- Joined
- Jun 16, 2012
- Messages
- 32
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z77x-UP4 TH
- CPU
- i5 3570K
- Graphics
- GTX 670
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
My mobo of Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH has 6 SATA ports, which I thought would be enough. However, the mSATA drive slot on the mobo is on the same bus as the 6th SATA port, so I can only use one or the other (plugging in an mSATA disables the 6th SATA port).
To get around this issue, I figured I would just buy an PCIe-to-SATA controller (non-RAID).
I first searched through TonyMacX86.com and read through every thread related to a SATA controller card. While most threads were about RAID controllers, I noticed that talk around a non-RAID controller centered on the ASM1061 chipset. In fact, TonyMacX86 himself recommended the ASMedia ASM1061 host controller back when OS X 10.6 and 10.7 were in use: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/08/increasing-disk-performance-sata-6gbs.html
So I went ahead and bought the Syba/IO Crest SY-PEX40039 controller card directly linked from TonyMacX86’s blog post (http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Port-SATA-PCI-Express-SY-PEX40039/dp/B005B0A6ZS).
I ended up hooking two optical drives to it while testing it (Sony & LG DVD drives). While both drives were recognized and usable in Windows 8.1, Mac OS X 10.9.2 only recognized one drive at a time and it was a toss-up whether it would recognize the Sony or the LG; the recognized drive would change randomly at boot. Updating my firmware for the mobo didn’t help the issue. Even when reading a disc, sometimes the drive would just disappear from the list in Disk Utility!
Fortunately, NewEgg had a rebate for the host controller I originally wanted to buy: A 4-port Syba/IO Crest SI-PEX40064 using the Marvell 9215 controller (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124064). There are literally only 3 threads on this website that discusses this card, and the conclusion seemed to be that it was an unreliable card. But with the failure of the ASM1061 chipest to work correctly with OS X 10.9.2 and with the incentive of a rebate that would make the 4-port controller card cheaper than the 2-port version, I went ahead and switched chipsets.
I’m happy to report that the Syba card with the Marvell 88SE9215 controller is working perfectly in both Windows 8.1 and OS X 10.9.2. Even when hooking up two HDDs and two optical drives, it recognizes all drives and doesn’t drop them. I haven’t stress tested it past reading/writing an optical drive while reading data from an HDD, but it seems to be working correctly.
Both the ASM1061 and Marvell 9215 cards add their own verbose boot before the OS loads. The ASM1061 adds an average of 12 seconds to the boot time. The Marvell 9215 adds an average of 5 seconds to the boot time.
The Marvell 88SE9215 worked out for me. No drivers needed on either OS.
To get around this issue, I figured I would just buy an PCIe-to-SATA controller (non-RAID).
I first searched through TonyMacX86.com and read through every thread related to a SATA controller card. While most threads were about RAID controllers, I noticed that talk around a non-RAID controller centered on the ASM1061 chipset. In fact, TonyMacX86 himself recommended the ASMedia ASM1061 host controller back when OS X 10.6 and 10.7 were in use: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/08/increasing-disk-performance-sata-6gbs.html
So I went ahead and bought the Syba/IO Crest SY-PEX40039 controller card directly linked from TonyMacX86’s blog post (http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Port-SATA-PCI-Express-SY-PEX40039/dp/B005B0A6ZS).
I ended up hooking two optical drives to it while testing it (Sony & LG DVD drives). While both drives were recognized and usable in Windows 8.1, Mac OS X 10.9.2 only recognized one drive at a time and it was a toss-up whether it would recognize the Sony or the LG; the recognized drive would change randomly at boot. Updating my firmware for the mobo didn’t help the issue. Even when reading a disc, sometimes the drive would just disappear from the list in Disk Utility!
Fortunately, NewEgg had a rebate for the host controller I originally wanted to buy: A 4-port Syba/IO Crest SI-PEX40064 using the Marvell 9215 controller (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124064). There are literally only 3 threads on this website that discusses this card, and the conclusion seemed to be that it was an unreliable card. But with the failure of the ASM1061 chipest to work correctly with OS X 10.9.2 and with the incentive of a rebate that would make the 4-port controller card cheaper than the 2-port version, I went ahead and switched chipsets.
I’m happy to report that the Syba card with the Marvell 88SE9215 controller is working perfectly in both Windows 8.1 and OS X 10.9.2. Even when hooking up two HDDs and two optical drives, it recognizes all drives and doesn’t drop them. I haven’t stress tested it past reading/writing an optical drive while reading data from an HDD, but it seems to be working correctly.
Both the ASM1061 and Marvell 9215 cards add their own verbose boot before the OS loads. The ASM1061 adds an average of 12 seconds to the boot time. The Marvell 9215 adds an average of 5 seconds to the boot time.
The Marvell 88SE9215 worked out for me. No drivers needed on either OS.
