Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: piopakk on April 15, 2011, 04:37:51 pm
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Hi all,
I am looking to buy a Vertex 3 SSD with 120GB, but am not sure if my motherboard (P55A-UD3 rev. 1.0) supports it truly.
The specifications tell that the mb supports: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices on a Marvell 9128 chip.
But I have read that the Marvell 9128 chip is not so good together with a Vertex 3. Is that true?
Does the Vertex 3 perform 100% with full speed with my motherboard?
Thanks all
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Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
Your motherboard as you have quite rightly said uses a Marvell 9128 contoller chip for the SATA3 6GB/s ports. This never worked as it was intended and just wouldn't take the full throughput of a fast drive like that. In fact often the SATA2 ports ended up outpacing the SATA3 ports. You will still notice a huge improvement but probably not quite do full justice to the drives potential.
Not only that but the Marvell ports don't transfer the TRIM commands needed to keep the drive healthy in the long run.
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Hmm okay, sad to hear that.
So what chipsets are great for use with SSD's?
Is there any other SSD that would be good performance with my motherboard? Perhaps the Vertex 2?
And what you are saying about the TRIM commands, means that it would not be a great idea to buy a SSD with this motherboard?
Thanks!
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Not at all. I have a X58A-UD7 that has a Corsair 256 GB SSD in but I have it on the SATA2 port controlled byt he Intel ICH10R southbridge chip. As I mentioned before this is actually faster then the Marvell and does support TRIM. Your board is basically the same as far as that goes so a SATA2 SSD would be fine.
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Okay, so a SSD that runs on my SATA2 port (3gb/s) will run perfectly? No disadvantages?
I think a Vertex 2 drive would be fine then, or would you perhaps suggest another one?
Thanks!
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Any SATA2 SSD should be fine as long as it is on the Intel ports. The best ones are the Intel SSDs or the Crucial C300s. The Crucial C300 drives are actually SATA3 but would still be fine on the SATA2 port. They are by far the fastest SSD at the moment but there are other starting to appear that are faster again.
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I joined this forum to ask,nearly,the same question as the original poster - thank you Denmark ;D
I have a GA-X58A-UD3R mobo so I reckon I will have to fit my,proposed, OCZ 120gb Vertex 3 ssd into the Intel Connector but,after doing much research on the net I find this problem with Marvell controllers has been around for at least 1 year.I am at a loss as to why they have not addressed the problem or is it because a bios upgrade is not possible?
Dark Mantis - It seems the Vertex 3 easily holds the C300's performance unless the C300 is in raid form.
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Yes I would agree with you that the Vertex3 is as fast as least but not readilly avbailable everywhere yet as far as I know and that was the rerason for my answer being the C300.
This Marvell controller issue cannot be fixed with a BIOS update and it is only recently that there has even been a hardware fix that would be able to do the job. At the time of manufacture it was the only option but failed to deliver. This not only affects Gigabyte boards but is across the industry.
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Yes,I have been reading the same problem on the ASUS forum and others.
Thank you for,not only your reply,but for all the work you Moderators do in helping we of less knowledge & experience.
Cheers - away now to Amazon (best & cheapest) to order a 120gb Vertex 3 and await a supply to arrive (what's the point of having a China if it doesn't produce loads of everything?) ;)
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Thank you for your kind words and I am only to happy to try and help. ;)
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Yes thank you Dark Mantis for your help! Very appreciated!
I now have the vertex 2 in my pc and its running fast, nice. But I would like to test if the vertex 2 delivers 100% full performance on my machine. How can I test that?
Thanks!
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Welll you could use a program like AS-SSD which is free and downloadable. This is a testing program that is well respected and thorough.
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Ok, I ran AS-SSD and here are the results: Please see the attached picture.
Isn't the read/write speeds a bit under performing..?
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I must admit I would have expected more especially of the read speed and a bit more of the write. Off the cuff something like 220 read and 160 write.
What port is it on and have you set it up as AHCI ?
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its on sata2 port and not AHCI I think.. Should it be on AHCI?
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You would see a performance boost by having it as AHCI certainly.
How to change IDE mode to AHCI after OS installation.
1.Exit all Windows-based programs.
2.Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3.If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4.Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMsahci
5.In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6.In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7.On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI. Another restart will be required to finish the driver installation.
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Hi again,
Please be so kind to respond to all 6 questions :D
1. So I can without any issues just turn on AHCI first within windows and in BIOS? Everything will work without problems afterwards?
I mean shouldn't AHCI be turned on befores OS installation?
2. But also, what would be the argument to turning away from IDE and using AHCI? I read somewhere, that AHCI also takes off a performance boost from SSD's.. true?
3. Is there a difference on SATA cables? The cable I use, just says SATA on ii. Are there perhaps cable with SATA2 written on them?
4. I have not upgraded the SSD firmware. Please see the attached screenshot. Should I upgrade?
5. OCZ says that before upgrading the SSD, backup off the data should be taken. But it's holding my OS.. Is it safe to upgrade without backup you think?
6. Please note the other attached screenshot with the device manager. I have just upgraded the intel chipset drivers with the latest. Is it actually ok to do so, after having installed all my programs, games, updates etc.?
Thanks Dark Mantis, highly appreciated!!
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Ok no problem.
1. So I can without any issues just turn on AHCI first within windows and in BIOS? Everything will work without problems afterwards?
I mean shouldn't AHCI be turned on befores OS installation?
Yes if you follow my instructions properly. Ideally but it won't make any difference.
2. But also, what would be the argument to turning away from IDE and using AHCI? I read somewhere, that AHCI also takes off a performance boost from SSD's.. true?
SSDs run better in AHCI mode and they will get a performace gain.
3. Is there a difference on SATA cables? The cable I use, just says SATA on ii. Are there perhaps cable with SATA2 written on them?
No difference in cables.
4. I have not upgraded the SSD firmware. Please see the attached screenshot. Should I upgrade?
No screenshot but it wouldn't be a bad idea to updtae the firmware anyway.
5. OCZ says that before upgrading the SSD, backup off the data should be taken. But it's holding my OS.. Is it safe to upgrade without backup you think?
There is always a chance of something going wrong so backing up you important files is a sensible precaution.
6. Please note the other attached screenshot with the device manager. Should I upgrade the chipset drivers from Intel? I have not done anything to them, only windows 7 installed on it..
No other scrrenshot attached either. It is always best to use the latest drivers available though.
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Sorry for missing screenshots - Because I updated my reply, as you actually replied to mine hehe. Please be so kind to read it again. :)
Ok. I updated the intel drivers. No performance change.
Device manager says that the Vertex 2 is using microsoft drivers. Is that good enough? Please see screenshot.
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You could use the Intel IRST drivers available from their website instead of the Microsoft version. You may well find that they will help with performance but the biggest boost you will get will be changing from IDE to AHCI mode.
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Okay, so I changed to AHCI. Read and Write boost achieved! :)
But access time on both Read/Write decreased..
Please see screenshot.
Is it a myth or do you need to spare like 10% free space on a SSD?
Thanks for the help again!
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Yes that looks more like what I would have expected to see.
I am not sure why you ask about the 10% spare but if you are saying is it good to fill a drive then the answer is no and that goes for any drive not just a SSD.
I would mention at this point in case you are not aware that you should either disable or move your swapfile to another drive. It is not good to use it on the SSD as it is continuously reading and writing to the drive.
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ok thanks.
By swapfile you mean the paging file?!
Please dee the attached screenshot. How do I do this? I would then like to put the swapfile/pagefile to the D: drive (a 500GB HDD).
Is it better to disable or move the swapfile?
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If you have 6GB or more of memory then you can safely disable it altogether if not just move it to your magnetic drive.
To do this just turn off the pagefile on the SSD as in the screenie and then click on where you want to locate it and click the radio button for how you want to manage it. Personally I like to have a fixed size pagefile if I am having one at all because it stops fragmentation of the drive so much.
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ok I have 4GB ram. I disabled the pagefile on the SSD and enabled it on the HDD. Yet no pagefile or folder is created on the HDD for the pagefile.. perhaps it will create itself eventually :)
Thank you for your considerate help!
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You must change the settings as I described and then press the set button. After that you click "OK" and exit. At that point a dialogue box will appear saying that it will not take effect until you restart.
No problem for the help that is what I am here for.