Installing 6Gb/s SATA SSD's on system with 3Gb/s SATA Controller

[JefUK]

II have just completed an evaluation of installing an Intel 520 180GB SSD on an X58 motherboard (Asus P6T Deluxe with Asus U3S6/Marvel 88SE9120) and have drawn the following conclusions:

1. The U3S6/Marvell 88SE9120 SATA controller passes Trim commands.
2. The latest Marvell AHCI (1.2.0.1019) driver produces good speeds with a 6Gb/s SSD.
3. The Marvell AHCI driver does NOT pass Trim, and according to Marvell never will.
4. The Microsoft AHCI (6.0.6002.18005) driver on the Marvell 88SE9120 performs very poorly.
5. A 6GB/s SSD performs better on an Intel 3Gb/s controller with the Intel RST (iaStor) driver.
6. A 6GB/s SSD performs to its maximum only on an Intel 6Gb/s controller.
7. Only connect a 6GB/s SSD to an Intel controller for best performance.

See here for the full results (full screen).

[JefUK]

Update to previous post........

In order to determine the optimum method of connecting a SATA III SDD to a Vista 64-bit system with SATA II controllers, a number of add-in SATA III controllers have been tested and compared with the Intel SATA II and SATA III ports. The following conclusions were made:-

1. The Marvell 88SE91xx SATA controller passes TRIM commands (in by-pass/non-RAID mode).
2. The latest Marvell driver (1.2.0.1019) gives good overall performance with the Marvell 88SE91xx SATA controller, but does not pass TRIM commands.
3. The ASMedia ASM1061 produces the fastest speeds of the currently available add-in 6Gb/s SATA controllers.
4. The ASMedia ASM1061 controller passes TRIM commands.
5. Both the ASMedia driver (1.3.4.0) and the Microsoft AHCI driver (6.0.6002.18005) support TRIM commands with the ASMedia ASM1061 controller.
6. The 3Gb/s Intel controller, with the Intel RST driver, gives speeds approaching those of the ASMedia ASM1061 and ASMedia driver, especially when used for a system drive.
7. The Intel 6Gb/s SATA controller gives the best results of all.
8. Wherever possible always connect a 6Gb/s SSD to an Intel 6G/s SATA controller.
9. The Microsoft AHCI driver (6.0.6002.18005), standard with Vista 64-bit, performs very badly with random transfers, especially with queued transfers, and its use should be avoided. The Windows 7 version of this driver is different and may give better performance. Subsequent testing has shown that the Windows 8 AHCI driver (storahci) performs virtually identically to the ASMedia (1.3.4.0) driver.
10. Future add-in cards, using the new 6Gb/s Marvell 88SE92xx controller, will probably have a performance as good as the Intel PCH 6Gb/s SATA controller.

See here for the updated report, giving full results and analysis (full screen).

[JefUK]

Following on from the above posts, further testing shows that the Microsoft Windows 7 AHCI driver (msahci) and the Windows 8 AHCI driver (storahci) have a performance virtually identical to that of the ASMedia 106x AHCI 1.3.4.0 driver (asahci64).

Updated report here