SSD Performing Poorly

[rododendro]

I have a MBP 17 2010, equipped with a Vertex 2 SSD 120GB as boot disk.

It's an old hardware but I don't want to change it, the problem is the SSD is performing poorly :

The SSD health report is not so bad (except for temperature, which I dont understand) :

the SATA link looks OK :

EFI version is the latest :

but the speed, especially write speed, is quite the half of the Vertex 2 public benchmarks.

Any help ?

 

[alex0002]

I have a MBP 17 2010, equipped with a Vertex 2 SSD 120GB as boot disk.

It's an old hardware but I don't want to change it, the problem is the SSD is performing poorly :

but the speed, especially write speed, is quite the half of the Vertex 2 public benchmarks.

Any help ?

Did the SSD slow down over time, or is this the first time you tested it?

Most of the OCZ SSDs from that era used the Sandforce controller, which uses compression techniques to achieve it's advertised performance.

But the Blackmagic speed test (and many real world applications) use binary/incompressible data which results in slower speeds that claimed by OCZ and other vendors using the Sandforce controller.

You could also have some other sort of problem, either the SSD or the SATA cable. But if you are just worried about the numbers not matching the claims from OCZ, that might be the reason.

One other possibility.... is the SSD quite full or only part used?
Searching around finds a few issues with OCZ drives slowing down over time, more so as they get full.

 

[Weaselboy]

Looks like you have the TRIM hack turned on, so try this. Do a command-s boot to single user mode. Then at the command prompt enter the command below. That will TRIM all unused blocks and hopefully help with your write speeds. Then type reboot.

fsck -fy

 

[rododendro]

Did the SSD slow down over time, or is this the first time you tested it?

Most of the OCZ SSDs from that era used the Sandforce controller, which uses compression techniques to achieve it's advertised performance.

But the Blackmagic speed test (and many real world applications) use binary/incompressible data which results in slower speeds that claimed by OCZ and other vendors using the Sandforce controller.

You could also have some other sort of problem, either the SSD or the SATA cable. But if you are just worried about the numbers not matching the claims from OCZ, that might be the reason.

One other possibility.... is the SSD quite full or only part used?
Searching around finds a few issues with OCZ drives slowing down over time, more so as they get full.

Thank you for you response alex0002.

Is the first time I run the bechmark, the disk is almost empty. I didn't kwon about compression, maybe is the cause.

As I said the disk health look quite good, do you know some diagnostic SW ?

----------

Looks like you have the TRIM hack turned on, so try this. Do a command-s boot to single user mode. Then at the command prompt enter the command below. That will TRIM all unused blocks and hopefully help with your write speeds. Then type reboot.

fsck -fy

Thank you for you response Weaselboy.

I know about this problem, TRIM is about SSD Ready State. From disk utilities I have run "erase free space", this should put zeros on every unallocated SSD byte and (hopefully) set SSD cells in ready state.

What does this command do ?

fsck -fy

 

[Weaselboy]

What does this command do ?

fsck -fy

It will TRIM all unused space on the drive so it is marked as unused, and hopefully speed up your write speeds.

 

[rododendro]

It will TRIM all unused space on the drive so it is marked as unused, and hopefully speed up your write speeds.

Did it, but results are identical.

 

[vince22]

that is pretty low for SSD, i have also 2010 13" Mbp with SATA2 link speed, here's my single SSD and Dual SSD.

 

[rododendro]

that is pretty low for SSD, i have also 2010 13" Mbp with SATA2 link speed, here's my single SSD and Dual SSD.

How dual sdd can it reach these transfer speed in sata2? theoretical limit is lower.

 

[scrmtrey]

Raid 0

 

[rododendro]

+1

 

[vince22]

How dual sdd can it reach these transfer speed in sata2? theoretical limit is lower.

im using Raid0 setup for video files, photos and VMware, its the best route I can do to speed up my 2010 13" Mbp.

 

[mpias]

Are you using any AV software? Avast used to cause problems like this until I gave it the boot.

 

[rododendro]

Are you using any AV software? Avast used to cause problems like this until I gave it the boot.

No AV installed

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Have you tried changing the SATA port it is connected to? Eg. put your Western Digital HD where the SSD is now and vice versa?

 

[OCDMacGeek]

I wonder if you'd get different results with QuickBench. It's a paid app. I am presently having an issue with a different SSD where I am having dramatically slower tests with Blackmagic (200 MB/s r/w vs. 900 MB/s with QuickBench). I don't know why.

This is with a nMP PCIE SSD blade.

 

[duervo]

Lifetime write throttling. FWIW, running benchmarks on SSDs from back then causes you to experience it sooner rather than later.

I'd get rid of that SSD for that reason alone, and just get a new one. You can get one double that size now for less than what that one cost when it was new.

Here is a post that does a decent job of explaining it:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?272545-Sandforce-Life-Time-Throttling

BTW, your OCZ Vertex 2 has an SF1222 controller (SandForce 1200 series.)

 

[barkmonster]

It's because of the lousy sandforce controller in your Vertex 2. I get similar numbers on my 2009 Mac Mini and that's SATA II, not SATA III. They're garbage.