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OCZ Colossus Performance in AHCI vs IDE mode on the Intel DP55KG Desktop Board

March 28, 2010
Technology
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For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently building a new high specification PC to handle the day-to-day rigours of software development. Like a lot of developers, I’ve decided to embrace the new SSD drive technology due to the massive performance increase to be had over traditional ‘plate drives’.  

I’ll provide more details about the PC’s specification soon, but I wanted to share some information about the various ways in which SSDs can be configured and how they affect performance. There are plenty of articles out there regarding SSD design, from a technical point of view, but I haven’t found any that have compared AHCI to IDE so that I could figure out which might give my Colossus the best chance of performing well. So, I decided to run my own basic test.  

Motherboard  

For this test, I am using the Intel DP55KG motherboard running BIOS version KGIBX10J.86A (17th Feb 2010). The DP55KG has 8 on-board SATA ports, six of which are powered via the board’s PCH, and two via an integrated Marvell 88E6145 chip (check out this post for an excellent review of the DP55KG).  

The SSD  

The drive under scrutiny here will be the OCZ Colossus 120GB. On paper, according to OCZ, the drive supports read and write speeds up to 260MB/sec, with sustained write around 140MB/s. This was the best drive I could find of this capacity in the price bracket.  

The 3.5" 'Colossus' SSD by OCZ

The test  

I wanted to know, “Which performs better, AHCI or IDE?” followed by “will IDE mode on the Marvell chip out perform IDE mode on the Intel PCH controller?”. To find out, I will use Passmark Performancetest 7.0 from Passmark. It provides a simple, standardised means of testing my SSD’s.  

  • To test the Intel PCH:
    • Configure the controller in IDE  mode
    • Install Windows 7 Ultimate
    • Install the latest Intel Chipset drivers
    • Restart
    • Install Passmark PerformanceTest 7.0
    • Run tests
    • Repeat these steps, but next time configure the controller in AHCI mode.
  • To test the Marvell Chip:
    • Connect the OCZ Colossus to port 0 on the board
    • Verify controller is in IDE mode (AHCI is not supported by the Marvell chip)
    • Install Windows 7 Ultimate
    • Install the latest Intel Chipset drivers
    • Restart
    • Install Passmark PerformanceTest 7.0
    • Run tests

Results  

Here are the raw test results. Note that the figures quoted are in MB/s.: 

Test Name Intel PCH (AHCI) Marvell (IDE) Intel PCH (IDE)
Disk – Sequential Read 109.9 94.3 111.3
Disk – Sequential Write 131.0 46.1 131.8
Disk – Random Seek + RW 41.8 37.2 41.4
Disk Mark 1022.7 642.1 1029.0
PassMark Rating 2372.6 1489.7 2387.3

Here’s the corresponding bar chart (click to enlarge):  

Intel DP55KG PCH IDE vs AHCI, vs Marvell IDE

 

 
Please note: in the results above, “This computer” refers to Intel PCH in IDE mode.
 
Conclusion
  
Based on the information above, for three identical Windows 7 installations on the same test PC, the result is fairly obvious: the Marvell controller won’t get you very good disk performance. Use ports 1 to 6 on the Intel DP55KG instead. IDE mode seems to outperform AHCI, if only marginally.
 
Having read various articles on the topic, I know it is unusual for anyone to actually experience the quoted performance speeds of the manufacturers. In this instance, though, I’m curious to learn if there’s anything else I can do to get closer to those, as in my tests – for sequential reads, for instnace – I’m well over 150MB/s slower than the manufacturer’s quoted speed (albeit still way faster than most 7,200RPM SATA “Plate” drives).
 
I’ll continue reading to see what else I can do but for now, at least, I’m happy with the added performance benefit and satisfied that I’ve chosen the best mode and chipset for my system.

How to make your Xbox 360, Windows Home Server, Windows Media Centre and Windows 7 work together seamlessly

October 29, 2009
Media, Networks, Technology
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In this post, I’ll discuss my experiences on building a robust, high-speed and high-definition media setup in your home, using Windows 7, Xbox 360 and Windows Home Server. If you’d like to leave a comment when you’ve read this post letting me know what you’d like to see more of (or less of), I’ll make sure I address that in either an edit to this post, or a brand new one. Thanks!

In this article, I cover:

  • Introducing Windows Media Centre
  • How To: Set up Windows Media Centre
  • How To: Connect your Xbox 360 to Windows Media Centre
  • Windows Home Server and your digital media

Feel free to skip to the section that interests you most.

An impulse purchase that changed the way we consume media in our household

At the weekend, something happened that rocked my world. It didn’t happen accidentally, either. I was out Dual Tuner Digital TV USB Stick shopping and I just happened to walk past Maplin (RadioShack, to you US folks) who had a special offer in their window: a KWorld PlusTV DVB-T Dual Freeview HD Tuner for the princely sum of just £24.99. That’s a small USB stick with an antenna connection on it that contains not one, but TWO HD Freeview TV tuners, giving the ability to watch one programme while recording another: for £24.99.

In the UK, Freeview gives access to about 100 digital channels, and, although they don’t broadcast in HD yet, in early 2010 the HD rollout begins.

Right now, the only way to get free HD TV over the air is to get Freesat HD or Sky+ HD, both of which require a satellite dish to be installed and cost a fair amount in set up and subscription fees.

At the time, like many geeks, I didn’t know why I wanted this particular gadget, but I the little voice inside of me compelled me to buy it. I figured, “hey, even if I don’t know what to do with it, perhaps Windows 7 will”. And that is where the fun began.

 

Introducing Windows Media Centre

With the recent release of Windows 7, millions of people globally have been busy remarking how much simpler the ‘simple’ things become when you install Windows 7.

Unlike Apple (for whom I shall now depart momentarily to direct a slight dig) who only have to worry about a limited number of devices on a limited platform of hardware, Microsoft have to build software that is actually compatible with hundreds of thousands of different devices and at least twice as many combinations. That is by no means an easy thing to accomplish, but Windows 7 seems to do it with dare I say it a certain degree of sentience: plug and play has actually come to life. Everything… every single USB gadget I own was detected first time, without me first needing to supply a driver CD. If Windows didn’t have the drivers, it ‘magicked’ them off the internet for me. Marvellous.

This includes the £24.99 TV Tuner from some anonymous company I’ve never heard of before. I plugged it in, and up popped the “Driver Installation” window and it downloaded the relevant drivers for me (I’m so glad it did as well – I don’t like installing drivers and software from anonymous small name companies).

A few minutes later, everything was successfully installed with zero effort on my part. In fact, the most strenuous part of this entire exercise was trying to open the box the device came in – which was apparently designed to survive a small tactical strike.

And this is where Windows Media Centre comes onto the scene – an incredible suite of technologies that’s designed with simplicity in mind. Shipped with Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate editions, Media Centre has – at its core – the ability to act as a centralised hub for all your digital media: music, videos, recorded and live TV. For anyone who’s seen TiVO or Sky+, Windows Media Centre does exactly what those two services do, but better, faster and subscription free.

 

Setting-up Media Centre

Launching “Windows Media Centre” from your Start Menu brings up a little animated Window:

image

Having detected that I had now installed a USB TV Tuner, Windows Media Centre asked me if I wanted to configure it. Allow it to complete the setup process, which – including the time it takes Media Centre to scan the TV frequencies in your country for available channels – took me about 10 minutes.

When the process is completed, Windows Media Centre is able to give you a TV guide showing weeks’ worth of programming schedules. The guide alone is worth ditching Sky+ for:

  • Beats Sky’s “Series Link” function by adding numerous extra functions giving greater control over what is recorded and when
  • Search for TV programmes by keyword in the title, or by cast members
  • Create wish lists: specify your favourite actors and actresses, and the guide records any programmes it finds with those stars as cast members
  • Manage potential recording conflicts before they arise and set priorities for your favourite shows

The list does actually go on. Have a look at some of the guide screenshots below:

image image image image

The trouble is right now – this is TV on my PC. My PC is in my office – not my front room. We need to break out of here and I’ll be damned if I’m going to run a VGA cable from here to my 42” LCD TV in the front room. Nay – I want an easier way!

Xbox 360

Those of us with an Xbox 360 (or three) laying about the house know that we’re supposed to be living in some futuristic media-utopia where our TV’s can access all our music, videos and photos. Even TV (alright, that’s slightly pointless but you get the picture). But, even with Vista, this wasn’t particularly easy to set up. So I never bothered with it. It just didn’t quite work as expected.

Turn on your Xbox 360 while your Windows 7 PC is on, and you’ll receive a polite little notification that “Windows has discovered a Media Centre Extender”. Discovery – what an appropriate word. It popped up, and I thought to myself …. “Please, continue”. And so Windows did. After being informed a few seconds later that everything was installed correctly, I wanted my Xbox 360 to be able to access the juicy goodness of Windows Media Centre.

Follow these steps:

  • Go to “System”
  • Go to “Computers”
  • Go to “Windows Media Centre”
  • If you’ve already set up (or tried to set up) a Windows Media Centre connection before, you’ll first want to choose “Disconnect”. If you’ve not tried that before, that option won’t be available to you.
  • Now, choose “Connect”.
  • Your Xbox 360 will search your network for available Windows Media Centre computers. After a few moments, your Windows 7 Media Centre should be discovered, and your Xbox 360 will display a two-part eight digit code on your screen.
  • Note that code down, and fire up the Windows Media Centre application on your PC.
  • Go to “Tasks”, then “Add Extender” to bring up this screen:

    image

  • Type in the eight digit code you were given by your Xbox 360, and press “Next”.
  • You’ll then see a screen similar to this:

    image

  • This process might take a little while to complete while your Media Libraries are constructed.
  • Once complete, you’ll see a screen like this:

    image

  • By this time, your Xbox 360’s display will have changed and will be displaying a very similar (if not completely identical) display to the Windows Media Centre application on your PC.

And that’s it, you’re done – your Xbox 360 is now connected to your Windows 7 Media Centre.

What about Windows Home Server?

Ah, the “server in the home”. Got one? I have. If you haven’t, you should.

It takes care of backing up all your PCs, laptops and personal devices and my HP MediaSmart Home Server even automatically backs up my iTunes Libraries and streams them over the network. In fact, they’re so good I’d recommend them even for small businesses. Just plug them in, install the software on your PCs and laptops and you’re safe from day one (you can even do a bare-metal rebuild if you are running Windows 7 – that rocks).

Even cooler is that with the PowerPack 3 Beta recently released by Microsoft you can now install a connector for Windows Media Centre that allows it to take full advantage of the awesome storage capacity of your Windows Home Server.

The Windows Home Server Media Centre Connector (desperately in need of a shorter name, though it is hard to imagine one more descriptive) adds a little tab to your Windows Media Centre menu that, in a nutshell, allows Media Centre to archive your recorded television programs off to your Home Server automatically. It also adds some other nifty functionality to allow you to view most of the information contained on your Home Server Console on your TV, too.

In summary

It starts with the purchase of a TV tuner ‘dongle’. With Windows 7, in literally just a few minutes you can pretty much overhaul the way you access your digital content in the home. Chuck an Xbox 360 into the mix, and you’ve got the capability to stream HD content to your TV, listen to your music and browse all your photos right from the comfort of your armchair. I’d also recommend getting your hands on a great media remote (this one from Logitech is awesome) because you’ll quickly get bored using the Xbox 360 controller. The Logitech remote can also control many other devices so you can ditch the collection of remotes you’ve probably already got.

With Windows Home Server chugging away too, you’ll never lose any of your digital recordings again and since storage is so cheap these days, you’ll have a very easy mechanism for expanding your storage on demand.

Microsoft unveil “Websitespark” programme

September 27, 2009
News
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Microsoft recently announced the launch of the latest addition to their Partner Network: Websitespark. Following on from the success of the Bizspark programme for startup companies, Websitespark is aimed at supporting professional web development and design companies to succeed by offering proactive assistance in the form of business opportunities and it’s class-leading Windows and SQL Server products. So, whether you’re the “one man band” or a team of up to ten employees, you should check this out.

BizSpark has already helped hundreds (thousands, now, perhaps?) of startups to succeed, and Websitespark looks set to do the same for smaller teams of web professionals. With no up-front costs and no long-term commitments (just a $100 exit fee at the end of the programme period) , what more could you ask for?

Full information is online and available at http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/

Internet Explorer banned from European version of Windows 7

June 12, 2009
News, Technology
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“European buyers of Windows 7 will have to download and install a web browser for themselves,” according to this BBC News article, published today. “Bowing to European competition rules, Microsoft Windows 7 will ship without Internet Explorer”. Internet Explorer 8

This, it would seem, is another victory for the European Commission and it’s competition rules. Microsoft has previously fallen foul of these in early 2008 when it was fined £765m by the European Commission for ‘anti-competitive behavior’: including Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer with Windows. Understandably then, it has decided to avoid that kind of financial pain again by bowing to the pressure.

Why?

Why does it matter what Microsoft choose to ship with Windows? It’s not like I have to pay for Internet Explorer, or any other browser by any other vendor, for that matter. So I, the consumer, am not losing out by it’s inclusion in the operating system.

Internet Explorer, like Windows Media Player, are features designed to make the operating system better, easier to use and increase the overall value of the product. Browsers should be features of every operating system.

Every major consumer-targeted operating system has it’s own browser included. Let’s take Apple’s Mac OS, for example: that ships with the Safari browser. Safari and IE browsers do essentially the same thing, and they are distributed to the consumer in exactly the same fashion: automatic inclusion by the vendor on to the newly purchased computer. Yet, Apple aren’t the target (so far as I know) of the EC competition rulings because they aren’t the market leader.

To impose this type of ruling on Microsoft because they are the market leader seems very similar to saying that Microsoft are the market leader because of Internet Explorer, which isn’t true at all. So surely, if you’re going to impose this type of rule on any vendor then surely you must apply it to all of them: that’s really the only way to give consumers a free, fair choice, right?

What’s the difference?

I assume that the EC are interested so much in Microsoft’s activities because it holds the majority market share. So too, then, I would assume it to be equally interested in Nokia, who according to this article, held 40.43% of the Mobile Device market share in Q12009, making them the market leader. Are Nokia the subject of an EC competition rules enquiry for bundling their own software with their device?

I can’t see much practical difference either, between companies like Dell and HP, who pre-bundle their own proprietary software programs and utilities onto the PC’s they ship, and this, either. Perhaps the EC will go after these companies under their ‘anti-competition’ rules, too.

Ultimately, it comes down to education

Eight or 9 times in 10, most users don’t care what browser they’re using: at least in my experience. Most consumers just want something that works. They don’t care what it is, why should they? I certainly don’t get all shirty when my new car comes with Michelin tyres, or Goodyear, or – who cares… they do the job.

But my point is, if I do want something different, I’m free to change those tyres. Perhaps I’ll read that Pirelli tyres are better than my Goodyears, and I’ll change them. Just as I can change my browser, any time I want to. And I don’t need the EC to make that happen for me because Microsoft haven’t prevented me from using Firefox, or any other browser, for that matter. And that’s the point: this is about education. Those who know enough to understand why they might want another browser, and can make a comparative choice, are completely free to do so, and (if I do say so myself) it is ridiculously easy to swap to an alternative.

I can’t say the same about the tyres on my car though (the ones I’ll have to pay a hefty cost to change). Thankfully, swapping my browser is free and easy. And that’s another reason why these confusing rules make me, well, confused.

It’s all down hill from here…

Now, when Windows 7 ships in Europe, what on earth will the majority of consumers do? What will Microsoft do, in order to help users make the choice that’s right for them? Will consumers see a choice of browsers pop up on their screen? How will they choose? Why should they have to choose? Does Mr And Mrs Average really care? Please comment!

#CompetitionCommissionFail?

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