P55A-UD3 and SSD Crucial M4 Best Setup?? ADVICE PLZ

[sarahjanes88]

Hi guys,

I need some advice please on how I should setup my SSD with this motherboard. I have done benchmark speed tests and would like to know what setup you would recommend.

Setup

1 x SSD 128GB 6gb/s Sata 3
2 x 1TB Samsung HDDs


1. With the SSD in the SATA 6 port using the Marvell onboard chip:-

SSD: Read - 378mb/s * Write 174mb/s
Each x 1TB (no Raid):   Read - 121mb/s * Write 120mb/s

But that means my GPU wil only work at 8x not 16x. What does this actually mean for graphics and performance, BTW I don't really play games often??



2. Using Sata2 port for the SSD and runnning the HDD in Raid 0

SSD: Read - 270mb/s * Write 184mb/s
2 x 1TB (Raid 0):   Read - 210mb/s * Write 210mb/s

I tried to run the above setup with the SSD in Sata 3 and the hdds in Raid 0 but it wouldn't boot. Is that because you can't run a SSD in sata 3 and Raid 0 at the same time?


Anyway, how would I get he best bang for buck using what setup? I am not sure and confused.... Is read speed the most important for browsing the internet using photoshop etc.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

To be honest you are on a hiding to nothing trying to run your SATA3 SSD on the Marvell 9128 SATA3 port. It never worked well and one way or another it will screw your system up. It is much better to locate the SSD on SATA2_0 as it is the most stable of the ports. You can run this in AHCI mode. After that it's your choice what you decide to do with the other drives. You can put them on a seperate controller as a RAID array or as single drives as AHCI mode. As they are for data storage it isn't going to make a massive difference to you. I would put your optical drive on the Marvell port as IDE mode.

[sarahjanes88]

How will it screw my machine? Is that good speeds 270mb/s ? Seems like the normal hdds in raid 0 where better.

[Dark Mantis]

The problem is the Marvell 9128 controller chip doesn't live up to the hype. It is supposed to run at SATA3 6GBs throughput but it is not capable as things stand and the Intel ICH10R southbridge controller chip works better even though it is only SATA2 3GBs rated. The Marvell 9128 SATA3 chip just didn't live up to it's advertised spec and as such won't work as SATA3. It will however work quite happily as a controller for SATA2 drives so it is usable. As long as you don't overload the controller it works fine. This was a Marvell problem not a Gigabyte one and all manufacturers that utilised the 9128 chip for SATA3 had the same problem.

[sarahjanes88]

Dark Mantis or others,

Mine was running fine at Sata3 and speeds where better then in the Sata 2 port with the benchmarks I showed above. What do you mean it will screw my  machine is there problems with the Marvell chip and it will screw up my machine after continual use??

Would this work below and do you recommend it.

Put the DVD drive into the Marvell port using IDE.

Put the SSD and 2 x HDDs in the standard Sata2 ports (intel). I tried to put it on Raid0 last night and for some reason my operating system wouldn't boot up. Is that because all the devices need to be configured at Raid0? I thought you could run the HDDs in Raid 0 and run the SSD normally.

Or what about putting the SSD in the Marvell port and turning Sata3 off in the BIOS. Is the marvell controller still crap at running like this?

[Lsdmeasap]

You are ONLY looking at the high sequential speeds of the 6GB/s results, those ONLY matter to benchmarks not actual performance or how the system feels.  Intel is the best ports to use your SSD on, they are faster overall, and far more stable, see my C300 review here for a in-depth comparison
http://forums.tweaktown.com/storage-devices-methods/41812-crucial-realssd-c300-128gb-single-vs-raid-w-marvell-ich10r-hpt-rr-640-review.html

For reference, other advice he received about this
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Crucial-M4-amp-Gigabyte-P55a-ud3-SETUP-ADVICE-Mixed-Results/td-p/86142

To enable RAID in the BIOS, you need to enable RAID in windows first, here's how.  This ONLY applies if you have NOT installed Marvell drivers and are using MSAHCI driver, if you have Marvell drivers installed you'll need to uninstall them and reboot into windows to get MSAHCI loaded first.

Enable switching between all IDE/AHCI/RAID modes by changing "Start" Values in these keys to 0 (Win 7 / Vista ONLY)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide\Start 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start

I advise you put your SSD into the first Intel port SATAII_0 (Top blue, bottom port against the PCB), then any other hard drives on the Intel ports following that numerically.  Then put your CD/DVD drive on one of the last Intel ports SATAII_4/5.  Then enter the BIOS and set Marvell controller to disabled and you'll be all set