I stumbled across an interesting curiosity: I have a Dell T3600 workstation with Intel’s X79 chipset platform. In order to improve its performance I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO SSD (250GB). Before ordering I called Dell ProSupport and they confirmed that there shouldn’t be any problem using a SSD instead of an ordinary HDD. Also a non-Dell SSD should work without any problems. I connected the ssd to one of the two SATA3 ports (SATA0) which run in AHCI mode. Additionally there are three separate SATA2 ports which run in RAID/SCU mode (Intel(R) C600 Series Chipset SAS RAID (SATA mode)). Afterwards I installed Windows 7 SP1 x64 and the latest chipset “driver” provided by Dell.com . This installed a newer Intel driver for the Intel AHCI controller than the Windows 7 SP1 media did (why AS SSD Benchmark detected it as MSAHCI – I don’t know). Due to the fact that the Intel chipset “driver” doesn’t contain a C600 SAS RAID (SATA mode) controller driver, it didn’t get installed of course.
Benchmark results look fine so far:
To get the SAS RAID ports working I installed the latest IRST enterprise drivers provided by Dell (3.7.4.1004).
Unfortunately write speeds were tremendously slow and therefore I tested only sequential read/write and access time (read access time was “normal” but write access time took 10(yes, ten) ms!):
I also tried a Liteon SSD by Dell (256GB). Read AND write speed (seq.) were both at about 300MB/s. That means the seq. read rate was very slow (it can do nearly 500MB/s as you can see later on) but seq. write speed was much more better compared to my Samsung SSD (~95MB/s). Moreover I tried a newer RSTe version by Dell (3.8.0.1108 provided for Dell T3610) and v4.1.0.1046 (Win-RAID). Every time write speed was about as worse as with Dell’s v. 3.7.4.1004.
Thanks to Fernando I found out that X79 chipsets in AHCI mode are also compatible with Intel’s IRST (without enterprise) driver v13.1.0.1058. So I reverted from IRSTe to IRST (regarding the AHCI controller) and used the IRST-e driver only for the C600 RAID controller. Now both SSDs (Samsung & Liteon/Dell) showed their real performance:
How is that possible? Why are write-speeds and write access time so enormously slow? I am not the only one…seems like an incompatibility between T3600 boards<>IRSTenterprise<>SSDs :
The AS_SSD Benchmark tool is right: Your SSD was running in AHCI mode und used the Win7 on-board MS AHCI driver named MSAHCI.SYS. The Intel Chipset "driver" you have mentioned is a simple text file (*.inf) and neither a driver nor able to manage the Intel SATA AHCI Controller. It just renames the Controller and teslls the OS, that no Chipset "driver" is needed for this device. You can easily verify it by running the Device Manager, doing a right click onto the listed Intel SATA AHCI Controller and choose the "Drivers " > "Driver Details" options.
Because you changed the AHCI driver from the generic MS AHCI driver to the specific and much better performant Intel AHCI driver v13.1.0.1058. For details you may look >here<.
Okay, but that’s no explanation for the extremely slow write speed & write access times… . That benchmark results differ with every different driver release/version is clear - however this is no explanation in my special case! Look again at the write speed in my third screenshot
Erm, why should I do this? I did nothing except installing one driver after the other.
1) Windows SP1 install (without driver integration at the beginning) 2) installation of chipset “driver” from Dell.com 3) Reboot → first AS SSD benchmark run → everything fine (seq. write speed 473MB/s) 4) IRST enterprise 3.7.4.1004 (from Dell.com) driver installation (including console) 5) Reboot → second AS SSD benchmark run → seq. write speed dropped from 473 to 96MB/s
But why? I didn’t change anything else… this is why I’m heavily surprised
You should better ask Intel than me. I have never used an "Enterprise Edition" Intel chipset system (X79/X99). That is why I have not been able to compare the performance of the Intel RSTe drivers v3.x.x.xxxx/v4.x.x.xxxx with the generic MS AHCI driver and the Intel RST(e) drivers v12.x.x.xxxx/v13.x.x.xxxx series. Nonetheless you can be happy, that you got at least the SSD performance you wanted.
Thank you for your post, I too am experiencing SATA II performance speeds on one of my two T3600 systems and I cannot seem to find the driver you mentioned installing to get your SSD to perform at SATA III levels, can you please provide a link to the driver? Thanks again,
You can find download links to the Intel RST(e) drivers v13.1.0.1058 WHQL within the chapter B. of the start post of >this< thread. Good luck! Dieter (alias Fernando)
Thank you Fernando, you wouldn’t happen to know how I go about updating the drivers to just RST (not e(Enterprise)) ? As stated by pustekuchencake “Thanks to Fernando I found out that X79 chipsets in AHCI mode are also compatible with Intel’s IRST (without enterprise) driver v13.1.0.1058. So I reverted from IRSTe to IRST (regarding the AHCI controller) and used the IRST-e driver only for the C600 RAID controller. Now both SSDs (Samsung & Liteon/Dell) showed their real performance:”
@avpw2kpro : It is very easy for X79/X99 users to switch from an Intel RSTe AHCI driver of the v3/v4 series to a matching non-Enterprise Intel AHCI driver like the v13.1.0.1058 WHQL one:
If you should have installed the Intel RSTe Software, uninstall it by using the Control Panel’s “Add/remnove Software” option. After having done that, you should reboot.
Install the Intel RST AHCI driver v13.1.0.1058 WHQL. You can do it either manually from within the Device Manager (this is what I recommend for AHCI users) or by running the related installer of the complete Drivers & Software Set.
