Slow SATA performance in Windows

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  • yyonline
    Badcaps Veteran
    • Jul 2009
    • 692
    • USA

    #1

    Slow SATA performance in Windows

    So I was copying some files on my test rig, and I noticed it was taking a long time. I don't usually do file copying in Windows, so this may not be a new problem.

    Here's the setup:
    Abit IP35-E motherboard
    Silicon Image Sil3512 PCI SATA card (for hot swap capabilities/linux compatibility)

    Any drive hooked up to the Silicon Image card will not go any faster than 28 MB/s under Windows. I've tested with multiple drives. Drivers are the latest for both the Silicon Image card and motherboard chipset.

    The same drive on the same controller on the same computer in Linux will benchmark at 90 MB/s. So, I know the hardware is capable of faster speeds.

    The same drive on the same controller in Windows on another PC will benchmark at 90 MB/s.

    I swapped out the Silicon Image card for a VIA card, same problem. I tried a Promise SATA card, same problem. Again, only in Windows. All these controllers worked at full speed under Linux.

    I figured some Windows file must be corrupt, so I did a clean install of XP Pro, but no difference.

    I think my options are the following "failure points," but each one seems to be ruled out by something else.

    1 - Sil3512 controller failure. I ruled this out because it works full speed with Linux on the same PC. Also, other cards exhibit the same behavior.
    2 - Motherboard failure. I ruled this out because as with above, it works full speed with Linux on the same PC.
    3 - Bad Silicon Image Windows drivers. I ruled this out because the same controller and the same drivers work full speed on another PC in Windows.
    4 - Windows installation hosed. I ruled this out after a reinstall did not fix the issue.

    Anybody have any thoughts on how I can make my drive go full speed in Windows? I'm thinking it's some weird combination of incompatibilities I may never figure out, but I figure it can't hurt to see if anybody has any ideas. It definitely seems to be a software issue of some sort, as the drives have no issues in Linux.

    Any input greatly appreciated!
  • Wizard
    Badcaps Legend
    • Mar 2008
    • 2296

    #2
    Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

    Benchmark is dubious unless it has proper methods of measuring performance.

    PCI is 33MB/s

    Cheers, Wizard

    Comment

    • PCBONEZ
      Grumpy Old Fart
      • Aug 2005
      • 10661
      • USA

      #3
      Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

      No, PCI is 33MHz and 133MB/s.

      Windows or your BIOS is probably putting you in PIO mode instead of UDMA.
      Mann-Made Global Warming.
      - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

      -
      Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

      - Dr Seuss
      -
      You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
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      Comment

      • yyonline
        Badcaps Veteran
        • Jul 2009
        • 692
        • USA

        #4
        Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

        Good suggestion about PIO mode. I don't know that it's the case, however. Drivers report UDMA mode, and CPU usage is low.

        The straight line graph suggests that something is limiting the drive speed in Windows. Even the min read speed in Linux is faster than Windows. It hasn't caused any other issues aside from slowness, however.
        Attached Files

        Comment

        • larrymoencurly
          Badcaps Veteran
          • Oct 2004
          • 960
          • USA

          #5
          Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

          I tested with XP Home SP3, HDtune, Hitachi 7K1000.C HDs (firmware 39C), SiL3512 (latest non-RAID firmware and driver), Promise 20378, and motherboards equipped with either VIA KT400, Nvidia MCP-61, or Intel G41/ICH7 chipsets. Performance was slow only with the Promise card and Nvidia chipset and on the boot HD, when it was <50MB/s average and varied widely. Otherwise the average was 84-90 MB/s.

          Comment

          • Per Hansson
            Super Moderator
            • Jul 2005
            • 5895
            • Sweden

            #6
            Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

            There should be an option for disk cache in device manager, I notice it says enabled in the SIL control panel but make sure it's enabled in device manager for the disk too

            I don't expect the issue is this, because I assume you are not using Win2K3/XP x64, but that can have it's own issues as I found out;
            http://www.techspot.com/blog/224/slo...rver-2003-x64/
            "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

            Comment

            • Wizard
              Badcaps Legend
              • Mar 2008
              • 2296

              #7
              Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

              My apologies on that figure. I remembered day after that I erred. 133MB/s is correct now I remember. Brain fart.

              Try different card with good chipset and known good windows driver support.

              Cheers, Wizard

              Comment

              • yyonline
                Badcaps Veteran
                • Jul 2009
                • 692
                • USA

                #8
                Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                I've tried Silicon Image, VIA, and Promise. All have different, but similarly bad performance. VIA is a flat line at about 38 MB/s, and the Promise controller is a flat line at about 14 MB/s.

                All of these work full-speed in Linux on the same PC.

                Does anybody have a suggestion for a PCI SATA card that has good Windows driver support, but will still work with Linux-based disk wiping software and Norton Ghost?

                Comment

                • PCBONEZ
                  Grumpy Old Fart
                  • Aug 2005
                  • 10661
                  • USA

                  #9
                  Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                  I don't think it's drivers per se.
                  http://winhlp.com/node/10
                  Mann-Made Global Warming.
                  - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

                  -
                  Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

                  - Dr Seuss
                  -
                  You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                  -

                  Comment

                  • larrymoencurly
                    Badcaps Veteran
                    • Oct 2004
                    • 960
                    • USA

                    #10
                    Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                    Originally posted by yyonline
                    Does anybody have a suggestion for a PCI SATA card that has good Windows driver support, but will still work with Linux-based disk wiping software and Norton Ghost?
                    The only other PCI SATA controller chips I've heard of are HighPoint, Initio (INIC-1620, 1622, 1623xx?), and maybe ITE.

                    Is it possible the SATA cards are slow because they're sharing an interrupt with something else?

                    Comment

                    • ratdude747
                      Black Sheep
                      • Nov 2008
                      • 17136
                      • USA

                      #11
                      Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                      maybe the hard drive itself?
                      sigpic

                      (Insert witty quote here)

                      Comment

                      • yyonline
                        Badcaps Veteran
                        • Jul 2009
                        • 692
                        • USA

                        #12
                        Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                        It does it with multiple drives, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi... So I think this rules out a bad hard drive.

                        I don't think it's in PIO mode. The speed might suggest that, but the CPU usage does not. I usually see 90+% CPU usage during heavy disk activity if a drive is in PIO mode. I don't see that here, just slowness. Additionally, there are no options to set the PIO/DMA mode in Windows. That's all handled by the card's bios as it's running in AHCI mode.

                        Hmm, all the Highpoint controllers are a bit pricey. I can't find any of the others on newegg. So, I just ordered a Initio controller from eBay. I probably don't want to spend too much money on this.

                        It works fine as it is now, just slower than ideal. All I use that PC for is backing up customer's PCs and wiping disks before trashing them. It would be nice to have the extra speed, but it's not holding me back much.

                        Comment

                        • stj
                          Great Sage 齊天大聖
                          • Dec 2009
                          • 30964
                          • Albion

                          #13
                          Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                          i was thinking that, 4k sectors?

                          Comment

                          • PCBONEZ
                            Grumpy Old Fart
                            • Aug 2005
                            • 10661
                            • USA

                            #14
                            Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                            How are you connecting the customers drives?
                            ... Sure it's not a slow USB adapter problem?
                            Mann-Made Global Warming.
                            - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

                            -
                            Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

                            - Dr Seuss
                            -
                            You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                            -

                            Comment

                            • bgavin
                              Badcaps Legend
                              • Jan 2007
                              • 1355

                              #15
                              Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                              I use the IP35 board, not the "-E" suffix, so not sure of what that means.

                              Q: does this board not have onboard SATA for some reason?

                              Mine has 6 connectors, and runs full tilt.
                              Sad, but no more BIOS from ABit. They have died.

                              Comment

                              • stj
                                Great Sage 齊天大聖
                                • Dec 2009
                                • 30964
                                • Albion

                                #16
                                Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                                try a new cable - sata is single-strand and they break easy.

                                Comment

                                • yyonline
                                  Badcaps Veteran
                                  • Jul 2009
                                  • 692
                                  • USA

                                  #17
                                  Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                                  I plug the drives straight in with a SATA cable to the PCI card. No USB involved.

                                  The motherboard does have onboard SATA, 4 ports, but they only run in IDE mode, ACHI is not available with the IP35-E. So, no hot swap capability. Older linux (which is used by a lot of bootable disk utilities) and Norton Ghost haven't a clue what to make of it. Also, I have 3 of 4 ports used by various drives. Thus, the PCI controller.

                                  It does this with multiple SATA cables.

                                  Comment

                                  • severach
                                    Badcaps Legend
                                    • Aug 2007
                                    • 1055
                                    • USA

                                    #18
                                    Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                                    I like my Rosewill RC-216 with the JMicron JMB363. The only fault I've found is that the JMicron BIOS adds too many retries so it can't be used to recover drives with bad sectors in places that drive the OS crazy. Performance is good and the bootable disk images are compatible with Intel controllers.
                                    sig files are for morons

                                    Comment

                                    • RJARRRPCGP
                                      Badcaps Legend
                                      • Jul 2004
                                      • 6304
                                      • USA

                                      #19
                                      Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                                      Originally posted by yyonline

                                      Any drive hooked up to the Silicon Image card will not go any faster than 28 MB/s under Windows.
                                      Like it's 2001. lol
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                                      Comment

                                      • RJARRRPCGP
                                        Badcaps Legend
                                        • Jul 2004
                                        • 6304
                                        • USA

                                        #20
                                        Re: Slow SATA performance in Windows

                                        Originally posted by yyonline

                                        I don't think it's in PIO mode.
                                        It don't look like it's in PIO mode, because PIO mode is 4 MB/s or 5 MB/s.

                                        PIO mode makes even 28 MB/s look like a speed king!
                                        ASRock B550 PG Velocita

                                        Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

                                        32 GB G.Skill RipJaws V F4-3200C16D-32GVR

                                        Arc A770 16 GB

                                        eVGA Supernova G3 750W

                                        Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

                                        Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




                                        "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                                        "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                                        "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                                        "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

                                        Comment

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