Should I buy an SATA III PCI-e x4 card?

[WyomingKnott]

After about my 10th reply on using SSDs with SATA II ports, I checked my own motherboard and found that I had only SATA II ports.

Even so, the SSD makes the system fly. So should I go to the expense of finding a PCI-E x4 card (I do have the slot) with SATA III ports, a card from which I can boot? Will the higher max transfer rate make a difference? Will not booting from a disk on the chipset cause any slowing down? This inquiring mind wants to know.

 

[poppasmurf]

After about my 10th reply on using SSDs with SATA II ports, I checked my own motherboard and found that I had only SATA II ports.

Even so, the SSD makes the system fly. So should I go to the expense of finding a PCI-E x4 card (I do have the slot) with SATA III ports, a card from which I can boot? Will the higher max transfer rate make a difference? Will not booting from a disk on the chipset cause any slowing down? This inquiring mind wants to know.

I would maybe look at a OCZ RevoDrive's. They are a PCI-E x4 interface.

By the time you buy a sata 3 card and SSD you have spent a good chunk.

The OCZ RevoDrives are faster and OS bootable the only thing is the type motherboard you have (you didn't say what you have) may not be compatible but... you can go to OCZ site and see if it is. They have a motherboard compatiblity list.

The Revo's come in numerous size's and speed's beware some of the older drives do not support trim the newer ones do though!

Go to newegg here is two links to the RevoDrive SSD's there and pick one that suits you price wise and size wise and read comments as well

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038515&IsNodeId=1&name=PCI%20Express

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600171532&IsNodeId=1&name=PCI-Express%202.0%20x4

Good luck!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I found myself in the exact same situation just about this time last year.

Retired Chief mentioned the ASUS U3S6 add-in card. I managed to find one for $25.00. It worked with my ASUS Sabertooth 55i motherboard but there were some drawbacks. When using the second PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot for the add-in card the primary slot for the video card was reduced from PCI-e 2.0 x16 down to x8. That translates into a 5% to 8% performance hit. Not that big of a deal for me as I am not a hardcore gamer. The add-in card used an older Marvell contrller so performance was not a SATA 3 6Gb/s levels. The low budget Rocket add-in cards have the same problem.

There are high end add-in cards that will get the job done but they are very expensive.

Poppasmurf mentioned the OCZ RevoDrives. That is another option. The newer RevoDrive 3 x2 is expensive. The smallest capacity is 240GB and it costs $699:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227744

I am not planning to upgrade until I see how the new PCI-e 3.0 Standard works out. In the meantime I am satisfied with my Samsung 470 SATA 2 3Gb/s 256GB ssd. It works for me.

 

[leandrodafontoura]

If you are going over the trouble of getting PCI-e storage solutuions, get the Revodrive. Its faster and simpler.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Poppasmurf (how come your picture is not blue?)

Much as I would like to do that, with useful sizes starting over $300 it's out of my range for now. I already have an SSD that has enough space for me. My system specs are posted here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/configuration.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&pseudo=WyomingKnott . If I didn't already have the SSD, then those would be a good choice. I paid about $290 for the drive; a Revo drive in a similar size looks to be about $330, leaving $40 for the controller card. So that suggestion would be a shoo-in if I hadn't already bought the SSD.

Johnny Lucky, I picked that motherboard because at the time it was the only one that I could get with an x4 slot. Using it doesn't take away from my x16 graphics slot, and I don't game. Well, having found Dosbox, I'm replaying Lemmings, but my graphics card seems to be up to it. The ASUS U3S6 came up frequently in my searching and seems like a great fit, but I haven't been able to find any for sale. At $25 I would be all over one.

leandrodafontoura, it's all about the economics right now. I'm not flush with discretionary dollars the way I was when I bought this machine. Such is the current economic climate.

==================================

But: The question was would my system benefit from such an improvement, or would it be throwing money out the window? A three-percent benchmark improvement is not important to me; it's how the system "feels." And changing to the SSD with only SATA II felt pretty good!

Do any of you have a machine that boots off a Revo drive, and does it load faster than one with a more "traditional" SSD?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The Asus U3S6 card was already out of production when I found one last year. Had to dig pretty deep in search engine results. In addition performance is not very good due to an old controller. Performance is more like SATA 2 3Gb/s.

 

[poppasmurf]

LOL there no getting anything over you huh... nice observation. I guess its a tan

Thats a shame way better IMO to go with the revo in a desktop leaving the SATA ports open for expansion personally if it was me I think I would throw the SATA III in a 2gen SB laptop they utilize a SATA III and really get all the benefits it has to offer

As for the revo I do not but, plan on doing so. I have read up on them.

They are a lil slower at startup any where from 5 to 8 sec. slower than the top dog at the time of the article (sorry I don't recall which one) but I believe the revo was a lil slower but the I/O is the kicker for me I plan on doing heavy video editing etc. and because of cost of intel stuff I'm flying with AMD... six to eight w/Marvell 88SE9182 controller is more appealing for storage to me I don't want a bunch of other hardware to get sata III performance and then worry about 3rd party controllers not up to par.

The guy's at http://www.pcper.com/ have a good chart (SSD Decoder) and a fella there Allyn M. might be able to answer more in depth for you, sorry, he is a storage freak and has the opportunity test a lot more SSD's than most hardware sites including this one good luck