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Sonnet's NEED for SPEED!

rantingrich

rantingrich

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 10, 2009
190
5
Southern Illinois
Okay now that I finally got the Sonnet SSD TEMPO PCI card (NOT THE PRO) to be bootable, after updating the card correctly via Sonnets Updater from the Sonnet site, now I have another issue.

I put the same Mercury Extreme SSD drive on the Sonnet card (NOT THE PRO) that I had been using for the last two years from in the drive bay…..

Prior to doing this I ran Apples BlackMagic Disk speed tester. Prior to switching the SSD to the PCI card I was getting about 250-260 on both read and write.

NOW I am getting about 135 Write and 350 Read!!!!!

I did NOT spent $150 to get lower Write speeds

PLEASE ADVISE
 
OWC Mercury EXTREME 6G

My drive is a OWC Mercury EXTREME 6G. Everything I read says this drive does NOT need or should it be trimmed.

It is a 240 gig and is about half full…
 
^^^^Everything you've read about TRIM not being necessary was written by OWC, and is simply not true. There are threads on this forum about that subject.

However, the non incorporation of TRIM on your drive would not explain your slow speed issues.

Something is definitely wrong, and if I were you, I would return everything and start over.

Lou
 
Shes got TRIM!

I read this germane to TRIM on OWC SSD drives mounted on PCIe cards SATA.



TRIM only works for SATA attached SSD Drives. TRIM is a SATA command. It isn’t a USB, Firewire, or PCIe command.

TRIM doesn’t work for:
1. PCIe attached SSD drives.
2. USB 3.0 attached SSD drives.
3. Thunderbolt attached SSD drives.
4. Firewire attached SSD drives.
5. RAID drives.

TRIM also reduces security when using FileVault by exposing which blocks have data and which blocks don’t have data.

Since modern SSDs can run well without TRIM, why use it at all? Particularly if it works only for SATA connected SSDs and not for all the other configurations.
 
Please don't just copy from the net but try it yourself. Lots of us here using TRIM via PCIe or thunderbolt. I myself using the Sonnet PCIe card (not pro, same as yours) with TRIM enabled.

Modern SSD can work well without TRIM, but it won't work better without TRIM, is this logic simple enough?

Anyway, it's just a suggested solution for you. IMO, even though your SSD can work without TRIM, but TRIM won't hurt your SSD anyway, then why not give it a try?
 
Which PCI slot?

By the way does it matter what PCI slot I have my sonnet SSD tempo card in.

In my macpro 5,1 there are 4 PCI slots. 1 and 2 or the bottom two are x16 the two top one or 3 and 4 are x4?

I have my video card in Slot one who's cooling fan pushes the air up so If I put the card in the number 2 or the the x16 PCI slot it will block the cooling fan for the video card but I could move the video card up to slot 2 and PCI down to slot one I guess…

But does it mater what slot my PCI card is in
 
^^^^The Tempo is a 2 Lane Interface Card. The Tempo Pro is a 4 Lane Interface Card. Slots 3 and 4 are 4 Lane, so yes, those slots are fine. I have my Solo x2s mounted in slots 2 and 3. Slot 4 has a RocketU USB 3.0 Card.

BTW, Slot 1 is a double wide slot, and something mounted in slot 2 should not affect a double wide video card in slot 1.

Lou
 
I also install my graphic card in slot 1 and Tempo card in slot 4. No problem at all. As flowrider said, a 4 lane slot is good enough for our 2 lane card.
 
I have my Tempo Pro card in PCIe slot #3 and it works great. I have a short Solo x2 card in slot 2 which doesn't block the fan exit on the video card allowing more room for the air to flow.

BTW ... I do use Cindori's "Trim Enabler" on my SSDs.

You might want to bulk trim the unused space on your OWC SSD to see if it makes a difference. There are several methods posted here for doing so. I usually boot from the recovery partition or another boot drive and then use Disk Utility to "Repair" the SSD which includes trimming unused blocks.
 
hfg said:
I have my Tempo Pro card in PCIe slot #3 and it works great. I have a short Solo x2 card in slot 2 which doesn't block the fan exit on the video card allowing more room for the air to flow.

BTW ... I do use Cindori's "Trim Enabler" on my SSDs.

You might want to bulk trim the unused space on your OWC SSD to see if it makes a difference. There are several methods posted here for doing so. I usually boot from the recovery partition or another boot drive and then use Disk Utility to "Repair" the SSD which includes trimming unused blocks.
Click to expand...

What kinds of speed are you getting. See after I installed my Mercury Extreme OWC SSD on my tempo card the write speed is way slower than when it was in the drive bay
 
I'll post my BlackMagic result. Samsung 500GB 840 EVO and Apricorn Velocity Solo x2.

Lou
 

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rantingrich said:
Okay now that I finally got the Sonnet SSD TEMPO PCI card (NOT THE PRO) to be bootable, after updating the card correctly via Sonnets Updater from the Sonnet site, now I have another issue.

I put the same Mercury Extreme SSD drive on the Sonnet card (NOT THE PRO) that I had been using for the last two years from in the drive bay…..

Prior to doing this I ran Apples BlackMagic Disk speed tester. Prior to switching the SSD to the PCI card I was getting about 250-260 on both read and write.

NOW I am getting about 135 Write and 350 Read!!!!!

I did NOT spent $150 to get lower Write speeds

PLEASE ADVISE
Click to expand...

Well, here is your speed problem. SANDFORCE... It's the controller on your OWC SSD. It does not do compressed data very well. You are using Blackagic to benchmark with and it uses compressed data. Use the AJA utilities to test your SANDFORCE controlled SSD and you'll see a large increase in write performance.
 
rantingrich said:
What kinds of speed are you getting. See after I installed my Mercury Extreme OWC SSD on my tempo card the write speed is way slower than when it was in the drive bay
Click to expand...

This is the BlackMagic DiskSpeedTest with a pair of Crucial M4 512GB SSDs in RAID-0 mounted on the Sonnet Tempo Pro SSD card.

500w/900r MB/s

The second test is with a pair of Samsung 840-Pro 256GB SSDs in RAID-0 mounted on the Sonnet Tempo Pro SSD card.

800w/956r MB/s


Note: as mentioned above by crjackson2134, OWC drives with Sandforce controllers do not show well on Disk Speed Test due to the compression issues with video type test data. Use a different test program such as AJA System Test for a more realistic speed test.
 

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rantingrich said:
I just read that AJA Utilities does not work on OS 10.9.4
Click to expand...

It works for me ... you do have to set the root ownership of the disk to R/W for your login-name if it is a boot disk by using Disk Info.

edit: actually I just ran it on OS X 10.9.5 .... but I don't think there were any problems on 10.9.4
 
Last edited:
rantingrich said:
I just read that AJA Utilities does not work on OS 10.9.4
Click to expand...

Well, I don't use AJA personally, but you need a utility that doesn't use compressed data. It's a well known and documented issue with anything using the sandforce controllers. They just don't play well with BM disk test because of the way BM works (using compressed data). Compressed data simulates compressed A/V work. A/V work is where you really have a "NEED for SPEED". IMHO there are much better choices out there for SSDs. This is the EXACT reason I chose Samsung. No Sandforce Allowed! ;)

Go here and click the download for Mac button. I just tree it on Mavericks 10.9.5
I just tested mine and 526r 518w on a Samsung 840Pro 512MB and Velocity X2 PCIe

https://www.aja.com/en/products/aja-system-test

I can't find anything that says it won't work with 10.9.4
 
Last edited:
Heres an issue

crjackson2134 said:
Well, I don't use AJA personally, but you need a utility that doesn't use compressed data. It's a well known and documented issue with anything using the sandforce controllers. They just don't play well with BM disk test because of the way BM works (using compressed data). Compressed data simulates compressed A/V work. A/V work is where you really have a "NEED for SPEED". IMHO there are much better choices out there for SSDs. This is the EXACT reason I chose Samsung. No Sandforce Allowed! ;)

Go here and click the download for Mac button. I just tree it on Mavericks 10.9.5
I just tested mine and 526r 518w on a Samsung 840Pro 512MB and Velocity X2 PCIe

https://www.aja.com/en/products/aja-system-test

I can't find anything that says it won't work with 10.9.4
Click to expand...

Well here's one of the hiccups. When the OWC SSD is mounted in the DRIVE BAY the BM Disk Tests at right around at 250-260 write an read.

BUT when I put the same SSD Drive on the TEMPO Card it tests at 135 or so on write and 340-350 read!

Now when I complain to OWC they blame the card and when I complain to Sonnet they point the MIDDLE finger at the OWC SSD drive.

Am about to SHEET can both sonnet and OWC ask me my money back and go Samsung and Apirocon x2 PCI card Or watt ever it's name is
 
rantingrich said:
Well here's one of the hiccups. When the OWC SSD is mounted in the DRIVE BAY the BM Disk Tests at right around at 250-260 write an read.
Click to expand...

And I'm pretty sure that's lower than you will get with AJA.

rantingrich said:
BUT when I put the same SSD Drive on the TEMPO Card it tests at 135 or so on write and 340-350 read!
Click to expand...

Which tends to make me think that the Tempo has an issue with sandforce or it's defective.

rantingrich said:
Now when I complain to OWC they blame the card and when I complain to Sonnet they point the MIDDLE finger at the OWC SSD drive.
Click to expand...

Give them the middle finger back, and return the card. Vote with your money! They should be working with you to figure this out.

rantingrich said:
Am about to SHEET can both sonnet and OWC ask me my money back and go Samsung and Apirocon x2 PCI card Or watt ever it's name is
Click to expand...

If that option is still available, that's exactly what I would do. I think you have a poor combination of parts. Each probably works just fine when tested in a different environment, but particular combination isn't optimal.
 
^^^^And what makes this really BAD, is that OWC is a distributer for Sonnet Products and the advertise the Sonnet Tempo Card with an OWC Mercury Extreme SSD on it. As most of you know, OWC is NOT my favorite supplier for Mac products. I avoid them at all costs.

Lou
 

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