SSDMonts Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have an intel x58 board and would like to upgrade. Can a SATA3 card provide the full speed potential of the new SSD drives or do I need a new MB? I have read that even though a card or MB states SATA3 some have distinct bottlenecks and won't utilize the full potential and speed of the new Force drives. Any card or MB suggestions or an idea of what specs I should be looking for? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toasted Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 If your talking about the SATA III 6GB/s PCI card then it will depend on the controller the card is using. If it is a Marvell controller, then don't bother they won't reach the SSD specs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSDMonts Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 Are there any I7 1366 motherboards that provide full support, utilization and speed of the new SATA III drives, or will they all have bottlenecks? If not, can anyone recommend a card that does so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsec Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Unfortunately not, none of the X58 platform mother boards use anything for a SATA III interface except the Marvell 9128 chipset on one PCI-E lane, whose speed is limited to 5Gb/s, instead of the 6Gb/s spec for SATA III. Although that is how Marvell suggests that chipset be implemented, given all the PCI-E lanes available on the X58 platform (more than any Sandy Bridge platform) not one mother board manufacture chose to use more than one PCI-E lane for it. Can you imagine if just one manufacture, even on one X58 mother board, chose to use two PCI-E lanes with the Marvell 9128 (if possible...) Owners of i7-900 series CPUs and SATA III SSDs would be lining up to buy them. Instead manufactures must pander to the gamers, and include up to three PCI-E 2.0 x 16 or 8 slots, which are actually used by less than 5% of owners. Regarding expansion cards that can offer a SATA III performance interface, if any existed that did not cost more than a mother board and actually worked well, they would be common knowledge among PC enthusiasts, and you'd see them being recommended in forums like these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSDMonts Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 parsec Great answer, not what I wanted to hear but that about covers it. (I was ready to build a whole new rig too). Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsec Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 parsec Great answer, not what I wanted to hear but that about covers it. (I was ready to build a whole new rig too). Thanks. If a whole new rig includes the CPU, then things are different, with (most of) the Intel 6- series SATA controllers, which have two SATA III ports that give full performance, and on the horizon the X79 boards which I believe have four such ports. Some manufactures still put Marvell chipsets on the 6-series boards, but the Intel controllers provide the best PC level SATA III interface. The newer AMD boards should as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSDMonts Posted November 2, 2011 Author Share Posted November 2, 2011 Decisions, decisions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSDMonts Posted November 5, 2011 Author Share Posted November 5, 2011 Can you imagine if just one manufacture, even on one X58 mother board, chose to use two PCI-E lanes with the Marvell 9128 (if possible...) Owners of i7-900 series CPUs and SATA III SSDs would be lining up to buy them. Instead manufactures must pander to the gamers, and include up to three PCI-E 2.0 x 16 or 8 slots, which are actually used by less than 5% of owners. What do you feel are the odds of an x58 MB or card coming out that caters to all of us that would pay for proper SATA III functionality for this popular and rugged platform? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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