Intel x25-M G2 got 5.9 in Windows 7

I installed windows 7 X64 on my Intel x25-M G2.

It says: FW: 02HA on the case.

But I got 5.9 on windows 7 score.

My windows start up time is about 28 second from the time I push power button to till I am online.

Here is the CrystalDisk score.



What could be the cause?
Do I need to update the firmware?
How to update the firm ware?
Can I update it when it is my OS drive?

Thanks

You have the most recent update and Window 7 scores is determined by the lowest subscore so if you right click on my computer > properties> Windows Experience Index it will list the result. most likely it will be something else. I have that drive and it scores a 7.3 but my W7 score is only 6 because of my graphic card. Also don't look too hard into W7 scoring.

adriana said:

You have the most recent update and Window 7 scores is determined by the lowest subscore so if you right click on my computer > properties> Windows Experience Index it will list the result. most likely it will be something else. I have that drive and it scores a 7.3 but my W7 score is only 6 because of my graphic card. Also don't look too hard into W7 scoring.

Click to expand...

I checked, the score for intel drive is 5.9. Which is weird because i though it should be better since my old hard drive score 5.9 too.

Any idea what is wrong with my drive?

UltraManiac said:

I checked, the score for intel drive is 5.9. Which is weird because i though it should be better since my old hard drive score 5.9 too.

Any idea what is wrong with my drive?

Click to expand...

Did you re-run the assessment when you installed your drive? Are you set to running AHCI? Nothing should be wrong since your score doesn't look too bad.. I can't remember mine.. I'l see if i can re-run my bench.

UltraManiac said:

I checked, the score for intel drive is 5.9.

Click to expand...

O_O

But, Microsoft seems to be using the score system like this:

Vista is always capped to 5.9.

With Windows 7, all or most hardware made before 2009 is capped to 5.9.

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I have the samsung M800 256 ssd and it came back with a score of 7.3.

I thought the intel would run higher, but maybe the write speeds is crippling it.

UltraManiac said:

How to update the firm ware?

Click to expand...

SATA_SSD_Firmware_Update_Tool_Guidelines_322570
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18363/eng/SATA_SSD_Firmware_Update_Tool_Guidelines_322570.pdf

... and the *.iso can be downloaded from Intel here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18363

This firmware update tool provides the latest firmware for the following Intel SSDs in all capacities:

- Intel® X25-M/X18-M SATA SSD on 50nm (black case) - updates to FW version 8820
- Intel® X25-E SATA SSD on 50nm (black case) - updates to FW version 8850
- Intel® X25-M/X18-M SATA SSD on 34nm (silver case) - updates to FW version 02HD
- Intel® X25-V Value SATA SSD on 34nm (silver case) - updates to FW version 02HD

Click to expand...

Dont worry too much about windows scoring.

Thanks everyone for your help.

And Thanks redduc900 for the links on updating the firmware.

After updating the firmware, I got a 7.8 on the windows 7 score.

It seems it is the firmware that was holding the drive back. But the weird thing is the bench mark is still about the same.

My two agilities scored 7.9 win 7, suprisingly my videocard HD4890 was my lowest subscore of 7.4.

wow i guess i overlooked 02HA, 02HD is the newest firmware ;(. glad you got everything working out for you. I know that when I was not on ACHI i couldn't get over 250 read.

I get 7.9 with my 2x G2's in Raid0.

My lowest is 7.4 for my GPU followed my 7.5 for my CPU running at 3.67Ghz without HT enabled.

UltraManiac said:

Thanks everyone for your help.

And Thanks redduc900 for the links on updating the firmware.

After updating the firmware, I got a 7.8 on the windows 7 score.

It seems it is the firmware that was holding the drive back. But the weird thing is the bench mark is still about the same.

Click to expand...

I guess there are a few more things to configure when you work with SSD on Windows, like:
- disable drive indexing
- disable drive auto scheduled defrag
- disable paging file or move to common HDD
- disable Windows Search
- disable drive writing cache
- generally disable AHCI
...

RJARRRPCGP said:

O_O

But, Microsoft seems to be using the score system like this:

Vista is always capped to 5.9.

With Windows 7, all or most hardware made before 2009 is capped to 5.9.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click to expand...

I run a 9800GTX+ G92 core (2008 IIRC) and it scores a 6.9. I just don't take WEI seriously.

VeryLoaded said:

I guess there are a few more things to configure when you work with SSD on Windows, like:
- disable drive indexing
- disable drive auto scheduled defrag
- disable paging file or move to common HDD
- disable Windows Search
- disable drive writing cache
- generally disable AHCI
...

Click to expand...

Alot of these steps are not necessary for SSD drives. yes disable defrag, i dont seem to have an issue with the indexing feature. i leave it on and i dont see any slow downs. You should actually keep your pagefile on your SSD drive as a normal disk would actually be a performance hit with all the random reads. AHCI is required for Trim and NCQ so that is not smart to disable.

This is a pretty simple question, but you can keep the defrag working, just turn off the scheduler? I mean, when I finally make the move to an SSD, I will have two mechanical drives for storage and they do show a pretty solid improvement when I defrag them.

prime81 said:

My two agilities scored 7.9 win 7, suprisingly my videocard HD4890 was my lowest subscore of 7.4.

Click to expand...

a 4850 is only 0.1 off a 4890 in WEI?

if only the fps difference was only that minimum as well...but the 4890 is a fair amount faster.

^^^ Yeah, I assume that's why WEI is not highly regarded as accurate. :/

Rich'[ard] said:

a 4850 is only 0.1 off a 4890 in WEI?

if only the fps difference was only that minimum as well...but the 4890 is a fair amount faster.

Click to expand...

ChanceCoats123 said:

^^^ Yeah, I assume that's why WEI is not highly regarded as accurate. :/

Click to expand...

That is sort of missing the point of WEI. It is not a benchmark which tells you the relative average performance of different hardware. Each sub-score is based on a bunch of different benchmarks and features requirements. Its point is to help meet minimum requirements for different software. It is not like a smooth hill with increasing performance that you have in normal benchmarks. It is more like a staircase, where you have to pass certain feature requirements and performance bars to get to the next step. And these steps vary in size.

His 4890 scores 7.4 because there is some specific feature or benchmark requirement it didn't pass to make it to 7.5, even though it on average might score much higher. It is the lowest denominator that determines the score. So the score 7.4 tells that the 4890 is at least this good.

The problem of WEI is that it is opaque. There is no way to tell what "this good" means. So if you get 7.4 it doesn't tell you why, and what is holding you back.

ChanceCoats123 said:

This is a pretty simple question, but you can keep the defrag working, just turn off the scheduler? I mean, when I finally make the move to an SSD, I will have two mechanical drives for storage and they do show a pretty solid improvement when I defrag them.

Click to expand...

If you don't go manually disable defrag or something crazy like that Windows 7 will disable it for the SSD but leave running on the hard drives.

VeryLoaded said:

I guess there are a few more things to configure when you work with SSD on Windows, like:
- disable drive indexing

Click to expand...

Sort of pointless. Doesn't make much differnece on an SSD.

VeryLoaded said:

- disable drive auto scheduled defrag

Click to expand...

Windows 7 does this on its own. No need to manually go change things.

VeryLoaded said:

- disable paging file or move to common HDD

Click to expand...

Bad idea. Page File is like the best thing you can have on a SSD.

VeryLoaded said:

- disable Windows Search

Click to expand...

I wouldn't. I think it is kinda useful for finding things.

VeryLoaded said:

- disable drive writing cache

Click to expand...

Bad idea. Several SSDs rely heavily on it for good performance.

VeryLoaded said:

- generally disable AHCI

Click to expand...

Really bad idea. AHCI is needed for NCQ which is needed for good SSD performance.

I think I have a solution for the low WEI rating on some SSD's.

My Intel x25-v was only getting 5.9, the lowest WEI rating on my Windows7system.

I did all the normal stuff, i.e. flashing the drive firmware, checking for AHCI in the bios and making sure the correct AHCI driver was installed in the device manager, using HDDerase, clean install... all to no avail.

Well I was reading about the 100mb partition created when installing Windows7 and thought that might be the problem so I:

1. used HDDerase to clean the drive
2. used Vista install disc to create a single full HD partition on the SSD during the setup
3. quit Vista install
4. Installed Win7 on the previously created single partition
5. ran WEI test
6. Got 7.3 for the SSD

I don't know if the drive is actually faster now or if Win7 rates it correctly because of the single partition.