and it took over 6 minutes. Ideas?
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by kenc51 »

My guess is that it will get quicker as it learns your typical usage patterns.
Try reboot, leave it idle for 5 mins and then reboot again and test.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Apoptosis »

what system are you doing this on?
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

My second machine I use all the time.

Code: Select all

--------[ AIDA64 Extreme Edition ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Version                                           AIDA64 v2.30.1950 Beta
    Benchmark Module                                  2.7.398-x64
    Homepage                                          http://www.aida64.com/
    Report Type                                       Report Wizard
    Computer                                          E5200
    Generator                                         XXXXX
    Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 6.1.7601 (Win7 RTM)
    Date                                              2012-05-25
    Time                                              13:08


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Computer:
      Computer Type                                     ACPI x64-based PC
      Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
      OS Service Pack                                   Service Pack 1
      Internet Explorer                                 9.0.8112.16421 (IE 9.0)
      DirectX                                           DirectX 11.0
      Computer Name                                     E5200
      User Name                                         XXXXX
      Logon Domain                                      XXXXX
      Date / Time                                       2012-05-25 / 13:08

    Motherboard:
      CPU Type                                          DualCore Intel Pentium E5200, 3133 MHz (12.5 x 251)
      Motherboard Name                                  Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L  (3 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
      Motherboard Chipset                               Intel Bearlake P35
      System Memory                                     4096 MB  (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
      DIMM2: A-Data DQVE1B16                            2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM  (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz)  (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)  (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
      DIMM4: A-Data DQVE1B16                            2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM  (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz)  (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)  (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
      BIOS Type                                         Award Modular (06/19/09)

    Display:
      Video Adapter                                     ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series  (512 MB)
      Video Adapter                                     ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series  (512 MB)
      3D Accelerator                                    ATI Radeon HD 3850 (RV670)
      Monitor                                           Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]  (H9NY639318)

    Multimedia:
      Audio Adapter                                     ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI Radeon HD 38xx - High Definition Audio Controller
      Audio Adapter                                     Realtek ALC888 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller [A-2]

    Storage:
      IDE Controller                                    Intel(R) ICH9 Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923
      Storage Controller                                MagicISO SCSI Host Controller
      Disk Drive                                        Generic USB CF Reader USB Device
      Disk Drive                                        Generic USB MS Reader USB Device
      Disk Drive                                        Generic USB SD Reader USB Device
      Disk Drive                                        Generic USB SM Reader USB Device
      Disk Drive                                        SAMSUNG HD103UJ ATA Device  (1000 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
      Optical Drive                                     ATAPI iHAS222   8 ATA Device  (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:8x, DVD+RW:22x/8x, DVD-RW:22x/6x, DVD-RAM:12x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
      Optical Drive                                     MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0000
      SMART Hard Disks Status                           OK

    Partitions:
      C: (NTFS)                                         931.5 GB (761.8 GB free)
      Total Size                                        931.5 GB (761.8 GB free)

    Input:
      Keyboard                                          HID Keyboard Device
      Keyboard                                          Standard PS/2 Keyboard
      Mouse                                             HID-compliant mouse
      Mouse                                             HID-compliant mouse

    Network:
      Primary IP Address                                XXXXX
      Primary MAC Address                               XXXXX
      Network Adapter                                   ASUS 802.11n Wireless LAN Card  (192.XXXXX)

    Peripherals:
      Printer                                           \XXXXX\Lexmark 2500 Series
      Printer                                           Adobe PDF
      Printer                                           Fax
      Printer                                           Microsoft XPS Document Writer
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB1 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB Universal Host Controller [A-2]
      USB2 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [A-2]
      USB2 Controller                                   Intel 82801IB ICH9 - USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [A-2]
      USB3 Controller                                   Texas Instruments TUSB7320/7340 USB 3.0 xHCI Host Controller
      USB Device                                        DeathAdder Mouse
      USB Device                                        Texas Instruments USB Root Hub
      USB Device                                        USB Mass Storage Device
      USB Device                                        USB Mass Storage Device

    DMI:
      DMI BIOS Vendor                                   Award Software International, Inc.
      DMI BIOS Version                                  F9
      DMI System Manufacturer                           Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
      DMI System Product                                P35-DS3L
      DMI System Version                                
      DMI System Serial Number                          
      DMI System UUID                                   00000000-00000000-0000001D-7DAB2366
      DMI Motherboard Manufacturer                      Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
      DMI Motherboard Product                           P35-DS3L
      DMI Motherboard Version                           x.x
      DMI Motherboard Serial Number                     
      DMI Chassis Manufacturer                          Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
      DMI Chassis Version                               
      DMI Chassis Serial Number                         
      DMI Chassis Asset Tag                             
      DMI Chassis Type                                  Desktop Case
      DMI Total / Free Memory Sockets                   4 / 2
Appears too that the boot times are constantly getting worse.

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*EDIT*
I'm starting to think this has to do with PCIe lanes. When I attached my USB 3.0 drive to the card my PCIe WiFi card would drop the connection. So I just tried to reboot after pulling the USB 3.0 card and disconnecting the DVD burner. Only things attached now are the 2 hard drives and the video card. Small improvement but it still sucks.
Time to Login: 11
Login to Desktop: 355
Total: 366
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

I installed the new USB 3.0 card in my main machine to see if it was faulty. In short, no it's not. So now I'm contemplating reinstalling Windows but I really don't want to do that with the number of applications I have installed. I have noticed that programs are a lot snappier to open, though they aren't nearly as quick as a stand alone SSD. If I had to sum up the performance gain I'd say it's comparable to when I had two of these Samsung Spinpoint F1s in RAID 0.

USB Results - click to enlarge.

Image

*EDIT*
Another small update. Just uninstalled a bunch of stuff I wasn't using. Ran some registry cleaners and that didn't help one iota.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

Finally broke down and reinstalled Windows yesterday. Here are the new results.
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Problem is after installing some apps I'm right back to where I was before.
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I did notice that the boot times went through the roof after I turned on Malewarebytes active protection. I uninstalled it and still have ungodly long boot times.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by DragonFury »

GO into your MSconfig and shut off the programs that are starting up. Uncheck the boxes, also make sure you don't have any programs doing that automatic updating crap.

Run>msconfig>start up> uncheck everything you don't want to start up with computer (do everything but your video card drivers)>click ok>no you do not wish to restart/ poof you done

All this does is stop programs from starting up, nothing else. some messenger virus scanners may need to be set up manually through those programs.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by egloeckle »

Kill everything out of your startup, and do a reboot. It *should* be back to the quick speed. Then re-enable startup processes one at a time until you find the offender. It may not be a single process causing the issue, but a combination of them as well so if you think you have found the offender, disable everything and only enable that one. I have seen some absolutely horrific performance problems caused by two programs just not liking each other and causing the system to lock until windows automatically kills the process/service. The boot times you are describing sound similar, microsoft likes to use 300 seconds as the default timeout on a lot of things.

Once you find the offending software/combination of things you can decide what to nuke from there. Most software packages that have a startup element dont actually need it to run, though you probably already know this.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

I've already done all of those things and more (disabled a ton of Windows services too). The issue is with a piece of software but at this point I don't know which one, I still suspect some damn .NET Framework install.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by egloeckle »

I really hope I am replying on the live server to this....

Did disabling all startup programs and non-essential services make a difference? Make sure you disable non-essential microsoft ones as well including the .net NGEN services.

If doing that does not make a difference, the problem is a much larger PITA and is a driver being loaded into the system. Any odd devices buried anywhere in device manager that may have been added by some software? I doubt it will be that easy, but it is a good place to start.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by DragonFury »

I never had an issue with .net did you go into the Msconfig? Hmm I will have to think on this a bit more. that does not look like msconfig on any windows I messed with.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by kenc51 »

Try disconnecting the SSD, boot off the mechanical disk and run a thorough defrag
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by Major_A »

egloeckle wrote:I really hope I am replying on the live server to this....

Did disabling all startup programs and non-essential services make a difference? Make sure you disable non-essential microsoft ones as well including the .net NGEN services.

If doing that does not make a difference, the problem is a much larger PITA and is a driver being loaded into the system. Any odd devices buried anywhere in device manager that may have been added by some software? I doubt it will be that easy, but it is a good place to start.
I did try setting the NGEN services to manual but it didn't help. It could be a driver issue. My internet has been down most of the time for the last 3 days and I was finally able to download the Catalyst drivers. Seems like those were the last drivers I installed before all this started happening.
DragonFury wrote:I never had an issue with .net did you go into the Msconfig? Hmm I will have to think on this a bit more. that does not look like msconfig on any windows I messed with.
That's the Startup tab for CCleaner, same thing as MSConfig. Only with CCleaner you can delete entries instead of just turning them off.
Image
kenc51 wrote:Try disconnecting the SSD, boot off the mechanical disk and run a thorough defrag
The drive shouldn't be fragmented. I installed Windows Saturday evening. But I'll give it a shot. You think I need to disable the cache drive to defrag the mechanical drive?


Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Keep them coming.
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by kenc51 »

I'd disable the ssd just in case the defrag runs on it. Just unplug the data cable
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Re: Corsair Accelerator 30GB On The Way

Post by DragonFury »

why not run the SSD as the main OS drive instead of an cache drive? I was unaware of ccleaners capabilities. Have you tried not using the SSD as a cache drive to see how fast the HDD boots up? or you can install windows 7 onto the 30 gig SSD and see if things improve that way as well, which will require you to use another drive as program installs.
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