Any experience with Velocity Solo SATA3 SSD Adapter?

[bbinnard]

I'm planning in using this device

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...D_Upgrade.html

to support a Samsung 840 Pro SSD on my ASUS P6T motherboard running Win7-64. My system currently boots from a 64GB Kingston SSD (a real early one) and it is getting full. (Why it is doing this is another matter altogether.)

My plan is to simply add the Samsung 840 pro and use the Kingston for Temp files and other transitory stuff.

I have 2 reasons for the Solo:

(1) I've run out of power connectors (my system has 2 optical drives and 2 HDD's in addition to the Kingston.)

(2) the P6T is SATA2 only and from what I've read the Samsung 840 does better with SATA3. Furthermore, the Solo has an extra SATA3 port so I could plug the Kingston into this port and presumably improve its speed as well.

I've held off ordering the 840 Pro pending resolution of the firmware issue (which I now believe is resolved) but I am aware of comments about "cheap" PCI/SATA chipsets etc. and would appreciate any info about this kind of configuration.

 

[masteryoda34]

I've never seen a device like that, interesting.

Are you planning on booting from the 840 pro? There have been some PCI-E based SSD products that do not support being a boot drive. I would check it out beforehand if you plan to boot from it.

 

[Hellhammer]

I would recommend connecting the SSD directly to a motherboard SATA port, even if it's SATA 3Gbps. Cheap PCIe cards can't provide real SATA 6Gbps speeds and some features may not be supported (especially toolboxes don't like PCIe cards). If you're out of SATA power connectors, just get a molex to SATA adapter as you very likely have molex ports not in use.

 

[tweakboy]

I would recommend connecting the SSD directly to a motherboard SATA port, even if it's SATA 3Gbps. Cheap PCIe cards can't provide real SATA 6Gbps speeds and some features may not be supported (especially toolboxes don't like PCIe cards). If you're out of SATA power connectors, just get a molex to SATA adapter as you very likely have molex ports not in use.

I agree. I have experience getting a SATA 3.0 card, the transfer was slower then my on board SATA 2.0 . You need to connect to mobo directly and if its only 2.0 you will get about 260mbps, if mobo is sata 3.0 you will get about 500mbps. I wouldn't even dare pair up that cheapo card with a Sammy 840 Pro. Your asking for headaches. Plug it into mobo trust me. Boot up times and loading times and data times will be the same speed. Just bulk transfers will go from under 300mbps to over 500mbps. gl

 

[jwilliams4200]

I'm not sure why you want to spend money on a Samsung 840 Pro and a PCIe adapter when the rest of your hardware is so old.

As Hellhammer wrote, you are unlikely to see good performance with a cheap PCIe adapter. I tried to get some details on the Apricorn card, but I was unable to find what controller chip it is using. But I have never seen good performance out of any cheap PCIe adapter.

If you want the best performance, you should consider upgrading your motherboard / CPU. Get a motherboard with 6Gbps Intel SATA ports. You can get a decent H77 motherboard for about $70 and a Celeron G540 CPU for $50. That will give you two Intel 6Gbps SATA ports (and 4 Intel 3Gbps SATA ports). Depending on what RAM you have you may need to buy new DIMMs, but that is also cheap.

Once you have that taken care of, then you can consider a Samsung 840 Pro!

 

[Brahmzy]

Ditch your old ass system. You can't expect new stuff to work with old stuff. And stop investing money in to old hardware. The P67>on intel 6G controllers are the best/cheapest option for good SSD performance.

 

[bbinnard]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I was planning on cloning my 64GB SSD to the 840 Pro and booting from that. My plan was to simply use the clone software that comes with the 840 to clone the Kingston onto the Samsung, switch the BIOS boot order, and then wipe the Kingston.

The Kingston would have some new drive letter but I can easily reassign Temp etc. to whatever it turns out to be.

Obviously it is overall throughput that I am concerned about. SATA3's 500Mbps is very attractive. But if the Apricorn Solo won't deliver this speed because of a poorly performing chipset then indeed I would be shooting myself in the foot by getting it.

I'll send a message to the Solo Tech Support people and see what they say. Will post respons here if/when I get one.

 

[groberts101]

it uses the Marvell 9125 6G chip. As others have already said.. that won't even come close to utilizing the ability of the newest gen SSD's like the 840. I'd pass and use the money towards a better system upgrade.

 

[bbinnard]

Here are the texts from my inquiry to the Solo manufacturer about the throughput capabilities of the Solo SSD adapter:

Me to Solo:

I am considering purchasing a Solo PCI SSD adapter to add a Samsung 840 Pro SSD to my Asus P6T motherboard running Win7-64. I do have an available PCI-2 slot to support the Solo adapter. My question is - will the adapter actually provide SATA3 transfer speeds on my system?

The P6T is a SATA2 motherboard and has no SATA3 support, but it otherwise fits my needs well. The Solo seems to be a good way to keep my current motherboard and still achieve SATA3 speeds from the 840 Pro SSD. But I have read several reviews of the Solo that said it really cannot provide these speeds.

It may be that those reviews were from systems with other kinds of problems, so I am asking for clarification before I purchase the Solo.

Thanks for whatever info you can provide.


Solo to me:

The Solox2 is capable of delivering full Sata3 speed, as long as the SSD is capable. SoloX2 was designed to upgrade computer systems exactly like the one you describe below, that don't have an on the board sata 3 controller.

Please let me know if you have any questions.


Me to Solo:

Thank you for responding to my inquiry about the Solo's data rate capabilities. Your reply mentions the Solo-X2 which I thought was for people with Macintosh systems. Apparently I failed to read the specs for various models of the Solo adapter sufficiently carefully. I see now that the X2 model supports 550 Mbps speeds for read and write operations, whereas the plain Solo supports 400Mbps reads and 220Mbps writes.

So now it looks like I will have to decide if the extra R/W speeds are worth the increased cost. I guess that is not surprising.

============================

Since I plan on using the 540 Pro as a boot drive it's not clear to me that the difference in R/W speeds between the Solo and Solo-X2 is worth the roughly double cost of the X2 model.

 

[jwilliams4200]

And if you fall for that, I've got a (PCIe) bridge to sell you... :thumbsup:

 

[bbinnard]

Cute - but ok, what throughput do you think I'll get? And if it is really poor I can always return the Solo to Amazon or B&H. So what is my downside risk really?

PS: It's actually the Brooklyn bridge that gets sold so often. I've walked across it several times. Very nice. And of course it has a spectacular history. It's the only suspension bridge with diagonal cables which make for some interesting photos if you are in the right places.

 

[groberts101]

all you need to do is remember that the company is trying to sell you something aned add a bit of salt there. The chip inside is what will be the limiting factor with the max speeds being around what is advertised. Also keep in mind that those numbers will likely only come from a fresh empty SSD with slightly slower result from one that's been used/tested and carries the OS overhead. My guess is around 380/200 or so. Hardly worth putting such a fast SSD on that cheaper model, IMHO.

On the other hand.. that other X2 model using the Marvell 9182 may be well worth it for an older system as it supports much faster speeds due to the extra PCI/e lane it implements. The 9182 is a much better chip for faster SSD's even if it doesn't quite have the lower latency and max throughput that the Intel 6G chips do.

Many think that the older ICH10R is going to bottleneck them and rush out find Marvell or ASMedia based cards to get faster speeds without realizing that Intels drivers and caching benefits are where it's at for an OS volume. Because unless you've got faster storage to match the OS drives potential transfer speeds?.. the system will always be bottlenecked when you're reading and writing to/from the storage volume. An SSD will only make files stored ON the SSD faster.

 

[bbinnard]

to get the 840 Pro now with the thought of moving it to a new system sometime next year.

I usually get a new system every few years, basically after each new version of Windows comes out. But my sense is I'll be waiting quite a while before moving to Win8 (or 9). I am aware that my P6T is old and slow, but with the Kingston SSD (also old and relatively slow) it actually performs fairly well.

Here are the speeds I am currently getting from the Kingston 64GB SSD

http://sdrv.ms/SvgWKx

so even with the slower Solo I'd be getting a nice improvement. And since there is nothing I can do about the ever increasing size of the WINSXS and Installer folders I am going to have to replace the Kingston with something fairly soon.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Cute - but ok, what throughput do you think I'll get? And if it is really poor I can always return the Solo to Amazon or B&H. So what is my downside risk really?

PS: It's actually the Brooklyn bridge that gets sold so often. I've walked across it several times. Very nice. And of course it has a spectacular history. It's the only suspension bridge with diagonal cables which make for some interesting photos if you are in the right places.

In the Newegg reviews, people are reporting maxing out at 350-380MB/Sec. Since you'll probably hit the high 200s with your onboard SATA and a more capable SSD, and random will still be similar, I'd probably forego the Velocity adapter and just use your onboard ports.

I think it's hilarious that a 1366 rig is suddenly "outdated" but that's another thread.

 

[kelporch]

Hi there,I have just installed a velocity solox2 on my rig,I am in a similar situation to you,I have been using a g-skill phoenix ssd and I was limited to speeds of 175 mb/s write on sata 2,this now has increased to 250 write and 275 read with the velocity,and the system is snappier...very happy with it,I had to return my vector ssd yesterday as it died? when the replacement comes I will post some speeds......cheers kel

Oh I would only purchase the Velocity solox2 as this card is sata3 with speeds up to 550 mb/s,would suit the samsung 840