GA-P55A-UD4P SATA Ports

[ronbo613]

It's just a shame that it couldn't be fixed by a software update.

Agreed. This is a great motherboard; lots of features and very reliable. A couple SATA3 ports to run an SSD would really be a performance plus.

[Dark Mantis]

The next generation of motherboards that accept the Sandy Bridge  processors the P67 series motherboards come with that facility built in and I am looking forward to testing one and see if it all lives up to expectations. From the reviews I have seen so far they certainly look promising.

[ronbo613]

There's always something new around the corner.
The computer I have now does everything I want, save for the SSD running at SATA3. It's only a year old; too early for it to join the perfectly good Intel 875PBZ, 3.4C it replaced in the storeroom.

[Lsdmeasap]

Marvell Tray login is the same as your system user login and pass, or just admin/password if you do not have one set.

That is if you need to create an array, but as suggested - it is not suggested  

P67 boards are blazing fast with Crucial C300 6Gb/s drives, and you can RAID with the 6GB/s and 3Gb/s ports together too!

Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB x 3 RAID 0
10.1.0.1008 RST Drivers
GA-X58A-UD7




Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB x 3 RAID 0 (Intel 6Gb/s (2 SSD's) + Intel 3GB/s (1 SSD))
10.1.0.1008 RST Drivers
GA-P67-UD7

[ronbo613]

I don't really have a lot of faith in the Marvell-controlled SATA ports on this motherboard. Looks like the next generation of SSDs is going to be SATA3, so I reckon I'll get one of the Gen2 SSDs at a discount and run it off the SATA2 port and use the Marvell controller ports for the optical drive and one of my storage HDs. Looks like OCZ's latest firmware has taken care of the SMART conflicts with this motherboard and the 120G Vertex2 is under $200.USD, I think it's worth a shot.
I won't be able to have bleeding edge SSD speed, but I can't complain, this motherboard has been a reliable workhorse.

[ronbo613]

I've installed an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD and learned a bit more about how drives behave on this motherboard, perhaps the information will be helpful to someone else.
I installed the SSD on the SATA0 port controlled by the Intel controller. My original plan was to install the SSD and all the hard drives on the Intel controlled SATA ports in AHCI mode and my Sony Optiarc DVD burner on the Marvell controlled GSATA ports in IDE mode. It's been generally accepted that optical discs work better in IDE.
As I was working on installing the SSD I discovered that running the optical drive on the GSATA port in IDE mode had a problem communicating with the boot drive on the SATA2 ports under AHCI. I took the optical drive off the GSATA port and installed it on SATA5 of the Intel controlled ports and it worked perfectly: both burning and reading optical discs.
I had two SATA hard drives left, they would have to go into the two GSATA ports. When I had  hard drives plugged into the GSATA ports using IDE, SMART data was never available, so I switched the GSATA ports to AHCI and, not only did the SATA drives work perfectly, they returned SMART data with software like CrystalDisk Info.
I installed Intel Rapid Storage drivers for the SATA2 Intel ports, the Marvell GSATA AHCI driver is the one that was installed with the motherboard. 

[Dark Mantis]

Well I am glad to see that you installed the SSDon the SATA2_0 port as that set of ports is the onlky ones that will allow TRIM to be sent to the drive. This is required for the ongoing health of the disk.

Quite often the optical drives will work as well on the ports configured in AHCI mode also but sometimes it can give problems. Sounds like yours is fine.

The Marvell controlled ports are ok as long as you don't want to run a RAID0 array on them. They just can't handle the throughput stably.