S3700 at only 3.0 Gb/sec

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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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based on motherboard spec:
Serial ATA
  • 2x SATA3 (6Gbps) ports
  • 4x SATA2 (3Gbps) ports
did you put your ssd to sata2 or sata3 port?
 

ISRV

Member
Jul 11, 2015
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look at my first post.
there's 2 photos. first from supermicro's site.
there you may see 6 sata ports. 2 white and 4 black ones. i assume whites are sata-3, isn't?

then look at my second picture - that's an actual server photo. the cable goes to white slot.
 

Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
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It looks like that is a SATA3 port. I'm at a loss. Did you try another SATA cable just in case?
 

ISRV

Member
Jul 11, 2015
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no. the cable is brand new. also the whole server is brand new, except that ssd
 

canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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ok, just to double check..
I see no error, and SSD tells kernel the connection is 3G. Kernel just agree to set 3G. No error on auto-negotiation too..

last shot. replace the cable, I am doubtly would fix.

can you exchange SSD with another one?


I would rule , the culprit is SSD...
 

ISRV

Member
Jul 11, 2015
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i used to have the same s3700 (but ES) prior this one.
i'll contact datacenter where the server is located, can they put it back as a second drive.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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Flash the Supermicro motherboard BIOS.

The warning on their site is for 'active' 'in use' systems because of UNLIKELY issues that are possible and having a 'live' system brick would SUCK. All new motherboards should have BIOS updated as soon as you install/boot the 1st time, IMHO.
 

ISRV

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Jul 11, 2015
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updated the BIOS to latest.
no changes :(

i've even installed debian again.
same 3.0 Gb/s SATA, same 250MB/s benchmark speed

 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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Do you have more than one PC in the house?
Plug the drive into your Desktop PC , use a new sata cable , run CrystalDiskInfo . You will know it is the drive or not.
I have a Dell S3700 that only has Sata-2 interface.
 

ISRV

Member
Jul 11, 2015
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it's a server in the datacenter.

nothing else left to do. will try next week to ask support to test this ssd in some other pc.
 

ISRV

Member
Jul 11, 2015
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SOLVED! :)

i've spent another day trying to understand what's going on. google didn't help me at all.
suddently i've noticed this:



isdct tool has a "set" parameter "physpeed"

why not to try. so i typed:
isdct set -intelssd 0 physpeed=6

and after restart - voila!



and



finally i got the speed as it should be. still under 500MB/s (maybe it's normal?), but at least way better than before, at 3.0 Gb/s connection.



here's another hdtune benchmark. win10 never stops "doing something", i see drive action all the time in task manager, so i guess that's why benchmark shows lower speeds than at linux.



so the problem was in that kind of internal setting of this particular ssd.
i have no clue why it was set to 3.0 Gb/s, but it's good that the truth has been found.
will do some more tests tomorrow, but guess the drive is now working at full speed.
 
Last edited:

Lost-Benji

Member
Jan 21, 2013
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The arse end of the planet
Enterprise SSD, likely being over cautious with speed settings in interests of stability over speed. The fact it went operation Go-Slow might also indicate that the SATA ports/controller or the cable may not be real great.
 
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Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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Enterprise SSD, likely being over cautious with speed settings in interests of stability over speed. The fact it went operation Go-Slow might also indicate that the SATA ports/controller or the cable may not be real great.

Although generally it's the controller telling it to go slow...
 

whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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NICE bud, fixed me up on two Dell branded Intel DC s3700's I had that I could CLEARLY see roughly 250MB/s on wipes/ATA secure erases/badblocks/dd/etc.

LIVESAVER, I was abt to list these drives on ebay LOL
 
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chinesestunna

Active Member
Jan 23, 2015
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Thank you for this! Found this thread after noticing bad speeds on my 4 drive "Dell" Intel S3500 RAID0 array, noticed they were running at 3.0gbps - fixed and works like a charm now.
Additional curious question - has anyone tried flashing the Dell drives to Intel firmware? Any issues?