Discrete controller card?

hat · Oct 20, 2012

I recently got 2 SSDs, one 120GB for my system drive, and I just today replaced my 500GB hard drive with a 512GB Agility 4 (big dent in the wallet there :eek:

). My motherboard, being an "older" 1366 board, doesn't have any native SATA 3 ports. It does have 2 SATA 3 ports, but they were tacked on with a Marvell controller like an afterthought.

If I got a cheap SATA 3 controller card, would this improve my performance? If there would be a difference, would it be worth the trouble (not looking to use RAID at all)? Would I need to reinstall Windows? Would it matter that I intend to boot off one of the drives that would be on the separate controller card?

eidairaman1 · Oct 20, 2012

ok the tacked on ports arent slower than the "Native ones"

Also You pay for what you get for Plug In boards.

Jetster · Oct 20, 2012

I went threw the same issue. Yes SATA III is faster and boot time will show it. You could get a SATA controller but the good ones are not cheap. I opted to upgrade the system with a new board and CPU.

But really the only place I notice it is when booting (from 30 to 19 sec) and load time in BF3.

hat · Oct 20, 2012

eidairaman1 said:
ok the tacked on ports arent slower than the "Native ones"

Also You pay for what you get for Plug In boards.

They're run off some sort of additional Marvell controller, which I've repeatedly heard is worse than the Intel controller. Unfortunately the ports running off the Intel controller are only SATA 2, so my best option is to use the crappy Marvell controller at the moment.

Jetster said:
I went threw the same issue. Yes SATA III is faster and boot time will show it. You could get a SATA controller but the good ones are not cheap. I opted to upgrade the system with a new board and CPU.

But really the only place I notice it is when booting (from 30 to 19 sec) and load time in BF3.

How much would I need to spend for a decent controller?

Jetster · Oct 20, 2012

I did a little reserch and what I saw was the majority of the cheaper controller cards were ether not that fast or did not support trim. So i assumed I would have to pay more for a good one. I just used it as an excuse to upgrade

hat · Oct 20, 2012

Looks like it would cost a lot for a good controller card. Might as well get a good 1155 board that does all that shit natively and a 3770k, but that's a lot of money. I've already dumped so much money into computers and other things lately, I gotta chill out now.

Wrigleyvillain · Oct 20, 2012

Why don't you just try the card you have?

Steevo · Oct 20, 2012

I love my 640, but it does have its own issues with SSD's and RAID, like each marvell controller only has enough bandwidth for one SSD at SATA 3 speeds and still it chokes it down a bit.

System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
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Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
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Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
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System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
Processor	i7 2600k 4.4GHz :: i5 10400
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Pro :: ASUS Prime H570-Plus
Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
Memory	4x4GB DDR3 2133 :: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
Storage	Crucial MX500 1TB, 2x1TB Seagate RAID 0 :: Mushkin Enhanced 60GB SSD, 3x4TB Seagate HDD RAID5
Display(s)	Onn 165hz 1080p :: Acer 1080p
Case	Antec SOHO 1030B :: Old White Full Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Bose Companion 2 Series III :: None
Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
Software	Windows 10 Pro - Plex Server on Dragonfly
Benchmark Scores	>9000

System Name	Juliette // HTPC
Processor	Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory	Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
Video Card(s)	ASUS RTX4070 OC// GTX 1650
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1Tb, Intel 665p Series M.2 2280 1TB // Samsung 1Tb SSD
Display(s)	ASUS VP348QGL 34" Quad HD 3440 x 1440 // 55" LG 4K SK8000 Series
Case	Seasonic SYNCRO Q7// Silverstone Granada GD05
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 // HDMI to Samsung HW-R650 sound bar
Power Supply	Seasonic SYNCRO 750 W // CORSAIR Vengeance 650M
Mouse	Cooler Master MM710 53G
Keyboard	Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software	Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro

Discrete controller card?

hat

Enthusiast

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

Jetster

hat

Enthusiast

Jetster

hat

Enthusiast

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

Steevo

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