SK Hynix Gold 2xP31 RAID 0 1TB + S31 1TB Mobile Notebook Ryzen 5 4600h

[SonDa5]

I'll post some photos and benchmarks of this budget entry level gaming notebook featuring CPU by AMD Ryzen 5 4600h paired with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650.

This is considered a modern entry level gaming notebook. Built by Acer with selected storage and memory upgrades by me.​

This notebook is an entry level Ryzen 5 4600h with 8GB memory and 256GB SSD model. The stock Hynix SSD NVMe M.2 256GB will come out and be used as a portable USB Gen 3.2 storage drive.

Besides the SK Hynix Gold SSD upgrades I'm also putting in 32GB of Team Group 2x16GB 3200MHZ kit CL22.

model TED432G3200C22DC-S01.​

I think this notebook is beast with mobile feature set and upgrade memory and storage options. I've read that NVME in RAID 0 is troublesome to configure with little benefits. It's been an on going discussion and the change orders and integration crews may have not have had time to fully integrate the hardware yet. Software will be involved... physically each NVME are attached to the PCI express lanes. s Hardest part doing this is going through the various methods and drivers required to get the best configuration. Acer doesn't provide anything on in their manual. It's not an easy task for the average consumer and is probably very time consuming at the manpower side in putting these together. I'm glad this notebook has the physical parts built into place. Leaves alot of room for tinkering and upgrading.

I modified the stock nvme heatsinks that are on the inside of the bottom of the notebook. Took off the stickers off the memory and nvme drives and put some thermal pads on the NVME M.2 drive dies.

 

[sinisterDei]

Nice!

 

[SonDa5]

Having a tough time figuring out the best RAID 0 configuration for fresh new Windows 10 install on the NVME drives in RAID 0.
Coming close to get the software configures. Acer has not supportive information on how to do this in any manual that I'm aware of.

Probably the best implementation would be to use the AMD RAIDExpert 2 sofware but I the stock bios on the lap top doesn't have a hmi logic switch for the proper I/O for the motherboard to turn it on. I'm sure it's there but just not part of the hmi view. I'm looking for an easter egg way to get into the BIOS. Haven't found it yet.

Not sure if I will be able to install Windows 10 clean install on these NVME Hynix P31 drives in RAID 0.

For now running the Windows 10 OS on the S31 and have the 2xP31 NVME in RAID 0 Stripe via Windows 10 Disk manaagement software.

Screen shot of a benchmark. About 1 TB of the RAID 0 partition I think I can make it work out like this if needed. Just not want I really wanted to do.

 

[Jinto]

Doubt the thermal pads do anything by themselves. If you care about the NVME temps (I have the P31 as well and it doesn't get too hot) either use more pad so they touch the bottom cover of the notebook or get a heatsink for them.

 

[SonDa5]

Doubt the thermal pads do anything by themselves. If you care abouttthe NVME temps (I have the P31 as well and it doesn't get too hot) either use more pad so they touch the bottom cover of the notebook or get a heatsink for them.

The stock NVME drive used thermal pad and made contact with the heat sink. If I would have left the paper sticker on the P31 NVME without thermal pad it would not make contact with the heatsink. These P31 drives do get hot. Highest temp I've seen is 68C when copying 256GB partion to the RAID 0 P31 STRIPE.

Most of the time temps have been between 31-36C.

I've got some ideas for better heat sink design but I"m not sure it is needed. The stock heat sinks for the NVME drive slots in this notebook are flat but have space underneath them for air flow and the cooling fans are pull air from the front of the note cook through the back and side. No over heat alarms yet.

 

[sinisterDei]

The P31 Gold drives run very cool, they need no extra cooling at all. When I benchmarked mine, under artificial benchmarking load in a case with *zero* airflow (open frame, no fans) it peaked at 57C. I have had other drives go 70C+ in the same conditions.

 

[SonDa5]

The P31 Gold drives run very cool, they need no extra cooling at all. When I benchmarked mine, under artificial benchmarking load in a case with *zero* airflow (open frame, no fans) it peaked at 57C. I have had other drives go 70C+ in the same conditions.

The fans on my notebook were observed to be running at very low speed. I didn't have the custom fan control application running at the time of testing but I'm not sure if the notebook's fan controller software operates off of the NVME temperature feed back sensor.

Which benchmark did you use?

57c seems hot to me.

30 to 40 not so hot to me.

20 to 30 nice and cool.

The part may be designed to operate to 100C.

I'm not sure.

Found a review on P31 that shows temperature when used in an open space much larger enclosure.

https://www.legitreviews.com/sk-hyn...nsor we found the,the tempered glass panel on.

I'd rather run as cool as possible and if some thermal insulate material and heat sink work to help temps down then it seems like a better electrical performance.

The thermal pad I'm using is generic no name left over from video card that I replaced with high quality Fujipoly.

I will get some Fujipoly high quality type and see if it helps lower temps. Higher quality thermal pad at this point seems like a good option to try to see if it helps with decreasing operation temperature to ensure lower temperature and better electrical conductivity.

I'll try some graphene doped thermal pad if somebody makes it to try out. Whatever works better that is available as long as it's not to high in price.

 

[sinisterDei]

Which benchmark did you use?

I wrote this article: https://www.servethehome.com/sk-hynix-gold-p31-1tb-nvme-ssd-review/

 

[SonDa5]

I wrote this article: https://www.servethehome.com/sk-hynix-gold-p31-1tb-nvme-ssd-review/

Thanks. Very informative.

I have abandoned ship on my RAID 0 efforts because my motherboard doesn't support low level RAID 0 via BIOS control.

I'm going to install Windows 10 64 bit in the P31 0 NVME slot and the other P31 in the 1 NVME slot for programs and S31 in the SATA for back up non processing files.

I hope this helps each pci lane be used effectively and possibly help spread the work loads and improve performance.


When ACER updates BIOS for real low level RAID 0 support I will try it again. Not sure if they ever will.

 

[sinisterDei]

When ACER updates BIOS for real low level RAID 0 support I will try it again

I think the effective gains would still be pretty minimal, unless your usage scenario includes activities that are actually disk I/O limited. Benchmarks will show results, but actual perceived performance will likely be unaffected. Gaming is not currently one of the applications that can appreciate faster SSDs. The only real reason to RAID0 SSDs for gaming is to achieve the simplicity of 'one big disk', but assuming you're using Steam you can just have multiple library files, or put Steam on one drive and Origin/Battle.net on the other. It's not so bad.

 

[SonDa5]

I think the effective gains would still be pretty minimal, unless your usage scenario includes activities that are actually disk I/O limited. Benchmarks will show results, but actual perceived performance will likely be unaffected. Gaming is not currently one of the applications that can appreciate faster SSDs. The only real reason to RAID0 SSDs for gaming is to achieve the simplicity of 'one big disk', but assuming you're using Steam you can just have multiple library files, or put Steam on one drive and Origin/Battle.net on the other. It's not so bad.

I still would prefer to have my main processing progams on the two nvme faster drives and use the Sata ssd for reliable data back up.

This notebook is being used as a portable work station and for video/audio/music fun.

It's a nice powerful budget notebook but i wish the low level motherboard super i/0 controller was programmed to do the Raid 0 stripe for the two NVME slots.


Another benchmark.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/35871366

 

[sinisterDei]

i wish the low level motherboard super i/0 controller was programmed to do the Raid 0 stripe for the two NVME slots

Just a minor correction, in the case of your laptop here there is no chipset. The CPU operates as a SoC - everything onboard the system connects directly to the CPU. I'm not sure AMD even allows NVME RAID support on their mobile APUs.

 

[SonDa5]

As I have presented RAID 0 NVME works on my Acer Nitro 5 but only from MS Windows 10 hardware programmed control.

My Acer Nitro 5 does have a ene I/0 controller.

Photo of ene I/O controller on my Acer Nitro 5 motherboard attached for reference.

Southbridge is a type of nomenclature used for this type of function controller.

AMD Accelerated Processing Unit in Ryzen cpus is designed to work with a motherboard I/O controller.

I believe the low level RAID 0 function could work for AMD 4600h as built in my Acer Nitro 5 but i think it's just not fully implemented yet due to possible business reasons or integration programming team hasn't completed yet or been assigned to complete.

 

[sinisterDei]

My Acer Nitro 5 does have a ene I/0 controller.

Yes it does. But the M.2 slots do not connect through this. The ENE controller supports things like the RTC, PS/2 support, fan control, GPIO, and a bunch of other stuff. What it does not do is handle PCIe lanes from the CPU. That means that the ENE I/O controller has nothing to do with NVMe RAID support of any kind.

Your NVMe slots will connect directly to the PCIe lanes on the processor, which means that it is up to the CPU to handle raid configuration. I'm not sure AMD exposes that functionality in the laptop SKUs, but even if they did it would still be up to Acer to present that option in the BIOS as well.

If you really, truly want RAID 0 and you only want the two P31 SSDs in your system, then what you can do (probably - haven't actually done it myself) would be to create a small C drive partition on the first SSD, let's say 100GB. Install Windows on that. Then create a second striped volume on the drive for the remaining space. I've never tried it, but can't imagine why it wouldn't work.

 

[SonDa5]

Yes it does. But the M.2 slots do not connect through this. The ENE controller supports things like the RTC, PS/2 support, fan control, GPIO, and a bunch of other stuff. What it does not do is handle PCIe lanes from the CPU. That means that the ENE I/O controller has nothing to do with NVMe RAID support of any kind.

Your NVMe slots will connect directly to the PCIe lanes on the processor, which means that it is up to the CPU to handle raid configuration. I'm not sure AMD exposes that functionality in the laptop SKUs, but even if they did it would still be up to Acer to present that option in the BIOS as well.

If you really, truly want RAID 0 and you only want the two P31 SSDs in your system, then what you can do (probably - haven't actually done it myself) would be to create a small C drive partition on the first SSD, let's say 100GB. Install Windows on that. Then create a second striped volume on the drive for the remaining space. I've never tried it, but can't imagine why it wouldn't work.

I'll shrink my existing windows 10 and program partition on the 0 nvme slot znd creat a raid 0 partition of it on the 2 nvme slot and verify. This will be done from booted Windows 10 environment.

Where did you get your information for Ryzen 4000 functional design?

From what i have read the RAID 0 function from AMD Ryzen APU is fully implemented on newer high end AMD chipset motherboards that utilize parallel main board physically attached io controller to achieve this due to multiple nvme switching contraints of AMD Ryzen APU.

Reference for thought.

https://www.techpowerup.com/256511/amd-ryzen-3000-matisse-i-o-controller-die-12nm-not-14nm#comments

I'd like to see official AMD design drawings on this if possible.

My theory for my particular mother board doing raid 0 in windows environment is because my motherboard is also designed to work with Intel and the controller may be identified in windows 10.

 

[sinisterDei]

The Ryzen 4000 SKUs do not have a chiplet based design, and do not have a separate I/O die - it's integrated into the chip. That doesn't much affect the functionality we're discussing, but it's a good tidbit to know.

I don't know whether AMD allowed RAID functionality on NVMe in either desktop or laptop APU form, it's not something I've ever tried. I do know it would have to be AMD that enables it though; like I mentioned, the NVMe SSDs interface *directly* with the CPU via the PCIe lanes, so there's no other devices in the middle to act as a controller. It's more of a process of elimination kind of deduction than it is first hand knowledge. With that said, I looked up your ENE controller's datasheet and saw that PCIe handling wasn't one of its abilities, so ruling it out was via the datasheet.

because my motherboard is also designed to work with Intel

That is not true. There may be Nitro laptops featuring Intel, and ones featuring AMD, but I assure you that their motherboards are not interchangeable and are bespoke designs for each vendor.