PCI-E SATA3 Card

[BlitzPuppet]

Found this thread, is it still the case?: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2243776

Have 2 Samsung 840 SSDs (one boot, one gaming) and a MB that only supports SATA2.

Basically what I have now is My OS SSD is on my Sata 2 ports with 278/137 Seq. Now I purchased this card before reading too much into it since it was cheap, and found out that it isn't "compatible" with SSD, though it is working fine (http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Port-SA...F8&qid=1369870265&sr=8-1&keywords=pcie+sata+3). My scores with the SSD on that are 397/254.

Should I get another PCIE Sata 3 controller, stick with one on the card, or should I just put them both on the onboard SATA 2?

 

[WTSherman]

Thats a good question considering I just installed that same SATA III card in preparation for a Samsung 840 I have coming Friday. I'm dying to get this drive so I can test the scenarios you mentioned. I see you are getting 397 reads which is already better than sata II which is limited to 300.

I noticed in many of the reviews for this card people are getting near advertised speeds for their drives. Others aren't but I wonder if its something to do with their particular system or installation.

 

[nanaki333]

i'm going to quote myself from another thread in here. with the latest drivers, it looks like a decent card for SSD if you don't have an intel SATA3 port.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816115100

you could always get a new raid controller. this one seems pretty decent, especially for the money. i have one in my home NAS with raid6 with 8x3tb, but ssd performance looks pretty good too. decent price at ~$150. should be better to run your 840 pro than the marvell and save you from upgrading your complete system just to get decent ssd speeds.

x

 

[WTSherman]

I received my 840 Pro (128GB) and have it connected now to that same controller you have BlitzPuppet. (ASmedia 1061 chip)

My results:

405 mb/s Sequential Read
342 mb/s Sequential Write
59709 Random IOPS Read
49752 Random IOPS Write

Not bad for a $20 card! Maybe not up to the level of an expensive controller but definitely worth the money as an upgrade to SATA II. Not sure why yours is a little slower, I used Magician to test mine. I've got it in a PCIE x8 slot.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

I received my 840 Pro (128GB) and have it connected now to that same controller you have BlitzPuppet. (ASmedia 1061 chip)

My results:

405 mb/s Sequential Read
342 mb/s Sequential Write
59709 Random IOPS Read
49752 Random IOPS Write

Not bad for a $20 card! Maybe not up to the level of an expensive controller but definitely worth the money as an upgrade to SATA II. Not sure why yours is a little slower, I used Magician to test mine. I've got it in a PCIE x8 slot.

Hmm, Not too sure why mine is slower, luck of the draw I guess or maybe you have a faster CPU than me. (i7 930 on an X58 SLI mobo).

I'm trying to figure out which way I want to go...I know PCIEX1 has a max of 500MB/s per direction, and having 2 SSDs running off of that card will hit that max, but I am curious if there will be any noticeable difference since I really doubt windows will have much R/W once it's up and running...then most of everything is running in RAM and I'd have the benefits of faster startup (vs SATA2) plus extra bandwidth for the drive that is dedicated to games (the 256 SSD).

Time to play and test I guess.

 

[WTSherman]

Hmm, Not too sure why mine is slower, luck of the draw I guess or maybe you have a faster CPU than me. (i7 930 on an X58 SLI mobo).

I'm trying to figure out which way I want to go...I know PCIEX1 has a max of 500MB/s per direction, and having 2 SSDs running off of that card will hit that max, but I am curious if there will be any noticeable difference since I really doubt windows will have much R/W once it's up and running...then most of everything is running in RAM and I'd have the benefits of faster startup (vs SATA2) plus extra bandwidth for the drive that is dedicated to games (the 256 SSD).

Time to play and test I guess.

Will be interesting to see what having both SSDs on the SATA III card will do. I was wondering the same thing when I was installing my SSD although my other drives are hard drives. I dedicated the SATA card to the SSD just in case it would have to compete with the other drive for the 500 mb/s bandwidth. But I don't see it being a problem maxing out unless you were doing huge sequential transfers from one SSD to another.

I was patting myself on the back the other day for figuring out I could use the PCIE x 8 video card slot thinking it would increase bandwidth, until I realized the card itself is still limited to PCIE x1.

By the way my CPU is a Q9550.

 

[yefi]

That's about as good as you'll get for PCIe 2.0 x1. Syba/IO Crest have a card that's phyiscally x2 and uses the Marvel 9230 controller that supports x2, so that should achieve full SATA 6.0Gb/s throughput.

 

[tweakboy]

Its best to use mobo ports.

These cards blow, You can never get mobo performance with a card thx to limitations.

 

[avtar2008]

as this discussion is still active and this is very topic I am searching I have following questions:
1. Are there any card like this that will work on pci slot? I have 1 pci-e x1 slot on my motherboard, which is blocked by my graphics card, so I can't use it.
2. Is Raid configuration possible on these card??

I won't feel like making a new thread for it. But if required, I can do that to

 

[tweakboy]

I don't think you can do RAID.

What are you looking for ? Those cheap cards will be much slower then onboard. gl

 

[WTSherman]

as this discussion is still active and this is very topic I am searching I have following questions:
1. Are there any card like this that will work on pci slot? I have 1 pci-e x1 slot on my motherboard, which is blocked by my graphics card, so I can't use it.
2. Is Raid configuration possible on these card??

I won't feel like making a new thread for it. But if required, I can do that to

They have SATA cards for the old standard PCI slot but not for SATA III. I think the old fashioned PCI has lower bus speed than even SATA II. And yes these cheap cards support RAID, this is the one I have which is the same as BlitzPuppet's although his goes by the brand name "Crestport".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124045

By the way I just noticed yefi's post, this is the one to get I wish I had seen that before I bought mine.

 

[avtar2008]

then only option remains is to upgrade my mobo and cpu. As haswell is out Now, there will be flood of people selling there 2nd generation cpu and motherboards. I will try to pick a good deal out of them.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

That's about as good as you'll get for PCIe 2.0 x1. Syba/IO Crest have a card that's phyiscally x2 and uses the Marvel 9230 controller that supports x2, so that should achieve full SATA 6.0Gb/s throughput.

Hmm, I may end up getting that here shortly...mine works but I'd like to avoid the possibility of a bottle-neck.


SSD Is booting just fine (goes into the boot loaded from the card, my BIOS sees both SSD drives) windows loads and works normally...it's doing it's job!

 

[Lorne]

A standard PCI slot card will only net you 133MBs total throughput (if your lucky) even if you could find one in SATA3.
PCIe 1x is 250MBs (yes this varies per version/generation)

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I think the old fashioned PCI has lower bus speed than even SATA II.

It has, to the tune of 133MB/s (theoretical peak) shared for all devices on the bus.