Getting slower than SATA 3 speeds with an ASM1061 card

[JoeStorm]

I have a Velociraptor 600GB SATA 6 drive. It has been working perfectly in my Hack at SATA 3 speeds for a year. I read on this board that I could get a PCIe card and get SATA 6 speeds. I ordered one from Amazon and had it next day.

I did a little testing before I installed the card and my raptor was getting 116.3 MB/s writes and 126.3 MB/s reads. This was connected to my Gigabyte SATA 3 motherboard connections.

I installed the card in an 8 lane PCIe 2 slot and connected my raptor. I did not install drivers. Connection verified via System Information to be SATA 6 connection and negotiated SATA 6. Benchmark speeds are 100 MB/s to 108 MB/s. I installed the drivers and the connection shows up as ASMMedia ASM1061. Same SATA 6 connection and same speeds.

Any ideas about why the ASM1061 "SATA 6" speeds are slower than the mobo's "SATA 3" speed and how I can get true SATA 6 speed for my raptor? Thanks.

 

[tot31]

try to put the card on x16 lane.

 

[JoeStorm]

try to put the card on x16 lane.

Interestingly, between my original post and this post, my drives have changed. I've gone with an SSD for the OS. I was getting 310 Meg/s writes and 370 Meg/s reads with the ASM card in the x8 PCIe slot. Hoping to hit 500+ Meg/s reads, I moved it to the x16 slot. Getting the same speeds. Write speeds are what they should be but I wish the read speeds were a little higher. Still, I'm happy so far. System is much much quicker. Apps load immediately no matter what else is happening on the system.

Moving the graphics card to the x8 lane PCIe slot freed up another PCIe slot so that's a bonus. I was only getting 8 lanes in the 16 lane PCIe slot anyways, I haven'ty lost anything and I've gained another PCIe slot. Win win.

 

[tot31]

Actually I've read on the other forum that when they put the card in the x16 lane instead of x1 lane, the speed change tremendously. That is why I suggested to put the card on that x16 lane. I've ordered one ASM1061 myself and waiting for it's arrival. Since you are getting better results and that is a good news then.

 

[JoeStorm]

Actually I've read on the other forum that when they put the card in the x16 lane instead of x1 lane, the speed change tremendously. That is why I suggested to put the card on that x16 lane. I've ordered one ASM1061 myself and waiting for it's arrival. Since you are getting better results and that is a good news then.

Not better news. I'm getting the same speeds on the 8x lane PCIe slot as the 16x lane PCIe slot. Now, with my mobo Gigabyte G4-P55A-UD4P, the 16x lane was being dropped to 8x lanes when I put the ASM1061 card in the 8x lane slot. So I have every reason to believe that the 16x lane slot is running at 8x with the ASM1061. I don't have onboard video so I don't see any way to get the 16x lane to run at 16x speeds. Still 370 Meg/s read is a very good speed so I really have no reason to complain.

 

[tot31]

Reading on your motherboard specifications seems that your second PCIe x16 runs only on x8 mode, so that must be the problem.

Expansion Slots
1. *1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
2. *1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
3.  3 x PCI Express x1 slots
4.  2 x PCI slots

As for my motherboard, which have 3 PCIe slots, where 2 run at x16 full speed and the other runs at x4. So I am confident enough that when I put the ASM1061 card on the second PCIe slot, I will get the full x16 speed.

Expansion Slots
1. 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16, blue) 
2. 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, white) 
3. 1 x PCIe x1 
4. 2 x PCI