Intel vs Marvell SATA controllers?

Devrij

Devrij

Devrij

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On my Gigabyte Z77x D3H I have 2 intel SATA3 and 2 Marvell SATA3 ports, and then 4 SATA2 ports.

What are the differences between the intel and Marvell controllers? I've always understood the Marvell controllers to be inferior, but how bad are they? Or are they just as good now?
 
Personally I would only use the Marvell ports if you have to and disable them in the BIOS if they are not populated. If you have more than two SATA3 SSDs then you would probably need the marvell ports but if you are using SATA3 HDDs just stick them on the Intel SATA2 ports as they wont be able to transfer at anywhere near SATA3 speeds.
 
nightmare99 said:
Personally I would only use the Marvell ports if you have to and disable them in the BIOS if they are not populated. If you have more than two SATA3 SSDs then you would probably need the marvell ports but if you are using SATA3 HDDs just stick them on the Intel SATA2 ports as they wont be able to transfer at anywhere near SATA3 speeds.
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This is what I've done so far. I have been thinking about picking up a third SSD (mine are both the old slow gen 256MB/s), so was debating whether I would have to swap the ports around or just plug the new one into the Marvell port (I have all the other ports in use now). I suppose it would make sense to put the fastest drives in the fastest ports and then hope the slower drives aren't bottlenecked in the slower ports.

When you say to disable them if I'm not using them, why is that?
 
FallshirmjAEger said:
In the case of my P8z77 the Marvell ports share the same pcie lane as the slot just below my gfx card

something similar might occur with your board, but I've not found anything on Google.
Click to expand...

ah seen. I only have a PCI sound card and my gfx card in the expansion slots so not really an issue for me. Cheers for the help :)
 
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