Intel or Marvell SATA3 Port?

[dr0be]

Just bought a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P motherboard along with my other new parts for my new build, which includes a Crucial M4 128GB SSD (bought earlier on sale, already flashed to 009 firmware). I did some googling and pretty much everywhere I saw said to use the intel port and not the marvell because marvell is crap and doesn't support TRIM.

Is that the only reason or has that changed now?

(Also: I just downloaded the latest Intel RST driver. Installing the driver after Windows is what to do I suppose? And should I use AHCI or RAID before installing Windows - couldn't find a solid answer; read somewhere that Intel recommends RAID.)

 

[nanaki333]

marvell is fine and with the intel port, you won't use the drive at it's full potential (sata6.0)

 

[fffblackmage]

RAID mode is recommended for the Intel SATA ports. IIRC, RAID mode is essentially AHCI mode with the addition of RAID options.

 

[nanaki333]

RAID mode is recommended for the Intel SATA ports. IIRC, RAID mode is essentially AHCI mode with the addition of RAID options.

yeah. as long as you do AHCI at the very least, you're golden.

 

[dr0be]

marvell is fine and with the intel port, you won't use the drive at it's full potential (sata6.0)

SATA3 = 6.0 Gb/s, no? If I have SATA3 ports and a SATA3 SSD, why wouldn't it be running at full potential/

RAID mode is recommended for the Intel SATA ports. IIRC, RAID mode is essentially AHCI mode with the addition of RAID options.

Ok, that is what I read as well, just was making sure. I plan on having a 500GB WD HDD for data, running SATA in RAID won't affect that, will it?

 

[nanaki333]

SATA3 = 6.0 Gb/s, no? If I have SATA3 ports and a SATA3 SSD, why wouldn't it be running at full potential/

because the intel ports only run at sata2/3.0Gb, which will bottleneck your m4.

 

[Old Hippie]

The Marvell ports are known to be horrible and I can't believe anyone would recommend them over the Intel ports.

Your board has Intel 6Gb/s ports but even if it only had Intel SATA3Gb/s ports I'd say try it because the Intel ports are faster in some areas.

 

[Diogenes2]

because the intel ports only run at sata2/3.0Gb, which will bottleneck your m4.

No..

There are 2 x Intel SATA 3 ( 6.0 Gb/s ) ports and 4 x SATA 2.. + 2 Marvell SATA 3.

I would disable the Marvell controller unless you have more than 2 SATA 3 devices, or 6 total SATA drives..

I have found the Marvell controller to be inferior to the Intel ..

I also agree that you should configure the Intel controller for RAID in the BIOS, just in case you decide to set up RAID or SSD caching at a later date..

( I see Old Hippie is saying this while I typed )

 

[dr0be]

I would disable the Marvell controller unless you have more than 2 SATA 3 devices, or 6 total SATA drives..

I also agree that you should configure the Intel controller for RAID in the BIOS, just in case you decide to set up RAID or SSD caching at a later date..

Yeah, from what I read I planned on disabling them since I only have 1 SATA3 device atm. So change BIOS to RAID, install Windows, then install intel RST drivers? Or is there some way I should install the drivers during the OS installation?

 

[Diogenes2]

As long as you set BIOS to RAID before installing Win7, the the proper drivers will be installed during the set-up ..
Install RST after Win7 is up and running and you have installed the ChipSet drivers..

 

[imaheadcase]

You should not have to install anything after you install windows. Win7 already changes what you need as long as you have bios set to AHCI you are golden.

 

[nanaki333]

No..

There are 2 x Intel SATA 3 ( 6.0 Gb/s ) ports and 4 x SATA 2.. + 2 Marvell SATA 3.

I would disable the Marvell controller unless you have more than 2 SATA 3 devices, or 6 total SATA drives..

I have found the Marvell controller to be inferior to the Intel ..

I also agree that you should configure the Intel controller for RAID in the BIOS, just in case you decide to set up RAID or SSD caching at a later date..

( I see Old Hippie is saying this while I typed )

i stand corrected. i maybe i should RTFM. i just checked my mobo and sure enough.... it uses 2x intel 320 in raid0 though, and an m4 on a marvell port for steam.

 

[groberts101]

The Marvell's internal PCI-E x1 speed limitation should be reason enough to ignore it for anything other than sata2 SSD/HDD. Only other chip from Marvell that I would consider using for a fast 6G SSD would be the 9182 with it's x2 lane implementation and it can be had on premium mobo's(X58 and 6 series).

FYI.. the Marvell does just fine for raiding HDD's and slightly outpaces everything else short of Intel.

 

[dr0be]

Just to let everyone know, I got my build up and running and it sure is nasty. Scored 7.5/7.9 in WEI, although that doesn't mean too much. M4 SSD was reading ~500MB/s and writing ~175MB/s in ATObench.

I did run into some problems during POST about "ROM option not invoked" or something and then it was hanging on the windows screen. I disabled marvell controller completely since I'm not using it and the problem is gone - weird.

 

[kapalua12]

I vote for the Vertex 3 MAX IOPS. Mine is on a Dell Optiplex 990 of all things (work computer), and I thought I must have Marvell Chip since it's a Dell and known to cut corners. I installed the Vertex 3 on SATA 0 anyway and thinking it was a Marvell chip, ran ATTO. Now I know it must be a native Intel 6GB/sec controller. No problems so far. Never thought this would work on this new Dell business oriented 990. Here's the ATTO: