Considering Sabertooth Z77 - ASMedia Concerns

[BlindWolf8]

Hello all,
I am considering getting the new Sabertooth Z77 board with either a 3550 or a 3770. (Not sure if Hyperthreading is worth it as I'm a game developer) I have a concern though.

I recently bought a Samsung 830 256GB SSD and I also have a RAID 1 1TB set. I am planning on using the Intel SATA 3 ports (brown) on the Sabertooth board for the RAID set as those two ports support RAID and my current RAID 1 set on my Sabertooth 55i board is already on Intel ports. I'm assuming the transition between will be seamless.

My concern comes from using the ASMedia ports (white) on the board for my SSD. How will the ASMedia ports affect performance compared to Intel ports? Would I be better off waiting a month until ASUS starts shipping boards with more SATA 3 Intel ports?

Is there anything else I should be aware of? Thanks!

Here are my current specs:
Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i, BIOS version 2003
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core BX80605I5750
RAM:
1 x G.SKILL Ripjaws X 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
1 x G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD
Video Card: Sapphire Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 1GB
PSU: Corsair HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W
SSDs/Hard Drives:
1 x Samsung 830 MZ-7PC256B/WW 256GB (internal)
2 x WD Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5,400 RPM (internal, RAID 1, storage/backup)
1 x WD Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5,400 RPM (internal drive in external enclosure, eSATA, backup of all internal drives)
CD/DVD: Samsung SH-S203N
Case: Thermaltake Element V VL20001W2Z
OS: Windows 7 SP 1 x64 Home Premium

 

[itzdanielp]

I would assume that the transition would be fine for the RAID 1, but honestly that would scare the cr** outta me. Especially since, even though they are both intel RAID controllers, the chipset is different.

The Intel ports are always my preference, since they are controlled by the CPU instead of a separate chip. And for a High Performance SSD, I would definitely want that extra speed.

 

[BlindWolf8]

I would assume that the transition would be fine for the RAID 1, but honestly that would scare the cr** outta me. Especially since, even though they are both intel RAID controllers, the chipset is different.

The Intel ports are always my preference, since they are controlled by the CPU instead of a separate chip. And for a High Performance SSD, I would definitely want that extra speed.

Hi itzdanielp,
Thanks for replying. Would I be better off waiting a month until ASUS starts shipping boards with more SATA 3 Intel ports? I would also call Intel before I moved the drives over to the new machine and I would make a backup first of course.

 

[itzdanielp]

I personally would, as I don't like SSD's on the non-Intel ports.

I don't really think you would see much of a real world impact on speeds using the ASMedia ports though, only synthetic test variances.

 

[BlindWolf8]

Can anyone else give any other opinions? Thanks!