Marvell Raid 0 Conflict

[MadOblivion]

I was running my Raid on Marvell 6gb controller and experienced several problems. For starters.
1.Slow Raid speed
2. System instability
3 Realtek audio conflict
4 Random BRRrrrrrr Sounds
5.Certain old driver installs BSOD

The BRRrrr sound was solved by disabling realtek and installing a old pci audio card.
Battlefield 3 would lock up completely at random forcing hard reboot this was also fixed when disabling Realtek..

I did some research and realized Intel's old ICH10R controller out performed the marvell controllers by a substantial margin. So I decided to dump marvell and go with the intel chipset. After re-installation, to my amaziement my computer's instability is non-existent, previous drivers that would BSOD on install, now installed fine.

note, Now on the intel controller i was getting a BrrrRRRr out of my old pci sound card, where i had previously had that problem with realtek audio. So i figured maybe the two controllers had opposite conflicts. I enabled my Realtek and removed my PCI audigy 2, No Brrrrrr Sounds and no freeze or lockups. Computer is running flawless where i previously had nothing but problems.

If i could physically remove the marvell controller from this board i would... I just cant believe i fell for the ole 6gb marketing ploy. Sure it says its 6gb? but do the speeds reflect it? NOT A CHANCE.

My MB is a Asus Rampage III Formula. Really a great board... but Marvell needs to take a hike.

This thread is here to help others maybe having similar problems with Raid Controllers, and to discuss why these controllers create these conflicts.

 

[mwroobel]

My first suggestion would be to abandon the marvell controller, disable it in the BIOS and go with the intel raid controller. Any perceived loss of speed by going to a SATA2 controller will be negated by the increased reliability (and if you are using conventional discs you won't see any difference in speed).

 

[drescherjm]

My first suggestion would be to abandon the marvell controller, disable it in the BIOS and go with the intel raid controller. Any perceived loss of speed by going to a SATA2 controller will be negated by the increased reliability (and if you are using conventional discs you won't see any difference in speed).

I second that recomendation.

I just cant believe i fell for the ole 6gb marketing ploy. Sure it says its 6gb? but do the speeds reflect it? NOT A CHANCE.

Hard drives have just begun to need more than SATA I bandwith of 150 MB/s however they are no where near the 300 MB/s that SATA II provives. So putting them on an SATA III interface does not make them go any faster since the media transfer rate ( how fast you can get data off the platters) is the limiting factor not the interface. SSDs are a different matter. There are SSDs that have their STR hampered by the slower SATA II interface however the real power of an SSD (since you generally are not loading GB files all day sequentially) is its random performance (look at the bottom 3 numbers in Crystal Disk Info) and that is not hampered by SATA || either because SSDs are not yet fast enough to saturate SATA II while doing small random reads and writes.

 

[MadOblivion]

I second that recomendation.




Hard drives have just begun to need more than SATA I bandwith of 150 MB/s however they are no where near the 300 MB/s that SATA II provives. So putting them on an SATA III interface does not make them go any faster since the media transfer rate ( how fast you can get data off the platters) is the limiting factor not the interface. SSDs are a different matter. There are SSDs that have their STR hampered by the slower SATA II interface however the real power of an SSD (since you generally are not loading GB files all day sequentially) is its random performance (look at the bottom 3 numbers in Crystal Disk Info) and that is not hampered by SATA || either because SSDs are not yet fast enough to saturate SATA II while doing small random reads and writes.

I don't believe that the marvell controller is even capable of offering the speeds EVEN if your drives could saturate it.

I'll tell you why, First lets talk about how the marvell controller transfers data. Marvell uses your PCIE-1X lane, separate from the intel chip-set. Look at this link here http://www.marvell.com/storage/system-solutions/assets/Marvell-88SE91XX-Product-Brief.pdf
Why would the controller market itself as 6gb/s when it is clearly limited to 5gb/s with its interface. 5 gb's TOTAL on the PCIe1x lane AND any other devices you use in that lane will saturate that speed up as well. The real problem here is a bottleneck in the controller a fundamental design flaw. This is totally false advertisement and i think a lawsuit is in order.

Secondly Marvell controller flops completely when running raid and fails to pass along TRIM commands to your raid setup. You add that with system instability and it makes Marvell just completely usless P.O.S.

 

[MadOblivion]

My first suggestion would be to abandon the marvell controller, disable it in the BIOS and go with the intel raid controller. Any perceived loss of speed by going to a SATA2 controller will be negated by the increased reliability (and if you are using conventional discs you won't see any difference in speed).

I have already switched to ICH10R, Despite what you would think, there is no loss of speed Quite the opposite. By switching to the intel controller i now average over 100mbps FASTER reads over a 1/3 increase in performance over the marvell controller. Here is my motherboard reviewed by HARD , with my exact HD wd BLACK raid setup. They tested both controllers in RAID and stand-alone and the performance difference is pretty obvious. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/11/23/asus_rampage_iii_formula_motherboard_review/4

I am really amazed the system runs with the switch. But this is really for RAID setups, if you are running a standalone HD then you might want to use the marvell, otherwise Intel is a must. I personally would only use marvell in the future for blue ray players or devices that are not system critical.

 

[computermod14]

It's been a month from the last post but I also am running the Rampage III Formula with RAID-0 128GB Vertex 3's. I have been using the Marvell controller from the start and have had excellent stability results from what I see in ATTO.

With these results do you still think I would be better going with the Intel controller? I've been researching this for months now...

It sucks because I did not plan on going SSD until 2 or 3 weeks after I had already ordered and received my Rampage otherwise I would have done some pre-research.

Thanks in advance.

 

[drescherjm]

had excellent stability results from what I see in ATTO.

Atto is a bad benchmark to use for SSDs with compression since it writes all 0 which compress down to very little on the NAND. Use CrystalDiskMark or AS SSD and do not use 0 fill mode.

 

[computermod14]

This is what I came up with using CrystalDiskMark...

Doesn't look too good.

 

[mwroobel]

This is what I came up with using CrystalDiskMark...

Doesn't look too good.

Hence my original comments to dump the marvell controller and go back to the intel.

 

[computermod14]

rgr...thank you sir. Just what I wanted to do, a new OS install...yay

 

[computermod14]

And the results are:

I'll take it! Not bad coming off of SATA2

 

[Aesma]

Where the Marvell is worse is at IOPS/latencies, where SSDs are kings. Sequential benches are far less useful.

You shouldn't need to reinstall to change controllers.

 

[computermod14]

Where the Marvell is worse is at IOPS/latencies, where SSDs are kings. Sequential benches are far less useful.

You shouldn't need to reinstall to change controllers.

I did anyway, when making a change like that I always like to start fresh...so fresh and so clean!

 

[computermod14]

Alright guys, last post...the last screenshot I posted was before installing all Windows updates. I thought the driver had already been installed but I guess not. This screenshot here is after all updates and with the Intel Rapid Storage driver...this is more than fine with me. I hope this helps more people out...