WD Black PCIe SSD - very low write speeds

WD SSD Products WD SSD Drives & Software
1

I’ve purchased a laptop containing the 512 gb model of the WD Black PCIe SSD. The read speed seems okay, but the write speed is 90% below the maximum speed.

Below is an image of the test:

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I’ve repeated this test numerous times, and the max write speed I’ve gotten is 102 MB/s. This seems extremely low to me considering the spec said that it goes up to 800 MB/s for write.

Is this normal? If not, what should I look into for trouble shooting? I’ve checked all drivers through device manager already, but outside of that I don’t know what to look for.

2

What is the make and model of the laptop that came with the WD Black PCIe SSD? Have you checked the manufacturers website to see if any updated drivers are available?

If no updated drivers are available from the manufacturers website what driver is being used for the SSD? Is it the Windows driver, or a customer OEM driver?

If the computer has a Intel Skylake or newer SATA chipset you can try using the latest Intel IRST driver. That may have better performance than what you are seeing.

3

The make and model is a Sager NP5855 purchased from here: Custom Gaming Laptops - Custom Build Your Own Laptop - XOTIC PC

Although the website allows customization, which is where I chose to add the drive. The driver as listed in device manager is the Windows driver, and it has the date listed as 2006.

The CPU is an i7-7700HQ.

A Trusted Brand for Gaming Laptops | Sager Notebooks here is a list for the drivers available for the model; which should I try?

Thanks

4

This is the laptop: Custom Gaming Laptops - Custom Build Your Own Laptop - XOTIC PC

Sager NP5855. It was customized, though; the SSD does not come stock. The current driver is the Windows driver which is dated 2006.

Here are the drivers available on the manufacturer’s website: A Trusted Brand for Gaming Laptops | Sager Notebooks

Aside from the Intel IRST driver, which others should I look for?

5

Looks like the Intel IRST driver is available. I would try that first and see if the results are better.

6

When I tried to install that driver, it gave the option to repair or uninstall, no option for install, so I think it was already on my computer. I went ahead and uninstalled then reinstalled it and ran the tests to no improvement. I also installed the chipset driver which also did not improve things.

7

Hi jjr265,

We have not tested this system for compatibility, we suggest you go back to the Place of Purchase (OEM) and inquire about this symptom.

8

Hi all. I’ve actually found the problem. I was poking around the BIOS to see if any options related to the drives were there, and I stumbled upon one referred to as ‘controller mode’ which was set to AHCI. The second option was ‘Intel RST Premium’. After switching from AHCI to IRST, the write speeds are up to 500 MB/s+ and read speeds are slightly higher.

Thanks for your suggestions, and hopefully this sill help someone in the future.

9

awesome! thanks for letting us know!

10

There is another user who had a similar problem, he found that Windows write was causing his problem. I do not have that actual reply available here but it is on as of the 26 of August so do look it up. I am searching for data to use the WD Black 512GB PCIe with NVMe on my MSI 970A Gaming Pro Carbon with an AMD Phenom II and wanted to find out about compatibility problems such as these. The specs say that reads are up to 2050 MBS and writes are up to 800.

I do want to know if the WD unit is compatible with the MSI AND if I can use other SSD’s in my server with no conflicts. Some info states that this WD unit requires that the full system be “UEFI ONLY” and that does conflict with my WD 4TB and other smaller 1TB Seagate drives.

Will submit my request as a new pre-sales item in a new post.
Thanks,
DL

11

All NVMe drives require UEFI. They will not be detected in legacy BIOS mode.