Looking for latest Marvel 9128 SATA 3 controller driver!

[Sneakers]

Right, I realized there has been some controversy regarding this perticular SATA 3 controller ( 9128 ).

I have had some odd issues with my new SSD and not really sure if it is the controller itself or if it is me who cannot figure out the proper settings.

Thought I'd give the latest firmware a spin before I dig deeper.

I don't get BSODs and the like but I get somewhat strange boot messages and it don't boot "ssd fast" due to this. It is as if the SSD and controller are doing alot of extra communication during boot slowing the process down. Once inside the OS I get the sata 3 speeds (5gbs on this Marvel controller ) of close to 430 mb read and writes and my AS SSD benchmark scores and results are as they should be, just the boot up that I wanna get a handle on.

Would appriciate a little rundown on how to install these drivers IF someone can dig up some new ones ( like from 2012 or something? ).

Appriciate the help guys!

Cheers!

/edit

I did find these drivers over at Station drivers but the whole page is in french and I got no clue on how to install these? ( marvell_91xx_bios_2.2.0.1125 )

[PhazeDelta1]

Why not hook the SSD into the Intel sata port instead?

[deltatux]

According to the specs page, there's only a Marvell controller that serves SATA III. The Intel chipset can only do SATA II:
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/prod...px?pid=3449#sp

deltatux

[Sneakers]

Originally Posted by Firestorm

Why not hook the SSD into the Intel sata port instead?

Yah like deltuxe says, only the marvel is sata 3 the intel is sata 2 so I get lower theoretical limits using the sata 2.

I don't get bsods like some people have reported and the sata 3 controler don't seem "useless" as some may believe, but something is odd with it for sure.

I have since the 1st post managed to speed up the boot procedure by changing around sata 3 settings on the controller, it boots as it should now without delays or extra "wierdo" prompts during boot.

But now I do not get 500 mb reads and writes in "linear" work like in the Atto bench. I still get same scores and read/writes during AS SSD bench however.

Not sure what to believe if me changing the controller settings did this or if it just variation in the benchmarks. SSD still reads as msiAHCI.

[deltatux]

What are you getting in terms of read and write speeds?

I notice that the Marvell controllers aren't much better than SATA II speeds. My native Intel controller is about 100 MB/s faster than the Marvell controller on my board.

deltatux

[Sneakers]

Originally Posted by deltatux

What are you getting in terms of read and write speeds?

I notice that the Marvell controllers aren't much better than SATA II speeds. My native Intel controller is about 100 MB/s faster than the Marvell controller on my board.

deltatux

In atto bench atm ( on top of my head ) it tops out at around 250 write and 400 read iirc.


Either way I have been researching some more and the Marvell sata3 controller is supposed to be subpar and cannot match even the intel sata 2 controllers.

Still I would like to believe that with recent drivers and firmware things could get better.

I DLed latest firmware and drivers from stationdriver.com but I'm not sure how I would go about installing them. I been looking around in device manager and cannot find any hint towards an actual marvel 9128 controller, so it seems as if I have disabled it completly and only using Intel AHCI or MS stock AHCI drivers for the sata6 port aswell.

Not sure this makes any sense though.

I'm in the process of backing up 600 gb of files so can't go all crazy and experiment just yet


/edit

I got 2x other HDDS setup as IDE, so the idea of just changing to AHCI and use the sata2 connectors ( using intel controllers ) how viable is that?

[Xzibit]

Get MB with Native SATA3 support. socket 1155 or 2011.
Marvell is not so good, even after update BIOS controller. I tried - the same crap, but ASUS is rolling back to old ATA controller after restart.
And don't play much with benchamrks, those tools aren't so good for the SSD device

[Pill Monster]

Originally Posted by Sneakers

I DLed latest firmware and drivers from stationdriver.com but I'm not sure how I would go about installing them.

Just run the batch file (.bat).

edit-
Apparently the drivers need to be installed using DOS....

[deltatux]

To be honest, do you really need to spend the extra cash on a better board just because it won't hit maximum speed? I think it might not be worth it. If you're getting 400 MB/s, that's already extremely fast. My SSD can only achieve that on the Intel controller and not even the Marvell controller.

deltatux

[Sneakers]

Originally Posted by deltatux

To be honest, do you really need to spend the extra cash on a better board just because it won't hit maximum speed? I think it might not be worth it. If you're getting 400 MB/s, that's already extremely fast. My SSD can only achieve that on the Intel controller and not even the Marvell controller.

deltatux

No its not worth it at all, 400 read is what it gets in those bogus linear tests that really has no resemblance to real world OS usage anyway. But I just thought it might be good to get it to run as fast as it possibly can regardless of having a less then optimal sata 3 controller chip.

[Sneakers]

Originally Posted by Pill Monster

Just run the batch file (.bat).

edit-
Apparently the drivers need to be installed using DOS....

Yah, thats what I was afraid of.

Really got no clue on how to install those files, not the same procedure as for instance updating BIOS via an USB stick.

I tried booting from an USB stick with the firmware attached but didn't work either.

Hmm..

[Sneakers]

Right, for others pondering about using the Marvell SATA3 9128 controller all I can say is, don't.

It is very limited bandwithd wise (hits write 400 read in Atto but fails misserably in AS SSD and Crystal benches ) and has all sorts of "real world performance" issues once in the OS.

I will be using Intels SATA2 ICH10R controller with latest 2012 RST drivers ( at the time of posting ) and albeit it has lower seq reads it is so much more stable and snappier once in the OS.

I will actually disable the Marvell chip through BIOS and pretend I don't even have it

[iresolver]

the bootup time is much slower on the intel controller than the marvell
what settings in the bios did you change to make it go faster?