Monterey desktop (H370M), annoying lag because of some mysterious disk usage

[pnimrod]

Hi everybody,

I am a happy builder /user of a desktop hack (Gigabyte H370M, i7-8700K, OC0.8.4) and everything is fine. Really fine, I like this machine very much. But there is one thing that drives me crazy. A few hours (or sometimes minutes) after startup the OS begins to be slower and slower. It responds, but the lag is terrible, just about everything that needs disk access is unbearable. I see a 50MB/s disk read in iStat Menus (1), but the funny thing is: there is no process paired with it (2).
The lag disappears after a (seemingly) random time period. Or not. And sometimes comes back. Or not.
I can not find any correlation between the problem and sleep.

The drives in the hack:
System drive: Kingston RBUSNS8154P3256GJ1 (NGFF M.2 SATA)
Storage: WD Red 1TB (SATA) - if I remove this one, the problem persists.

Can someone give me a hint, what the ... this can be?

Thank you!

 

[Edhawk]

Most likely an issue with the Phison PS3108 SATA controller used on your Kingston M.2 SATA drive not being a good option for macOS.

Less likely to be an issue between your M.2 SATA drive and the motherboard M.2 connector.

Your motherboard has two M.2 connectors.

1. The top M.2 connector M2P_16G works with SATA M.2 drives at x2 PCIe speed
2. The bottom M.2 connector M2Q_32G only works with PCIe M.2 drives at x4 PCIe speed.

See the screenshots from your motherboard's User Manual below for more information.







You may need to change your M.2 drive to one with a more compatible controller.

Something like the WD 570SN would probably work well and not too expensive for a 500GB or 1TB drive. Assuming the bottom PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 connector is available.

 

[pnimrod]

Hi!

Most likely an issue with the Phison PS3108 SATA controller used on your Kingston M.2 SATA drive not being a good option for macOS.

Less likely to be an issue between your M.2 SATA drive and the motherboard M.2 connector.

Thank you! I was unaware of the possible uncompatibility on the controller level.

You may need to change your M.2 drive to one with a more compatible controller.

Something like the WD 570SN would probably work well and not too expensive for a 500GB or 1TB drive. Assuming the bottom PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 connector is available.

Yes, the bottom connector is available. I will give it a shot (ordered a WD Blue) and report back.
Thanks a lot!

 

[pastrychef]

Hi everybody,

I am a happy builder /user of a desktop hack (Gigabyte H370M, i7-8700K, OC0.8.4) and everything is fine. Really fine, I like this machine very much. But there is one thing that drives me crazy. A few hours (or sometimes minutes) after startup the OS begins to be slower and slower. It responds, but the lag is terrible, just about everything that needs disk access is unbearable. I see a 50MB/s disk read in iStat Menus (1), but the funny thing is: there is no process paired with it (2).
The lag disappears after a (seemingly) random time period. Or not. And sometimes comes back. Or not.
I can not find any correlation between the problem and sleep.

The drives in the hack:
System drive: Kingston RBUSNS8154P3256GJ1 (NGFF M.2 SATA)
Storage: WD Red 1TB (SATA) - if I remove this one, the problem persists.

Can someone give me a hint, what the ... this can be?

Thank you!

It looks like AVG is doing a lot. It also appears Spotlight index is happening. Try disabling both and see if the lags go away.

 

[pnimrod]

It looks like AVG is doing a lot. It also appears Spotlight index is happening. Try disabling both and see if the lags go away.

Hi and thank you for the suggestions.
AVG: disabled, but the lag is not dead.
Spotlight: I tried that a few weeks back, unfortunately did not help - I'll try again in case something's changed.