Marvell MV91xx SATA storage driver - miniport or storport?

[krose]

Driver package contains two folders, miniport and storport. I tested both, installed using device manager, and give similar performance with Atto disk benchmark. So what's the difference?

 

[groberts101]

not sure.. been a while since I tested all the variations. Usually best to just run the exe file and install the Magnidriver to update the driver.

I still prefer the 1051 series drivers due to more aggressive caching benefits they offer.

 

[krose]

Storport driver gives me the 0x000001E BSOD coming out of sleep. Miniport driver works fine, so that's what I'll use.

 

[groberts101]

You don't need to update it through device mgr. You simply click on the exe file called "drvSetup" to update the drivers.

 

[krose]

I was using device manager to switch between the two drivers, plus the MS driver for the heck of it. I use an unattended install of Windows 7 with my drivers injected into the image so I needed to decide which one I was going to use.

 

[groberts101]

I get ya now. I do the same thing but just flip them over to a USB stick and go back and forth in testing to see which seems stronger. Then I just delete the ones I don't want in the registry anymore.

I assume that you are using HDD on that chip and speed isn't capped.. but if you ever use an SSD on the same chip you could try to bump the PCI-E frequency to let up on the bandwidth caps associated by the Marvell's internal PCI-E x1 lane limitation.

With 2 SSD in R0 I got almost another 100MB/s reads and 50MB/s writes out of that chip. Have to just go until the gfx card puts up a fuss and then back off a few mhz to stay cool and stable.

Or just move to a native 6G chipped system and use that Marvell stuff for HDD as it was intended to be used. lol

Good luck with it all.

 

[krose]

Motherboard is a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4. I have a Crucial M4 128GB on the Intel SATA3 port, two WD Blue 640GB for storage on Intel SATA2 ports, and a WD blue 640GB in a Kingwin EZ-Dock for backup on the Marvell eSATA port. It works well enough, I am just kind of anal about using the latest drivers, lol. My previous board used the almost equally crappy Jmicron chip for eSATA. I look forward to the day when third-party chips aren't required. Thanks for your help.

 

[groberts101]

Don't knock that Marvell chip too much since it beats all others(3rd party onboard chips) when used for slower SSD(even raids) or faster HDD raids.

And no problem.. sounds like you have iyour cofig all figured out and good luck with everything.

PS.. a raided HDD setup would really allow you to take advantage of that SSD in transfers between SSD and storage volumes. Bu then again.. that's probably just the hardcore raider in me coming out int the open again, I guess. lol