Will my motherboard restrict performance of marvel controllers?

Zomgnoob

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Nov 24, 2012
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Hello there fellow techwiz!
I've been looking to get a new SSD to reinforce my current 80gb intel x-25m ssd as it runs out of space fast. I was comparing between intel 335 256GB vs Plextor's M5P 256gb and conclude that plextor might be the better one for me. However, i was researching around for the firmware that they use, and realized intel 335 uses sandforce and Plextor uses marvel controllers. Further googling marvel controller problems lead me to search results of the motherboard restricting the performance of the SSD. My current motherboard is Asus P7P55D-E PRO, which i am almost entirely clueless. I heard the problems were about the compatability.

Here are a few quotes / links that i was reading up on.

"Well, from what I see, to get 6Gb/s, you need to use the Marvell controller ports. I have never used it, but most seem to hate the Marvell controllers and use Intel SATA instead. On my P7P55D-E Pro, I have an Agility 2 SSD and it scores 7.7 in WEI, but on my GA-X58A-UD7 mobo, with the same model SSD, I get a 7.8 WEI score. Only the P67 and later chipsets have native 6Gb/s support via Intel, which is the only controller I use."

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/268882-32-sata-worthless-marvell-controller

In conclusion, i was wondering if i would get the full speed (or close enough) performance that plextor advertises and whether or not my motherboard will restrict it's performance
Would getting an intel SSD provide greater performance ( the difference of the price between the two are quite remarkable )? And does my motherboard have sata 3 ports? Thank you! :)
 
Unfortunately you will not get the full SSD performance from your MB, because the MB has two 6Gb/s SATA ports (gray)that is from marvell and 6X 3Gb/s intel SATA ports (blue). And the Marvell SATA acts like the 3Gb/s SATA so that you only can get maybe 200-300 MB/s in reading instead of the advertises speed 540MB/s for the plextor SSD.

And you connect the SSD to either marvell or intel SATA port, you will see the differences between them in the benchmarks (only you want to see the high 4K reading and writing), but you will not feel the differences in the real usage, and in most case the intel SATA pots will have the good performances.

If you want to get the SSD, I will recommend to get the lower per GB/ per $ on SAMSUNG 830 , Crucial M4 , or Kingston HyperX 3K including the intel 330 or 335 and plextor .