Which Sata 3 Controller?

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
11,494
Location
Derbyshire
Hey all.

My P55A Marvell chip has been claimed by many to be crap.
There are various Sata 3 controllers out, but I have no idea if they are actually any good or not!

Are there any good pcie Sata 3 controllers about for about £30? I would be looking to buy an Agility 3 120Gb or a pair of Agility 3 60Gb.
 
i've looked into this Cause I have the same problem with my GA-UD3R . Its also got the **** marvell controller.

PCI-E will only run at 5Gbps so you still wont get true Sata3 speeds. Only way is get a new system :/ Sata3 x58 is dead tech
 
5Gbps will be better than the craptastic Marvel Sata 6Gbps. The max speed I am not too worried about it is more the general perfromance. The Marvel may look like the real thing on paper but it doesn't even support trim!
 
I've got a GA-X38-DQ6 and have installed a U3S6 into the second 16x PCIe v2 slot. The Asus card runs on 4 v2 lanes via a bridge chip, but I gather that the Marvell chip connects to that at at 500MB/sec. I've ran a quick benchmark and the results were lower for this Agility 3 than my old Vertex 2E on the ICH9R.

Just noticed that I'm running on PCIe v1 since I added the U3S6. I guess I've got some googling to do.
 
Interested to see suggestions too.. I have a Gigabyte EX58-UD5 board, Sata2 only, and want to go SSD.. have looked at the revodrive, just a bit too pricey for me at the moe...
 
mglover070588 said:
Any more comments anyone?
Click to expand...
This individual reports the Marvell 9123/9120 Driver v1042 = Better Performance over the default msahci driver.

Marvell 9123/9120 Driver v1042 = Better Performanc... - Crucial Community


So far i have only tried one Crucial M4 64GB ssd on a Crosshair 4 motherboard in ahci which has native 6GB/s support on the SB850. Also tried the same ssd in ahci Intel 3GB/s on P7P55D-E, note: did not use the 6GB/s Marvell controller on the P7P55D-E because it reduces Graphics PCI-E bandwidth to 8x.


Sata3 @ 6GB/s


Sata2 @ 3GB/s


Benchmark numbers quite clearly favour the 6GB/s mode.

General day to day uses in Windows 7 x64 feels the same to me be it sata3 or sata2.


The only game i test/play is ArmA OA Arrowhead +BAF+PMC, and i max the settings very high @1920x1080 - view distance is 6346, i spend most of the time in the Editor testing different game parameters and modules etc etc. And, imho i personally could not tell any difference in-game play between sata 6GB/s or 3GB/s, but that's just me, maybe others can tell the difference?. The greatest difference over a standard sata mechanical hard drive in ArmA OA+BAF+PMC+1.59 game patch for me personally is the slightly faster level loading and quicker texture loading and a much smoother game world using a solid sate drive.

And updating the firmware from 0001 to 002 on the M4 made no difference to me in windows or ArmAOA (except degradation lol), but i suspected it wouldn't make the drive super fly, just thought i'd might as well try anyway :)


Sata2 @3GB/s
 
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