SSD's over Different Controllers

[deathman20]

Well stumbled upon a few SSD's. Well 2 of them I had, got a new one and acquired another for a build. With that I decided to play around with a few tests to really see how this plays out with different controllers and what really the difference is between them.

Now I am only testing on SATA III controllers on my motherboard.

The Chipsets:
Intel® Z68 (B3) (2x SATA III ports, 4x SATA II ports)
Marvell® 88SE9128 (2x SATA III ports)

Now the major difference between these 2 chips, intel is basically unrestricted and will run up to the top of its 6GB/sec limit per port. Though the Marvel is a little more limited, only being able to utilize 1x PCI-E lane. So its faster than a SATA II port but... not nearly the speed of SATA III. Well the pictures will show it.

That being said here we have it below is 4 screens of the 2 tests I ran. And yes I did run the test more then 1 time for each selection as I was making sure the drivers where installed properly and just messing around.

Top Left: Crucial M4 128GB (Intel SATAIII Port)
Top Right: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB (Intel SATAIII Port)
Bottom Left: Crucial M4 128GB (Marvel SATAIII Port)
Bottom Right: Liteon M6S 128GB (Marvel SATAIII Port)



Top Left: Liteon M6S 128GB (Intel SATAIII Port)
Top Right: 2x Crucial M4 128GB in software Raid0 (Marvel SATAIII Ports)



Probably the best of the test was showing that this Marvel controller... well sucks to say the least. Sure it can deliver OK speeds but if you want to do raid on it, or even a moderately good SSD its handy capped and can be big time. I believe newer controllers from Marvel solved this issue. Just a shame that it was only given a single PCI-E lane, it should have 4 (2 per port)

Note: The Liteon model number might be incorrect, its a OEM drive from Dell Laptop, as I couldn't find the specific model on the website I'm not sure what truly the drive is. Though it was manufactured in July 2013.

Anyways was just having some fun with it might as well share

 

[MongGrel]

Didn't look at everything too close I guess, it's late but the little Vantec PCI-e controller works pretty well here.

not on the main but have some in the 700 on it, I'll post em to0morrow I imaine or sort through, it's too late to get out of bed and get on the other one, he he.

 

[deathman20]

Yeah was just playing around with it to see what really the difference was between all of it.

Curiosity more than anything, since I had a bunch of drives, might as well give them a little test.

Would be nice to get a card, but no drastic reason for it, I can live with 1 drive being a wee bit slower since 1 SSD will be going into a laptop.

 

[EarthDog]

Nice!

Yeah the AMD controller and JMicron or other 3rd party controllers are notoriously slower.

 

[CgS Drone]

deathman20, since you seem to be playing around with speed on these I will ask you a question. I have never used a SSD before but have ordered one for the wifes system and its sitting here waiting for me to get around to it. Now she has Sata3 on her board. My question is what cables are you using? have you found there to be any difference in using a cable that says Sata 3 vs the non marked or Sata 2 cables?

I did a general search on here but gave up after digging around through six pages and not finding anything on it. Other internet search's didn't come up with a definite answer to it. Some claimed there was no change others claimed you had to have cables marked for Sata 3 to get the higher speeds.

 

[EarthDog]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1188422/difference-between-sata-ii-and-sata-iii-cables

 

[CgS Drone]

Thanks Earthdog, quick reply that answered my question.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

So if you buy a SATA controller (why would you anyway? I thought the on-board controller is fine for RAID??) buy a controller with at least a Pcie 4x slot?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yeah, controllers typically go Intel>AMD>Marvell for onboard.

 

[deathman20]

IMO Intel Controllers are great for typical onboard solutions. At least from my personal preference that is. I'd have to dig back in posts, my M4's on Raid0 did very well brand new (1GB Read and 500-600MB/sec writes at least)

I've never tested PCI-E cards so can't comment on them. Though it was a good excessive since I had a few drives.

deathman20, since you seem to be playing around with speed on these I will ask you a question. I have never used a SSD before but have ordered one for the wifes system and its sitting here waiting for me to get around to it. Now she has Sata3 on her board. My question is what cables are you using? have you found there to be any difference in using a cable that says Sata 3 vs the non marked or Sata 2 cables?

I did a general search on here but gave up after digging around through six pages and not finding anything on it. Other internet search's didn't come up with a definite answer to it. Some claimed there was no change others claimed you had to have cables marked for Sata 3 to get the higher speeds.

Oh yeah speed wise, I was using last year prior to revamping my case SATA I cables (first gen). Found them in a box, and they worked just fine delivering high speed on the SSD's. Now I have what they classify as SATA 6.0GB's (only difference is there is a clip on them, and writing of 6.0GB).

 

[CgS Drone]

Oh yeah speed wise, I was using last year prior to revamping my case SATA I cables (first gen). Found them in a box, and they worked just fine delivering high speed on the SSD's. Now I have what they classify as SATA 6.0GB's (only difference is there is a clip on them, and writing of 6.0GB).

Thanks, just wanted to make sure I was getting everything I could out of it. Wife's motherboard (ASUS P6X58D Premium) appears to have the intel sata III controller on it, well for two ports anyway which I only need one of them for the SSD, her spinner is only 3gb. I planned to put the OS and a couple games she play's on a regular basis on the SSD and everything else on the spinner.

 

[deathman20]

Thanks, just wanted to make sure I was getting everything I could out of it. Wife's motherboard (ASUS P6X58D Premium) appears to have the intel sata III controller on it, well for two ports anyway which I only need one of them for the SSD, her spinner is only 3gb. I planned to put the OS and a couple games she play's on a regular basis on the SSD and everything else on the spinner.

Mechanically HDD's barely use SATA I channel, though some newer Mechanical HDD's will do benefit from SATA II interface because its close to that higher end 110-120MB/sec limit of SATA I.
So really any mech drive out there will be fine on SATA III or SATA II. They just aren't fast enough to fill up the channel and you'll be safe. Though with the SSD, if you got SATA III put it on it, no questions asked.

 

[MongGrel]

So if you buy a SATA controller (why would you anyway? I thought the on-board controller is fine for RAID??) buy a controller with at least a Pcie 4x slot?

well to get Sata III out of my X58 board myself at any rate.

That and the P6T7 had 7 PCI-e slots to play with I guess.

 

[MongGrel]

Though with the SSD, if you got SATA III put it on it, no questions asked.

Yeah that.

Yeah was just playing around with it to see what really the difference was between all of it.

Curiosity more than anything, since I had a bunch of drives, might as well give them a little test.

do that myself now and then.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1188422/difference-between-sata-ii-and-sata-iii-cables

And what ED said of course.