Marvell 9128 - Revisited (briefly)

[DIYself1]

I hope one of the great minds out there can assist me.  And I apologize in advance for bringing up the Marvell 9128 topic again, but I can't seem to find an answer to my questions anywhere.  My questions:

(1) I would like to get the most out of my Intel 510 SSD SATA 3 drive, and like many others, I dealt with tons of BSODs when connecting this drive as a single drive (I don't want an SSD RAID array) to my Marvell 9128 controller.  So for now it's on the Intel ICH10R.  Has this also been the issue when using motherboards that have the Marvell 9182 controller?  All of the information from the numerous online forums state that the 9182 doesn't have it's bandwith capped by a single PCIe lane like the 9128.  But how is the overall, generic functionality?

(2) I've noticed on the station-drivers.com site that they post new Marvell 9128 BIOSes and drivers; does anyone know what changes have been made to these new posts, much less how to obtain a changelog?  They certainly aren't listed on the station-drivers site.  Have single SSD drive compatibility issues with the 9128 controller been solved?

(3) Finally, the TRIM issue.  I did e-mail an editor from one of the major PC mags in the USA, asking if they could find out if the Marvell 9128 passes TRIM commands or not.  The response they got from Gigbayte was this:  "Marvel SE9128 controller can support TRIM command only with Win7 built-in driver, however, Win7 built-in driver doesn’t support SATA hot plug. With Marvell’s own driver, it doesn’t support TRIM command, but it enables hot plug."  Is this the response that people in the building community agree with, or not really?  And is also the issue for the Marvell 9182 controller?

Thank you in adavnce for your time, opinions, and insight.


And FYI, my system:

Intel Core i7 930 at stock speed
Gigabyte X58A-UD5 rev. 1.0 Bios F7
12 Gb Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K3/6GX  (x2)
Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
Intel SSD 510, 120 Gb Sata 3
Seagate ST3100528AS x2 (not in RAID)
3x EVGA GTX 465 in TRI-SLI configuration
Lite-on iHBS112 Blu-Ray Burner

[Lsdmeasap]

]I dealt with tons of BSODs when connecting this drive as a single drive (I don't want an SSD RAID array) to my Marvell 9128 controller.

Why question anything further after that, you know what you'd be expecting whether TRIM is enabled or not.  Yes, the drivers and firmware have gotten better overtime, but that applies to speeds only really, BSOD's, and hangs or stutters still occur.

[Dark Mantis]

I am afraid I would have to agree that with the Marvell 9128 controller it doesn't matter how you dress it up, crap is crap and it doesn't matter what colour you paint it! Although it is better than when it came out it is still not reliable and best used for optical drives or large slower data backups.

[DIYself1]

Thank you both for your input!

One of the reasons I was asking about the Marvell 9182 as well was that a friend of mine had offered to give me his old G1-Sniper, and I was trying to figure out if it was worth trying out my SSD with the 9182 controller - unless that's a piece fo crap too.

I just didn't want to suffer from the same amount of headaches and BSODs that I got from my original 9128 controller.


Cheers.

[Dark Mantis]

As far as I am aware the Marvell 9182 controller chip works fine. I haven't heard any bad comments about it so I guess that means it works ok.