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will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?

will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« on: July 28, 2010, 10:20:21 pm »
this is my mobo
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2989#sp

i want to buy a 6Gbps SSD and realise my mobo has only 3Gbps SATA.

so i thought i needed to buy this
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-U3S6-2-Port-SATA3-(6Gbps)-and-2-Port-USB3-Superspeed-PCI-E-Combo-Controller

but after reading this article im now under the impression that my PCI-E x 4 slot will not have enough bandwidth and will max out at 250MB/s when the drive i want is 350MB/s.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583.html

does anyone know if this is the case?

am i really going to have to buy a new mobo just to get SATA3?

Dark Mantis

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Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2010, 10:31:40 pm »
I would say that is about right because the PCIe x4 slot is limited already and it also shares bandwidth so it would probably be lucky to sustain the figure you said.
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2010, 10:44:41 pm »
bugger, i wonder how many people will get caught out by this and not realise that just because they buy the PCI-E card think they're getting full usage from their SSD's.

thanks for replying.

Dark Mantis

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Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2010, 10:47:41 pm »
You're welcome happy to have helped. That's always the poroblem, you buy the latest and greatest only to have iot superceded tomorrow :'( Even I was caught out like that, I purchased the flagship motherboard the X58A-UD7 only to have them bring out the UD9 a couple of weeks later. >:(
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2010, 01:43:27 am »
this is my mobo
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2989#sp

i want to buy a 6Gbps SSD and realise my mobo has only 3Gbps SATA.

so i thought i needed to buy this
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-U3S6-2-Port-SATA3-(6Gbps)-and-2-Port-USB3-Superspeed-PCI-E-Combo-Controller

but after reading this article im now under the impression that my PCI-E x 4 slot will not have enough bandwidth and will max out at 250MB/s when the drive i want is 350MB/s.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583.html

does anyone know if this is the case?

am i really going to have to buy a new mobo just to get SATA3?

From what I can see the PCI-E x4 slot on your board is PCI-E 1.0. So 250 MB/s per lane x4 = 1000 MB/s. You should have plenty of bandwidth but is the ASUS card backwards compatible to PCI-E 1.0? The specs say nothing as far as see. My educated guess would be it would work just fine. If you are running a single GPU you could always use the 2nd PCI-E x16 2.0 slot if need be.
My 2 cents
Bill
Main Box*i7 930@3.5 Ghz*CM V6 GT*GA X58A-UD3R v2 FB bios*3x4 gig Patriot DDR3 1600 EL*EVGA GTX 460 1 gig*OCZ Vertex 3 MI 120 gig*WD  Blue 500 gig*ASUS DRW-24B3LT*Samsung SH-S223L*Teac Floppy*Corsair AX750*Rosewill R6AR6-BK case*Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1

Dark Mantis

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Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2010, 07:49:34 am »
From what I can see the PCI-E x4 slot on your board is PCI-E 1.0. So 250 MB/s per lane x4 = 1000 MB/s. You should have plenty of bandwidth but is the ASUS card backwards compatible to PCI-E 1.0? The specs say nothing as far as see. My educated guess would be it would work just fine. If you are running a single GPU you could always use the 2nd PCI-E x16 2.0 slot if need be.
My 2 cents
Bill

Actually Bill, looking at it again and I think that you are indeed right.  As long as the bandwidth wasn't too much impaired by the graphics use in theory it should be ok. I apologise avinitski for my initial thoughts on the subject and I can't really see a problem with the compatibility of the card. :-[
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

F5BJR

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Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2010, 11:35:01 am »
*
not the same price but you can found

RocketRaid RR640 or RR644 ( speed transfert is 2Go/s ) PCi-e X 4

Pierre
GA-X58A-UD5 I7 930
6x2Go KINGSTON 9905403-084
ENERMAX Modu 82+
Sharkoon REBEL12
2*HD5770SingleSlot+PCI-HD4350
2xSENSY 26'
2xBOX 5HD HotPlug
3xBOX 34HD MaxinPower
2x AD4SR5HPMU Addonics 8x1ToWDGreen 
4x 1TO RAID10 ICH10+1 BACKUP OS
2 * RR622 HighPoint
Sata 88SX7042  
AverMedia H727

Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2010, 07:18:19 pm »
From what I can see the PCI-E x4 slot on your board is PCI-E 1.0. So 250 MB/s per lane x4 = 1000 MB/s. You should have plenty of bandwidth but is the ASUS card backwards compatible to PCI-E 1.0? The specs say nothing as far as see. My educated guess would be it would work just fine. If you are running a single GPU you could always use the 2nd PCI-E x16 2.0 slot if need be.
My 2 cents
Bill

Actually Bill, looking at it again and I think that you are indeed right.  As long as the bandwidth wasn't too much impaired by the graphics use in theory it should be ok. I apologise avinitski for my initial thoughts on the subject and I can't really see a problem with the compatibility of the card. :-[

I think this quote from tomshardware.com says it all, just go x58. "Bandwidth limitations on Intel's side will require a chipset refresh. It's possible to manage existing bandwidth more efficiently through PCI Express switching, though, which leads us to our main recommendation. If you're truly concerned with buying a board now that includes USB 3.0 and and SATA 6Gb/s support, it makes sense to purchase a higher-end platform in order to make sure you get a configuration with switching capabilities, at least (assuming, of course, that you're in the market for an H55-, H57-, or P55-based setup). Should you instead opt for an X58-based machine, these potential bottlenecks won't be an issue. Of course, that's a viable option as well and, frankly, more attractive to performance enthusiasts." http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583-8.html
Main Box*i7 930@3.5 Ghz*CM V6 GT*GA X58A-UD3R v2 FB bios*3x4 gig Patriot DDR3 1600 EL*EVGA GTX 460 1 gig*OCZ Vertex 3 MI 120 gig*WD  Blue 500 gig*ASUS DRW-24B3LT*Samsung SH-S223L*Teac Floppy*Corsair AX750*Rosewill R6AR6-BK case*Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1

Re: will my mobo support 6Gbps SSD drive through PCI-E slot?
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2010, 08:02:13 pm »
I did some more research and the PCI-E x4 slot is rev 2.0 not 1.0. Depending on where you look it may or may not share bandwidth with the two x16 slots. Intel's own documents have conflicting information. In the end it will not matter either way. I also had a look at the motherboard manual for the EX58-UD3R and find I do not like the slot layout at all. If you use PCI-E x16 slot 1 the x4 slot would be unusable with a dual slot GPU. This can be worked around by placing the GPU in PCI-E x16 slot 2 but then you are blocking one of the two PCI slots. If it were me I'd just install the ASUS card or whichever SATA 3 PCI-E x4 card you choose in the second PCI-E x16 slot and be done with it.
Main Box*i7 930@3.5 Ghz*CM V6 GT*GA X58A-UD3R v2 FB bios*3x4 gig Patriot DDR3 1600 EL*EVGA GTX 460 1 gig*OCZ Vertex 3 MI 120 gig*WD  Blue 500 gig*ASUS DRW-24B3LT*Samsung SH-S223L*Teac Floppy*Corsair AX750*Rosewill R6AR6-BK case*Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1