Ok so yesterday I took delivery of my new Crucial M4 256GB drive. I decided to take my 2 current HDD (RAID 0) and use them for storage in RAID 1 mode for security. Doing this I decided to point my 'My Documents, My Downloads, Video, Music and Pictures' folders to my HDD instead of SSD. Did I make the right decision? Now since I use the Asus RIIIE I have to settle for using the poor version of SATA III 6G but would like to check that using these ports is still the better option over SATA II 3G ports? I don't really want to go through the bother of trying and testing myself as I have to remove fan duct and GPU to get at the ports. Also I followed as many tweaks on YouTube as I could find for my SSD including using a program called SSD Tweaker.
I was using a C300 256Gb via the Marvell 9128 and the Sata III. Had no probs for past 6 months+ and gave me 350mb/s read speeds. However I've just this week fitted a 512gb M4 too for my games. As the Sata III on the Rampage board has a max bandwith of 400mb/s, i still couldnt hit the 550mb/s rated potential. Also as I'm still using the C300, I decided for me personally. It was better to have both running off Sata II and the ICH10R as both drives together, whilst capped at 285mb/s, can hit between them a potential 600mb/s using 2 ports on ICH10R instead of 2 ports on the Marvell Sata III. The Intel Sata II are also meant to provide better short/small read writes, which are generally more important than large seq figures, or so I've been led to believe recently. So, to summarise. I think both have pros and cons, but going the intel ICH10R, should not only provide similar performance in real world and are generally rated as better for stability. Make sure you're on 0309 firmware too.
Yeah I'm on firmware 0309. My SSD came with it on which I was shocked to find. Although, I still flashed it again anyway. I have not had any issues with the Marvell port. I only use the 1 drive on it so maybe I might leave it this way. Asus should have offered customers something free when they bought the RIIIE as it doesnt offer what it states on the box.
Yeah, bit naughty isn't it. Sounds fair enough, stay with Marvell and swap to Intel if any issues. Like I say, I used the Marvell one for ages without issue. Enjoy!
Yeah i'll give it a try and see how it goes. I think i'll raise the issue regarding full SATA III speeds with Asus tech support and see what they say about it. Regarding the moving of my documents and videos folders to my HDD... do you think this was a good move?
Documents maybe not, but large videos just for viewing yes. Reading more just now on Crucial forums, and the majority definately recommend Intel over Marvell controllers btw.... which is why I moved both across. They reckon seq read speeds aside, Intel ICH10R Sata II is quicker and more reliable than the Marvell 9128 in everyday use. Also most believe that the 9128 does NOT support TRIM.
I have checked and can confirm that windows is using TRIM. Now I'm confused about using the Marvell controller. Maybe I will try the intel ports but I have my 2 HDD on those ports in RAID so I don't know if they are in AHIC mode or not.
According to what I've read, just because Windows says it is using TRIM, does not mean the Marvell controller on your mobo 9128 is relaying the command to the ssd.... You might want to do some googling about this and look in the Crucial forums. Thats all my knowledge is based on. The guys in the Crucial forums do appear to know their stuff. When I mention Mravell/intel, I'm referring to the mobo sata options.
I love my 256gig m4. Just the right size for games and other stuff. I know its by far not the fastest when you look at benches, but benches are stupid anyways. It's like one videocard gets 100 fps in a game and another gets 200. There is no perceptible difference anyways. With m4 everything loads insta fast so eve if they had ssds that could do 2gigs a second, it wouldn't really matter. The biggest difference is going from hdd to ssd, other than that, it doesn't matter too much.
If it says it on the box and doesn't support it you should be able to exchange as it's not fit for purpose.
