Crucial M4 and the dreaded Marvell 6Gbps controller

[dkm777]

Hi folks,

The day when I get my first SSD is coming near and since I have decided long ago that it's going to be a Crucial M4 256GB because of its great reliability record I come here with a question. How well does an M4 work with the dreadful Marvell 9128? Since both the controller on my board and in the SSD are made by the same company, maybe they get along better than other combinations that so many people curse around here and elsewhere?

 

[Old Hippie]

LOL!

Why do people constantly think they have something special that will fix that controller?

You could stand on your head on the full moon with roman candles shooting from between your legs while singing an opera and it's not gonna make any difference. 🙂

In short...."No" it won't make any difference.

You'll never make a silk purse from a cow's ear either. 🙂

 

[bryanW1995]

My old boss used to say that you can't shine a turd. The Marvell 9128 is a turd. You're better off running an ssd in an intel sata II port.

256gb m4 is $199 these days. It's hard to tell where these things end up, but that seems like the best deal you'll see at least until BF this year.

 

[sequoia464]

LOL!

Why do people constantly think they have something special that will fix that controller?

You could stand on your head on the full moon with roman candles shooting from between your legs while singing an opera and it's not gonna make any difference. 🙂

In short...."No" it won't make any difference.

You'll never make a silk purse from a cow's ear either. 🙂

i prefered swinging a dead chicken over my head, wearing an aluminum foil hat while facing Stonehenge. I swear, I think that I got better transfer speeds afterwards. ... maybe ...

Sad part is, I bought a board specifically for that controller, afterwards only used it for my optical drives. Replaced the board when AMD brought out their Sata3 southbridge.

 

[bryanW1995]

Was that an African chicken or a European chicken?

 

[dkm777]

256gb m4 is $199 these days. It's hard to tell where these things end up, but that seems like the best deal you'll see at least until BF this year.

Duuuuuude! That's one hell of a price! On this side of the pond its more like $350 :'(.

 

[wpcoe]

It's all relative. Here in Thailand they're over US$500...

 

[bryanW1995]

You should get somebody you know/trust in the US to buy for you. In the past 2 weeks the 256gb m4 has been $199 at newegg, amazon, buy.com, and tigerdirect at various times. I was almost mad that I spent $430 for 2 of them the week before that deal came out, but that's still a great price so I'm happy.

 

[wpcoe]

If shipments are intercepted by Thai Customs -- which they routinely are via package shippers (FedEx, DHL, etc) and occasionally are via USPS -- in addition to whatever duty applies, sometimes a THB5000 (~US$150) "warehousing" charge is added on.

Which is probably why the M4 is over US$500.

As an aside, wine imported from many countries (including USA) has a 400% duty...

 

[Zorander]

I'm running the M4 with my SATAII port (in preference to the SATA3 Marvell port on my mobo). Still blazing fast.

It's not the end of the world if you're not running a SATA3 drive at its theoretical optimal speed.

 

[bryanW1995]

If shipments are intercepted by Thai Customs -- which they routinely are via package shippers (FedEx, DHL, etc) and occasionally are via USPS -- in addition to whatever duty applies, sometimes a THB5000 (~US$150) "warehousing" charge is added on.

Which is probably why the M4 is over US$500.

As an aside, wine imported from many countries (including USA) has a 400% duty...

Ugh!

Maybe Vilnius is better at least...

 

[dkm777]

The problem is that I have no relatives or friends that go to USA frequently. If I tried to buy from some online store (are there any that ship worldwide? NewEgg surely doesn't.) then on top of rather steep shipping costs I'd have to pay Import Tax and VAT. I'm sure it will end up more expensive than buying locally. Oh well, a few more paychecks...