SATA III SSDs Having Problems As Boot Drives?

[mxcrowe]

I am planning to upgrade my system to a Core i7 950 with an X58 (or similar?) motherboard - have been looking at Asus Sabertooth X58 and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R.

I also was hoping to use a 120GB SATA III 6Gb/s SSD as my primary boot drive, adding my older 500GB SATA II drive for data and some program installs. For example: the OCZ SLD3-25SAT3 looks nice: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=557375&RSort=4&csid=ITD&body=#ReviewStart

However, I have been reading about people having problems with the Marvell 9128 Controller for SATA III on these boards (at least, on the Asus, and I assume there could be similar problems on the Gigabyte). There is talk of necessary firmware updates, etc. to avoid BSODs.

Is anybody aware of a good SSD like the above that is working well in an X58 class mobo as a boot drive? Hopefully, plug and play...?

 

[PrvtChurch]

You could also find a MoBo that has SATA III ports that are run by the Southbridge.

 

[schizizz]

I was going the same way but recently purchased the 2nd Gen Core i7 2600k / Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 (rev. 1.0) combo from Micro center. It has 4 SATA3 ports, 2 on intel Z68 chip set and 2 on the Marvell 88SE9172 SATA Controller. I use a Corsair 120GB SSD as boot and 1TB baracuda on Intel ports. Marvell ports would not work for me as a Raid 0 set in Bios but will work fine in windows disk management as a striped array. 2 1TB Baracuda SATA3 show up as 1 2TB Drive. The Combo deal i7 2600k and Z68 MoBo was only $325 (250 CPU/75 MB) The 2nd Gen core i7 / Z68 is a way better system for the price. I just couldn't wait for the socket 2011 any longer.

P.S. Marvell site did not even list the 88SE9172 controller as a product. found info from people complaining on forums like this.

 

[mxcrowe]

After yesterday's research, I am definitely leaning toward a 2nd Gen Core i7 also. I liked the price of the 900 series, and the Core i7 2600 is like $300, but I can actually find cheaper mobos than I could for the 900s. On balance, I'd much rather have the performance bump from the better CPU.
I did look at the Z68 boards, but I definitely want a discrete gfx card, so I am now going in the direction of the Asus P67 boards. I am hoping that if I don't Raid the SSD, it should be fairly easy to set up as a boot drive. Leaning toward the Corsair 120GB.

 

[mxcrowe]

I have spoken with Corsair, and they recommend updating the firmware (by connecting the SSD in my existing computer) before installing the O/S onto it in the new computer. Apparently, there are still some stability issues with these drives that are being worked out.

Corsair also recommended updating the drivers for the Intel SATA controller and to not use the Marvell controller. Does anyone know if there will be any issues upgrading the SATA controller with the Intel update vs. using the latest version from Asus? Or, put another way, is Asus just behind Intel with their driver updates?