Marvell vs Intel SATA controllers

wesimmo · 12 Feb 2013 at 10:05

I have a Gigabyte UD5H motherboard.

I have the option to eject my HDD, it says "Toshiba XXXXXX SCSI Device" when i click the Eject icon.

I have 2 SSDs connected via the Intel controller SATA3 ports as well, which are not ejectable, the HDD is connected via the Marvell SATA3 controller.

I'm guessing that it is something to do with the different controllers that is causing this, but i'm not sure what or how to change it so that the hard drive isn't ejectable?

Any ideas while i google for information?

Thanks.

nutcase · 12 Feb 2013 at 18:21

In the BIOS is the option to turn hot swap on or off, is that what you mean?

wesimmo · 12 Feb 2013 at 18:44

That's the issue, I can't find the option for hot swapping on the Marvell controllers, they only give you the choice of Disabled, IDE, SATA or RAID. It's in a completely separate menu to the Intel controllers

I don't want to have to move a SATA3 HDD to an Intel SATA2 port just to disable hot swapping....do I?

nutcase · 12 Feb 2013 at 19:38

Hmm, maybe I didn't notice it was only the intel ones. At the time I found it I was concentrating more on getting my ssd to boot again! Next time I reboot I'll have an explore. Last time I spent any time rummaging round a BIOS was when energy star was new, so it's a bit above my head

Orcvader · 12 Feb 2013 at 19:56

wesimmo said:
That's the issue, I can't find the option for hot swapping on the Marvell controllers, they only give you the choice of Disabled, IDE, SATA or RAID. It's in a completely separate menu to the Intel controllers

I don't want to have to move a SATA3 HDD to an Intel SATA2 port just to disable hot swapping....do I?

Not like you'll notice a difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 for HDDs, their transfer rates don't even saturate half of SATA 2.

wesimmo · 12 Feb 2013 at 20:14

OK cool, i'll just move it onto one of the SATA2s.

Though i would still like to know how to disable hot swapping on the Marvell controllers, i may want to add another SSD at some point.

Thanks.

Rab · 13 Feb 2013 at 14:07

the marvel controllers on my ud5 are so slow compared to intel & for most others i guess.
would use the intel controller tbh
as Orcvader said. u wont notice any diff with hdd on sata2 over sata3

Orcvader · 13 Feb 2013 at 18:49

Rab said:
the marvel controllers on my ud5 are so slow compared to intel & for most others i guess.
would use the intel controller tbh
as Orcvader said. u wont notice any diff with hdd on sata2 over sata3

Same here, and sometimes when you're transferring a file to the HDD connected to the Marvel the speed just randomly crashes. You're better off using the Intel SATA 2.

Phixsator · 14 Feb 2013 at 15:20

Ive tried moving my OCZ Vector from my SATA2 intel controller to my SATA3 marvell and what a piece of garbage that marvell controller is.. everything except read speed is worse by a lot..

What is even worse is that it cant go above 330/230 read/write on the marvell controller.. I know the marvell controller is capped at 5gbit but its not even close to being "capped out".. The drive itself is awwsome though.

ubersonic · 14 Feb 2013 at 16:23

Like others have said SATA 3 only really makes a difference for SSD's and even then its only for 500MB's transfer speeds, you'll still get full IOPS on SATA 2 and thats what counts. Personally I would put a HDD on the Intel SATA 2 ports if both the SATA 3's were taken, hell I would even put an SSD on them if both the SATA 3's were in use as the loss of transfer speeds would be more than countered by better IOPS.