Marvell on-board controller function, performance problems w/P9X79 PRO

[renaldafeen]

Have a new custom build using a P9X79 PRO, 3930K, 32GB RAM on Win7 x64 Pro with the following drives, connected to the Intel and Marvell controllers as shown:

Crucial CT120M50 - Intel Port 1 - "C:" 120GB SSD
Crucial CT240M50 - Intel Port 0 - "E:" 240GB SSD
Crucial CT240M50 - Marvell Port 0 - "F:" 240GB SSD
W. Dig WD10 - Marvell Port 1 - "G:" 1TB HDD
Seagate ST3500418AS - Intel Port 2 - "H:" 500B HDD

All but the Seagate are SATA3.

Latest drivers, BIOS, etc. throughout.

Windows Marvell driver is installed, version 1.2.0.1014 - latest version on the ASUS site - and its U/I allows me to turn off 'removable', etc.

During boot, Marvell BIOS setup shows both drives on that controller's ports as "Unconfigured" (i.e., I do not want RAID, just normal, independent SATA3 drives).

Unfortunately, the performance I'm getting on the drives connected to the Marvell ports is pretty sad (note: the "slowerCPUFans" baseline tests the C: drive). The 500GB SATA2 HDD on the Intel controller is outperforming the SATA3 HDD on the Marvell for sequential reads, for instance. The SSD on the Marvell is considerably slower than the SSDs on the Intel.

More disconcerting is the fact that Windows does not recognize the F: drive on Marvell Port 0 as an SSD - I had to manually eliminate it from the drives scheduled for degrag. Anything else I need to manually configure (cacheing, etc.)?

Also, PassMark can't even tell what types of drives these two are (see data for Physical Drives 4 & 5).

Do I need to configure something, or does it look like there's a problem here?

Or is this all normal Marvell controller behavior? Should I opt for an add-on controller board (if so... suggestions?)?

Thanks for any feedback!

cheers,

R

 

[renaldafeen]

I'm getting a 404 when I click on the link to "Reply to ur6beersaway", so...

I'm not doing any RAID configuration, as noted above. All drives are independent.

The drives are connected to the main board SATA sockets as follows (see manual) -

These are the two white Intel SATA3 port sockets:
- Crucial CT120M50 - Intel Port 1 - "C:" 120GB SSD: SATA6G_2
- Crucial CT240M50 - Intel Port 0 - "E:" 240GB SSD: SATA6G_1

These are the two grey (not white) Marvell SATA3 port sockets:
- Crucial CT240M50 - Marvell Port 0 - "F:" 240GB SSD: SATA6G_E1
- W. Dig WD10 - Marvell Port 1 - "G:" 1TB HDD: SATA6G_E2

This is one of the four "blue" Intel SATA2 port sockets:
- Seagate ST3500418AS - Intel Port 2 - "H:" 500B HDD: SATA3G_3

The drives connected to the two grey Marvel SATA3 ports are the ones with the problems.

thanks!