Another AHCI Question.

[Tinker]

With GA-X58A-UD3R & add on Express SATA3 ? card. Single drive connected to card.
DVD to Intel SATA connector. Also added latest Marvell driver v1.2.1006

Have never used AHCI mode before & find am getting several post screens so not sure if normal.
In IDE mode the add on card causes little delay. Am getting the following:

On first boot get I get Serial ATA AHCI bios virsc 1.20e 2003-2008 Intel corporation. It then runs
into attached drive list. After a quick refence to SATA 6gb/s from card, get the normal itemised
boot list followed by a series of dashes at the bottom of screen which it appears to be loading
the mode. Also added in this is a reference  for drives & CD only or word to that affect. Registry
set a 0. Drive test seemed slightly improved. Had I not ordered an SSD 3 card would go back to
my normal way of setup & forget SATA 3 with this board.

Would appreciate a clarification on this to verify if normal.



Regards tinker.

[Aussie Allan]

     Hay Tinker

  You didn't say which Express card your mucking around with.....if it cost you 14 to20 quid ........stick your finger up your nose and repeat after me.

  "You Get What You Pay For".......Ive said this many times now......the cheapest cards that WORKS on this board are the Highpoint RocketRaid 620,622,640 and 644.......reviews have proven this point many times over as being the cheapest 6Gb/s compliant card that actually works.

  ACHI will give you slightly better performance plus a few added features, (Native command Queuing,S.M.A.R.T,ext) and there is a work around to switching to ACHI if you loaded the OS under IDE.....Personally I prefer to load the ACHI before OS

  Marvel is nailed on this board to the extent all I recommend is find a driver that works, put your optical on it under IDE and leave well enough alone........... leaving the Intel connectors free for real work.......ICH10R will outperform Marvell Sata every-time.

  Aussie Allan

[Tinker]

Thanks for the reply Allan but...you didn't mention about the boot up screen. Get rid of that going back to IDE.
So please is that normal using AHCI. As stated add on card is quick to boot.
----------------------------------
Have done a fresh install of W7 Ultimate X64 & 32 bit on other drives but have to clone them before I use.
Am testing on an earlier install that M$ update messed up USB. Did installs before getting into AHCI.

As for the card It's a Manhatten over £40 with postage. Purchased before I joined Forum for GA-EX58-UD3R.
Same rubbish Marvell chip. Have already scrapped about £300.00 of new stuff. That M/board has been
sent back to be checked, only ever programmed. So this MOBO is an extra sore point re SATA 3. As on
a flat rate pension don't like getting conned. Should have sent board back under trades description act but
wanted floppy & IDE.

Thought I would try the Manhatten first before going for 620. Scan have two identical card spec, one an OEM at
about £5.00 dearer so no idea if any better ? Purchased 2.5" Icy Dock converter from Scan that is due Friday.
Got a better price than Scan for OCZ Vertex 3 series max iops 120gb so have to wait for that to do some tests.
Also one registry setting was missed iastorv but will go back to original thread for that.

More later but would appreciate a reply on main question.


Regards tinker.

[Aussie Allan]

 Yup! Normal as far as I know ...... ACHI or RAID on my board anyway..........Ive been using Giga board for so long now I forget to tell people they do take longer through the boot phase......I don't really mind as it's just more information in case you need it (Pause key)......ACHI will and does give you slightly better performance.

  Aussie Allan

[Tinker]

Thanks Allan, that's what I needed to know.

For what it's worth have read it's better to leave onboard Marvell chip to off if using SATA 3 add on card.
My bios is set to disable on ports 6&7 Marvell. Have more than I need.

On clean OS have not installed gigabyte workaround driver. This leaves me clear to experiment with cloned drives.
Also not loaded Marvell driver.

I have the advantage of plugging in drive to either single lead add on card or into Intel port for test.

Odd thing is got a much better test result with clean OS & non 6gb/s platter drive on intel port than with
6GB/s platter drive in Marvell or Intel though suspect M$ update was the cause. So plenty of testing
to do. Will start afresh with cloned 6gb/s drive. Once my SSD arrives have then to decide if I use
Manhatten or go for 620 add on card. Icy Dock 2.5" converter arrived this morning & will plug into
3.5" bay so now dual purpose.


Regards tinker.

[Aussie Allan]

   Something I have not tried .... turning off Marvell.......have DVD on there at the moment..... might give it a go

 I have the 640 card with 4xF3 SpinPoints (502HJ) under raid0 for about 540 Mb/s read and 525 write

  When you said you have Marvell to Off....so you have nothing connected up to them ?

  Aussie Allan

[Tinker]

Hard to know what is best when you read things. I don't know if onboard chip is fully disabled but could
avoid conflicts with card & onboard chip.

Will be testing with as above, port 6 & 7 Marvell  disabled. No leads connected. Just using Intel
ports for 1 drive bay & LG DB DVD SATA.

Leaves me clear to experiment with Marvell card or Intel. Am able also to use IDE drives.

As you use Revo & raid your requirements are different to mine but you must have some spare
connections. When I disabled bottom gigabyte SATA ports found IDE was switched off also!!

At present without Gigabyte workaround Marvell driver it leaves error in device manager but once
standard Marvell driver is installed that is corrected. Again trying to avoid driver conflicts between
card & onboard chip.


Regards tinker.

[Dark Mantis]

I am afraid that the Marvell 9128 chip that was supposed to bring so much but failed dismally is just not going to ever work. This we just have to accept and use other devices for SATA3 if it is necessary.  Personally I have just reverted to using a SSD for the speed and making do with that and just using the Marvell port for an optical drive. As Allan says if you want to fit an addon card then the Highpoint card is the one to go for.

[Tinker]

I, like many others, Dark Mantis have put a lot of research into this. Seems there are a lot of
mixed views about the highpoint card. You certainly need the dual chip for raid  using output from
each bank, ie only using 1 output per pair. Cheapest way is using 2x 620 so i've read.

The 620 using 1 output would suit my needs but of course at the cost of performance. Seems
whatever you do there is no ideal workaround on market at present. Pity the IBIS card wont
work if converted to SATA. If I get better performance from card have to pay with longer boot
up times same as AHCI. I'm not a gamer & do sacrifice speed for low noise emissions.

Came across a page on Amazon where the 620 was around £9.00 !!!
Just about had enough of it all & hope a better card will come on market. 

May save up & rebuild my Antec case at some point once things are sorted. Even if I
purchased the Revo card which is not a lot more than SSD card that should arrive
Tuesday, it doesn't give me the type of PC I want to run. Resent buying anything that has
Marvell chips on it now.


Regards tinker.

[Dark Mantis]

In your opinion what is wrong with the Revo card ? I have one installed and find it absolutely brilliant. OK I wish I could have afforded the larger one 200GB but it is still enough for my needs and extremely fast both booting and reading/writing.

[Aussie Allan]

In your opinion what is wrong with the Revo card ? I have one installed and find it absolutely brilliant. OK I wish I could have afforded the larger one 200GB but it is still enough for my needs and extremely fast both booting and reading/writing.

  I'd be interested in that answer too

  Aussie Allan

[Tinker]

As far as I'm aware DM & AAThere is nothing wrong with the Revo card, certainly not from your reports.

But.... as I posted in another thread don't want to be stuck with one OS. That was why I asked if Revo could be used
instead of Marvell card as had never heard of it. Due to circumstance have been unable to use PCs for nearly a year
so a bit out of touch.

I use Win 7 x64. Win 7 x32. XP Pro, IDE drives, Floppy, Fdisk & MBR+ security wipes & preparing
new drives, also cloning though can use USB docking station for that. That's why I have 2 push in drives & ide removable
tray. Now 2.5" addition. Also why I only use one drive. If an OS gets messed pop clone in. Have a few IDE drives that I
use for testing progs or modified OS also keeping clones on to make use of them. Use one PC for Satellite programming
that is Linux, thats why I like to have Serial on PCs, though not been used for a while.

My setup is too compact & difficult to work on. Have central power unit at my fingertips miniture toggle switches, multi
fused. Small 15 amp neon rocker switch handles most of the power this plus USB drives are all tucked under Monitor
shelf & virtually no wires seen. Built the long thin box some yrs ago but very handy.


Regards tinker.

[Dark Mantis]

Well certainly sounds interesting. I understand more now of what you meant but even so I still feel that the Revo would behave fairly much like an ordinary drive in most siuations apart from the hot swap type of thing.