Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: Aussie Allan on May 26, 2011, 11:20:48 am
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If your interested in learning more , please post something..........No posts mean nothing will be attempted.
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If the problem can be fixed it should be done so at no cost to those of us who purchased boards with the Marvell 9128 chip. They were purchased, in many cases, on the strength of marketing and the hype that we would get full 6G/bs hardware.
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Absic my good mate!
You throw in 100 grand and I'll throw in 100 grand......... we'll take on the big boys and maybe get a result in under 6 years..........or possibly look at setting up a service ourselves at 50-60 squid a pop (if it's viable) and get it done now!.......love the idea of The big five board manufactures footing the bill for what ....3 maybe 400,000 chip replacements?......Not Bl**dy likly......if you have any worth while suggestions.......you have my undivided attention.
AA
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Whilst I agree that it is highly unlikely that any of the Mobo manufacturers will foot the bill for this fiasco, it is of their making and they should have the decency to own up to their mistakes. (tries to stifle loud laughter at this happening) The reality is, however, that this is probably a lame duck to start with. None of the Mobo manufacturer's will admit there is a problem with the 9128 chip and as there is always built in obsolescence to any electrical product this is something that they know will just fade away given time.
If the chips are user replaceable (which I doubt) then they should be offered at a heavily discounted price, ( possibly on proof of purchase of a board with the 9128 chip) at least in recognition of the fact that they are responsible, with clear instructions on how to implement the replacement without voiding any remaining warranty that the user has.
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One possible option is to get Gigabyte to supply the new chip on verification of a valid product purchase and left to the owner to have it fitted by a qualified business.......
UPDATE!.
I now have confirmation that the chip can in fact be replaced with the right people and equipment .......Yes , already sourced!
Aussie Allan
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The thing is I am sure that the actual chip replacement as a surface mount is easy enough if you can solder capably but what else is involved in the replacement ? I would have thought the BIOS code would need to be tweaked and the firmware on the chips might not be compatible as standard.
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Ahhhhhhhh That's where you and your contacts come in.......does Gigabyte want to be part of the support coup of the decade ?? and make thousands of dedicated customers happy ??
Aussie Allan
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It would almost be worth it just to not have to post about the reasoning for the Marvell SATA3 not working any more. I get really fed up explaining to owners that the fact that they bought a board with SATA3 capabilities doesn't mean that is what they got. ::)
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Personally i think its a bit late in the day , i can live with it until the 2011 UD7 comes out , hopefully then ~ 500gb SSD's will be at a reasonable cost too . perhaps Giga could do a discount on the new boards for those of us with this board ? ;D .
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perhaps Giga could do a discount on the new boards for those of us with this board ? .
Nice thought but I won't hold my breath!
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Hehe , i see we both must be of a certain age :D .
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You obviously mean "youngsters" ;)
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Personally i think its a bit late in the day , i can live with it until the 2011 UD7 comes out , hopefully then ~ 500gb SSD's will be at a reasonable cost too . perhaps Giga could do a discount on the new boards for those of us with this board ? ;D .
Re: cheaper SSDs.......read up on the Marvell 88SE9130......me tink this Might be next.....maybe!.....very cool idea! and your entitled to your opinion ... Albeit there are a lot of people out there that just want there board fixed and not with a band-aid.... but a fully working solution .
Aussie Allan
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9182, 9130 I think either would be perfecly acceptable. Anything that would mean that the motherboard would perform to the advertised SATA3 which was one of the main reasons for many people making the purchase and subsidery purchases that turned out to be a waste of money.
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Marvell Intranet access is a NDA nightmare DM But Ive cleared every hoop so far........work in progress !
AA
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I have requiert an account ( NDA ) a long time ... > 1 year
At this day no response !!
Pierre
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I am not sure I understand the question. What is wrong with it that we should pay to fix?
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What Planet have you been living on ?........only joking! the original Marvell Controller chip 88SE9128 was shipped across multiple platforms and brands, ... it was marketed as the new 6GB/S connectivity called SATAIII.........Unfortunately, unless you were a Marvell Engineer, running Marvell equipment and sitting on a Marvell chair, no one could get them to work at anything near the speeds that were advertised, ....Luckily it was backwards compatible so SATAII to sub SATAII speeds were the best people could get out of them.
Z68 boards are now shipping with the new 88SE9182 and initial report are ......"No more Problems"
Aussie Allan
Update! forgot to answer the second part!..... there is a movement looking into the feasability of swapping out the problem chip with something that will operate at the full SATAIII spec........A lot of people purchased SATAIII drives and such that really haven't used them yet at anything faster then SATAII..........Hope this helps.
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It is surprising the number of owners who still don't realise the problem they have with their boards. I suppose if they don't have any SATA3 drives then they would be none the wiser. :-\
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Depressing really, if they only new what's available to them, .... so many people read the outside of the box, plug it in and assume it's running as advertised........ how can we get more of the posters to hit the vote key?...........would be good if the poster was blocked until casting a vote if there's an active voting window attached to the subject post.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Aussie Allan
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Not possible as far as I know Allan. I know what you are saying though as a lot of people do seem to have an aversion to clicking in the polls. I really don't know why as it couldn't be simpler but there we go. :-\
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As we say in Australia......."BUGGER"
Aussie Allan
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Youre actually right, I just got this board, a Z68-UD7 and I dont have any SATA III drives yet. I have been updating from my X58 system a piece at a time and I thought the biggest bang for my buck was my video cards first then the board processor and memory. I thought the marvel issue that I had been reading about had to do with the Sandy bridge bug and that the board I bought; all the B3's were immune to it.
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Hi
If you have a Z68 board then you are not affected by this Marvell problem as you already have the updated 9182 chip installed.
The Marvell problem has nothing to do with the Sandy Bridge issue. It was all to do with the Marvell 9128 that was fitted to the X58 and P55 series boards.
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Besides the fact that the Marvell 9128 controller is a dog and does not have the bandwidth to support true SATA III speeds it is also limited by the 1x PCI-E 2.0 connection. On paper a single PCI-E 2.0 lane can handle 500 MB/s. After overhead low to mid 400 MB/s I'd guess. So even if it were possible to install a 9182 chip on X58 boards you would be limited by the PCI-E 2.0 1x connection. Marvell 9128 spec sheet. http://www.marvell.com/products/storage/storage_system_solutions/sata_controllers_pc_consumer/6_gbs_sata_raid_controller_88se91xx_product_brief.pdf
I think the Marvell 9182 controller uses 2 PCI-E 2.0 lanes so 1000 MB/s less overhead. Can't find the specs at Marvell. From the bench testing I have seen on the net is limited to around 600-650 MB/s sequential R/W's . Tested using two Vertex 3 120's in RAID 0. Tests using Vertex 3 drives on the SandyBridge native SATA III controller or an LSI card RAID card get results very close to 1000 megs per second sequential R/W's. So from what I see the new Marvell 9182 controller is much better than the 9128 but it is still a bottle neck. May work very well with a single drive though I have not seen any bench results yet.
Bill
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Hay there Bill.......Nice of you to jump in to one of my pet projects.............."Can't find the specs at Marvell"......What an understatement.
There vetting procedure seems harsh,there web site bullet proof, but I'll keep trying! All the imformation Ive been told is there, it's just that it's behind locked doors unless your corporate account or a high end developer.......agreed the 9182 would be better and a step forward.
you seem to have a grasp of what's required , so do you have a better idea/ recommendation from the Marvell line-up besides the 9130...........And there's a question that's gone unanswered till now.
NEW BIG QUESTION PEOPLE!
If the Marvell chip was swapped out and replaced with say a 88SE9182 chip (same die size,some 76pin count) would it fire up or require BIOS code to be modified/changed ?.........Answer this and Get the booby prize!
And Bill ,... yes I understand it's still a bottle neck,,,,,But a hell of a lot bigger
Aussie Allan
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Hay there Bill.......Nice of you to jump in to one of my pet projects.............."Can't find the specs at Marvell"......What an understatement.
There vetting procedure seems harsh,there web site bullet proof, but I'll keep trying! All the imformation Ive been told is there, it's just that it's behind locked doors unless your corporate account or a high end developer.......agreed the 9182 would be better and a step forward.
you seem to have a grasp of what's required , so do you have a better idea/ recommendation from the Marvell line-up besides the 9130...........And there's a question that's gone unanswered till now.
NEW BIG QUESTION PEOPLE!
If the Marvell chip was swapped out and replaced with say a 88SE9182 chip (same die size,some 76pin count) would it fire up or require BIOS code to be modified/changed ?.........Answer this and Get the booby prize!
And Bill ,... yes I understand it's still a bottle neck,,,,,But a hell of a lot bigger
Aussie Allan
I really can't say if it would work or not. I, we just do not have enough info available to even make a reasonable guess IMO.
Bill
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Well to get this going forward, might be time just jump in and pop a new chip on a board and see what happens.....R&D or Trial by fire?.....bit of both!
Anybody have some X58 boards we can cut-up going cheap......?
Aussie Allan
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Hi Allan
I would think the least Gigabyte could do was to supply a motherboard to test on. Try contacting runn3R and see if he can help out.
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I was thinking this not 2 minutes ago.............saves me an email to you!...........But I still have not had a response from the last one to runn you looked at as well?
Any suggestions?......I'm cold calling Marvell today down in Buckinghamshire to see if I can pull some teeth (chips) ...wish me luck!....AA
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Hi
If you have a Z68 board then you are not affected by this Marvell problem as you already have the updated 9182 chip installed.
The Marvell problem has nothing to do with the Sandy Bridge issue. It was all to do with the Marvell 9128 that was fitted to the X58 and P55 series boards.
Is this correct? I am about to buy a Z68X-UD7 and the in the specifications for this board on Gigabyte's website "2 x Marvell 88SE9128 chips" are listed.
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Check with DM but as far as I'm aware the Z68 board is shipping with the newer 88SE9182 chip ....not the 88SE9128 which has proven to have had issues performing as advertised
Aussie Allan
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I have just replied to xpabl0b 's PM as so:
Hi
What I posted was correct as far as my experience with the Z68X range of motherboards went. However after you querying it I checked on some other boards in the range and it would seem that they have used more than one Marvell chip across the boards.
Some boards do utilise the 9128 chip but I would still think that it would work alright now as Gigabyte would hardly make the same mistake again on motherboards a couple of generations further on.