Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock doesnt do SATA II speeds despite product info

D

Deusfaux

Gawd
Joined
Apr 11, 2006
Messages
756
email I just sent Vantec:
My NST-D100 I just got brand new does not run at SATA II speeds (3.0gbps). It is limited to SATA 1 speeds (1.5gbps).

I confirmed this using both HD Tach and HD Tune with a Western Digital 640GB SATA II drive.

Burst speeds were limited to under 150mb/s when the drive was in the dock using eSATA connection.

When the drive was plugged into the same SATA port on the motherboard without using the dock, the burst speeds shot up to 240mb/s, above the SATA I speed limit.

Vantec advertises this drive of being capable of SATA II speeds but I have found it is currently not.

What do you suggest?
Click to expand...

Anyone have a different experience? This is not a happy surprise.
 
#1. How would I get SATA II speeds that I do with the drive, whatsoever, if there was a SATA I speed limiting jumper?

#2. These drives don't come with jumpers.
 
I suggest you chill bro. Burst speeds are not real-world performance. Sata drives are only capable of ~65mb/s sustained reads and a bit less for writes so at 150mb/s the interface is plenty fast.
 
who said I'm excited?

Yeah, great advice. "Just ignore the fact the product doesn't work as advertised and you're not getting what you paid for." I'm well aware of the differences between burst speeds and sustained speeds.

The proof is in the pudding:

in dock:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/deusfaux/dockisgen1.jpg

out of dock:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/deusfaux/driveisfine.jpg


Also your information is out of date. My drives sustained rates are over 90 and over 100 for my 640GB and 300GB WD's, respectively.
 
Are you using the JBMicron e-SATA Controller on the board, or are you using the SATA headers on the motherboard internally?

If you're using the JMB363 ports on the back i/o shield, have you set the JMB363 to AHCI mode in the BIOS? Have you installed drivers for the JMB363 in your OS?

Very unlikely it's a Vantec problem, as there is nearly zero intervention possible, it is supposed to plug and work with a properly configured system. User error sounds like the culprit here, or a faulty eSATA header or cable.
 
It's an ASUS P5K Deluxe in the case of those screenies, and all 6 ports should be SATA 3.0gbps (they're the 6 SATA ports an ICH9R can support). There were issues with booting back up when I tried to use the same specific SATA port after a restart, after switching from the dock to naked drive or vice versa. That's why the port # changes.

However, I also tested on a P5K vanilla as well, where I used the exact same SATA port between switching and got the same results (over the SATA 1 speed cap when the drive was out of the dock). But it only has an ICH9 southbridge, so no support for IMSM and I needed to move to the Deluxe to make screencaps as hard evidence.

I used an eSATA to SATA bracket adapter (the dock comes with one), to rule out differences between different SATA controllers (JMicron's eSATA vs Intel ICH9X). The eSATA cable I used came with the dock as well.
 
Pull apart the dock and start googling the chips. Eventually you will find the right one and figure out whether it's Vantec's fault or not.
 
I'm not feeling so keen on being adventurous after just having got it, when I'm still within my return window. Good idea, though.
 
Deusfaux said:
I'm not feeling so keen on being adventurous after just having got it, when I'm still within my return window. Good idea, though.
Click to expand...

Probably already tried it, but worth a shot:

Have you done any googling for other customer reviews with this same experience? Or even a professional review that either shows a good shot of the chips or confirms your suspicions?
 
yeah there's not much on it out there yet.

most talk of it is reviews on newegg or ncix - the latter at which I already started a thread.

Maybe I'll take another look, but honestly I wouldnt be surprised if people didn't notice or looked over it.

This guy's bursts are also under the SATA 1 limit using a SATA 2 drive (we don't know his controller though)

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/Vantec_NexStar_HDD_Dock/19.jpg

and here:

http://www.futurelooks.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/vantec_nexstar_hd_dock-10.jpg

and here, which mirrors my own findings (out of the dock the same drive's bursts shoot up):

http://www.mikhailtech.com/Reviews/Vantec/NexStar_Hard_Drive_Dock/page3
 
Shaggy3zx said:
I suggest you chill bro. Burst speeds are not real-world performance. Sata drives are only capable of ~65mb/s sustained reads and a bit less for writes so at 150mb/s the interface is plenty fast.
Click to expand...

As someone else said, I get sustained read and write speeds well above 65MB/sec. I do a number of drive to drive transfers and regularly hit 80-100MB/sec sustained speeds.

 
I have noticed similar results under Vista with other E-sata externals that were supposedly sata II. My Silverstone and my WD give me low burst numbers, and normal read/write numbers. I have always chalked it up to external drives usually being "optimized for quick removal" instead of "optimized for best performance". I never really cared since real performance was not hindered. Only in the benchmarks do we really notice "burst speeds".
 
GORANKAR said:
I have noticed similar results under Vista with other E-sata externals that were supposedly sata II. My Silverstone and my WD give me low burst numbers, and normal read/write numbers. I have always chalked it up to external drives usually being "optimized for quick removal" instead of "optimized for best performance". I never really cared since real performance was not hindered. Only in the benchmarks do we really notice "burst speeds".
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea though - a drive optimized for quick removal would (logically, anyway) bypass cache in the chance that you pulled the drive without "safely ejecting" it first. An internal drive could use the cache normally since there would not be a concern of pulling out the drive.
 
Shaggy3zx said:
I suggest you chill bro. Burst speeds are not real-world performance. Sata drives are only capable of ~65mb/s sustained reads and a bit less for writes so at 150mb/s the interface is plenty fast.
Click to expand...
this
who cares about burst speeds on any drive, especially an external? :rolleyes:
 
Because affected burst speeds are A symptom, not THE problem. (dock works at SATA gen 1?)

Some of us actually give a shit about where we spend our money and thus hold manufacturers to higher standards - like, say, expecting their products to work as advertised.
 
Deusfaux said:
Because affected burst speeds are A symptom, not THE problem. (dock works at SATA gen 1?)

Some of us actually give a shit about where we spend our money and thus hold manufacturers to higher standards - like, say, expecting their products to work as advertised.
Click to expand...

Try booting with the e-sata drive already attached and on. Right click on the drive, click properties, then under the hardware tab click properties and then under the policies tab insure that "optimize for performance" is checked. Then benchmark. See if that works.

It may not be the enclosure but how windows is treating the drive in the enclosure. If "optimize for quick removal" is checked then, you may not get impressive "burst" benchmarks. However, sequential reads and writes should be normal, and you should be able to enable NCQ on the drive.

If that does not work and you are still truly bothered by this issue, I recommend calling the enclosures tech support number and seeing if they can help you. Or just return the enclosure and buy a different brand. Read some reviews to be certain it's replacement actually works in sata2
 
I have yet to find any evidence on the net from reviews or otherwise that it CAN work in SATA gen 2, apart from the claim on the box.

I'll try what you suggest, though
 
Sorry to necro this, but im disgusted that these companies are allowed to get away with this b.s.

This permittal of selling stuff with vague wording is disgraceful, a product marketted as having 'up to 3Gb/s' performance, when the chip inside is only SATA 1 compliant is knowingly misleading of customers.

I got myself a Vantec Nexstar CX (NST-200SU) and the vantec website is in utter conflict with the bridge chip they use inside it.

Aluminum Casing Cools Down Your Hard Drive
Transfer Rates Up to 3Gbps w/eSATA
Transfer Rates Up to 480Mbps w/USB 2.0
Easily Add Storage to Any System with USB or eSATA
Hot-Swappable: Plug & Play Without Rebooting
Attractive Blue LED Indicates Power & HDD Activity
Click to expand...

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/374

The INIC-1610 provides an advanced solution to connect SATA devices to USB or SATA Host with integrated CPU and embedded SRAM. To provide high performance and cost effective solution,
the INIC-1610 integrates USB-PHY Mass Storage Class Bulk-Only USB function, SATA link/PHY core and microprocessor into a single ASIC. The INIC-1610 provides the data transfer rate of up to 60 MB/sec connecting to a 1.5G SATA interface.

Data transfer rate of up to 60 MB/sec on USB side, 150 MB/sec on SATA side.
Click to expand...

http://www.initio.com/Html/Doc/INIC-1610 Product Brief.pdf

the eSATA connection does not support NCQ (USB DOES) so i cannot even accept that Initio markets this as a SATA II compliant bridge chip =_=
 
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