dang Marvell SATA 3 ports

[Varangian]

I have the "marvelous" : Marvell 88SE9172 chipset controlling 2 very needed SATA 3 ports on my MB. (see my sig for details on my sys)

I can't seem to get them working.
I am connecting a SATA 3 capable drive, using a SATA 3 spec cable.. to no avail.

I did try the latest Multibeast 3.10.0 and selected 3rdParty SATA. no dice.

Any idea what the issue is, & how to fix?

I sure would love to make use of those SATA 3 ports.

much thanks in advance!

 

[Going Bald]

There is no support for the Marvell SATA ports in OS X. They show up as unknown AHCI controller and will work minimally at SATA I speed, but that is about all the utility you will get from them. Just put your Time Machine HD on one of them and a data storage drive on the other and forget it. Or put your Windows 7 drive and Win7 data drive on them like I did. They work fine with Win7.

 

[Varangian]

would it work for my DVD player perhaps?

(what a waste, wish I knew this before I bought my MoBo)

 

[mmaenpaa]

Those Marvell ports should work just fine if they are set to AHCI mode in bios. Read/write speeds are are a bit slower than on Intel 6 ports but not too much. This is on Intel port :

Screen Shot 2011-12-21 at 22.16.18.png

And this is the same Agility 3 on Marvell port :

Screen Shot 2011-12-21 at 22.23.38.png

Screen Shot 2011-12-21 at 22.32.40.png

 

[Varangian]

hmm, I am pretty sure I set to AHCI already, unless there is a separate (specific) menu in BIOS for the Marvell ports?

Can you be more specific about how to set the Marvells to AHCI?

thanks!

 

[mmaenpaa]

On my board GSata3 and eSata3 controllers on this page have to be set to AHCI mode :

Screen Shot 2011-12-22 at 1.04.22.png

 

[Going Bald]

hmm, I am pretty sure I set to AHCI already, unless there is a separate (specific) menu in BIOS for the Marvell ports?

Can you be more specific about how to set the Marvells to AHCI?

thanks!

Under integrated peripherals - scroll almost all the way down to the bottom.

 

[Varangian]

that did it!

thanks a million mmaenpaa and Going Bald!

 

[vienna01]

There is no support for the Marvell SATA ports in OS X. They show up as unknown AHCI controller and will work minimally at SATA I speed, but that is about all the utility you will get from them. Just put your Time Machine HD on one of them and a data storage drive on the other and forget it. Or put your Windows 7 drive and Win7 data drive on them like I did. They work fine with Win7.

I knew there was a problem with my 2 Marvell 9128 SATA III ports' throughput, but I was surprised when you said they weren't even SATA II speed [for OSX?]. If that is true, looks like I have to reconfigure which HDDs I connect to my 2 built-in Marvell 9128 SATA III ports. Time Machine, as you suggested seems a good way to use the Marvell 9128 ports.

In respect to your suggestion about using the Marvell 9128 ports with Windows 7, roughly what relative throughput should I expect to get, assuming they are used with a recent mid-range SSD with a SATA III interface? [I'm guessing the Marvell ports are the bottleneck] Should I expect better than SATA II or less than SATA II thoughput?

Or was the suggestion to use them for Windows based upon I'm Windows vs. I'm Mac <grin>?

 

[Going Bald]

There is no support for the Marvell SATA ports in OS X. They show up as unknown AHCI controller and will work minimally at SATA I speed, but that is about all the utility you will get from them. Just put your Time Machine HD on one of them and a data storage drive on the other and forget it. Or put your Windows 7 drive and Win7 data drive on them like I did. They work fine with Win7.

I knew there was a problem with my 2 Marvell 9128 SATA III ports' throughput, but I was surprised when you said they weren't even SATA II speed [for OSX?]. If that is true, looks like I have to reconfigure which HDDs I connect to my 2 built-in Marvell 9128 SATA III ports. Time Machine, as you suggested seems a good way to use the Marvell 9128 ports.

In respect to your suggestion about using the Marvell 9128 ports with Windows 7, roughly what relative throughput should I expect to get, assuming they are used with a recent mid-range SSD with a SATA III interface? [I'm guessing the Marvell ports are the bottleneck] Should I expect better than SATA II or less than SATA II thoughput?

Or was the suggestion to use them for Windows based upon I'm Windows vs. I'm Mac <grin>?

The maximum transfer rate for SATA III is 600GB/s. Depending on your hard drive, say a 90Gb OCZ vertex3, you might get in the range of 500-550 GB/s in both read and write transfer rates per OCZ's specs. One thing to watch out for and common mistake for new builders who don't read spec sheets and forums (or the fine print on the SSD package): to get SATA III speeds from a 6Gb/s drive you MUST have a SATA III cable. Your regular SATA cable won't cut it, so make sure the packaging says it is for SATA III.

With my 600Gb SATA III WD Velociraptors I only get around 150-170 GB/s transfer rate for comparison.