ASRock P55 Deluxe Bundles SATA III Addon-Card

[btarunr]

ASRock chose a smart way to make SATA III part of its high-end motherboards' feature-set without modifying board design, or coming up with new SKUs, simply by bundling a SATA III addon-card. The company's upcoming P55 Deluxe advertises SATA III support, and packs a tiny, half-height card that uses PCI-Express (2.0?) x1 interface. At the heart of it is a Marvell 88SE9123 SATA III controller. The card has three ports in total, two angled internal ports, and one eSATA III. Headers are also provided for HDD status LEDs on the system chassis. While Marvell 88SE9123 has been at the center of controversy recently that reportedly caused some motherboard makers to pull out products that use it, Marvell maintains that the issue is only related to the controller's additional PATA-related functionality, and not SATA III. Now if only ASRock also bundles a USB 3.0 card.



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[pr0n Inspector]

SATA Revision 3.0 ... :shadedshu

 

[DrPepper]

mmmm sata III and SSD action

 

[Mussels]

PCI-E 1x on SATA III? useless.

1x slots can only do 125MB/s each way, which caps this at sata I speeds.


Even if the card uses PCI-E 2.0, very few motherboards use 2.0 for the 1x slots, so unless they've made an exception here, this is a marketing gimmick (even at 2.0, it makes it SATA II speeds only)

 

[$ReaPeR$]

this is why i like AsRock

 

[Mussels]

this is why i like AsRock

for having cool features that dont do anything?


Normally i like asrock for their addon stuff, but this one just doesnt work.

 

[Fitseries3]

what a POS move.

alot of the other boards are coming with onboard sata 3.

 

[DrPepper]

PCI-E 1x on SATA III? useless.

1x slots can only do 125MB/s each way, which caps this at sata I speeds.


Even if the card uses PCI-E 2.0, very few motherboards use 2.0 for the 1x slots, so unless they've made an exception here, this is a marketing gimmick (even at 2.0, it makes it SATA II speeds only)

ugh never thought about that.

What boards have SATA III anyway ?

 

[satelitko]

We were kinda unable to include native SATA3 support, so we decided to bundle in this free card that doesn't actually do anything other, than let you use SATAIII devices with SATAI speeds. This was done, to throw some dust in your eyes, while we figure out how to integrate native SATAIII with no additional cost.

 

[boogerlad]

not enough bandwidth is a bad move for people wanting this to run ssd.

 

[LittleLizard]

PCI-E 1x on SATA III? useless.

1x slots can only do 125MB/s each way, which caps this at sata I speeds.


Even if the card uses PCI-E 2.0, very few motherboards use 2.0 for the 1x slots, so unless they've made an exception here, this is a marketing gimmick (even at 2.0, it makes it SATA II speeds only)

and when they add it on board, which interface do you think it uses? PCI bus. NO. Pci-e 1x.

Is a good move by asrock in my opinion

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

and when they add it on board, which interface do you think it uses? PCI bus. NO. Pci-e 1x.

Is a good move by asrock in my opinion

Not necessarily, it uses some of the same lanes which pic-e 1x happens to be on as well

 

[Mussels]

and when they add it on board, which interface do you think it uses? PCI bus. NO. Pci-e 1x.

Is a good move by asrock in my opinion

if it was onboard, they could have given it more lanes. not every onboard device uses a 1x lane.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

^ what he said

 

[Mussels]

also, the onboard ones usually only have one port for an e-sata, which is fine for one lane. 125MB/s doesnt limit modern HDDs (non SSD) so it made sense, until now.

This thing has three ports with double the bandwidth per port, so its downright sparta to put it on a 1x.

 

[REVHEAD]

All P55 boards are Sata 3 as far as I was aware, Asrock must have forgot and added it as an after thought, "oh gee were nice lets give these guys a crippled PCIE version running @ 1X", wait for the big guns to release there boards.

 

[btarunr]

PCI-E 1x on SATA III? useless.

1x slots can only do 125MB/s each way, which caps this at sata I speeds.


Even if the card uses PCI-E 2.0, very few motherboards use 2.0 for the 1x slots, so unless they've made an exception here, this is a marketing gimmick (even at 2.0, it makes it SATA II speeds only)

Firstly the Marvell controller is PCI-E 2.0 compliant, secondly, PCI-E 2.0 is 500 MB/s per lane, per direction.

 

[Mussels]

Firstly the Marvell controller is PCI-E 2.0 compliant, secondly, PCI-E 2.0 is 500 MB/s per lane, per direction.

i'm gunna wiki that.

I was under the impression its 250MB/s each way, 500MB/s total 'per lane' - its like wifi and USB, where they add both directions to the bandwidth


edit: having trouble finding information either way.


http://www.directron.com/expressguide.html
Each 1x lane in PCI Express can transmit in both directions at once. In the table the first number is the bandwidth in one direction and the second number is the combined bandwidth in both directions.


yay i was right (i hate being wrong)

 

[btarunr]

http://www.directron.com/expressguide.html
Each 1x lane in PCI Express can transmit in both directions at once. In the table the first number is the bandwidth in one direction and the second number is the combined bandwidth in both directions.


yay i was right (i hate being wrong)

And you are wrong. Did you even see this chart in the same page?

PCI-E 1x 250 MB/s [500]: means that the total bandwidth is 500 MB/s and 250 MB/s per direction. And yes, that old article is talking about PCI-E 1.x, not 2.0.

 

[Mussels]

no it isnt. see the part i put in bold.

Each 1x lane in PCI Express can transmit in both directions at once. In the table the first number is the bandwidth in one direction and the second number is the combined bandwidth in both directions.

^ thats FROM THE ARTICLE.

edit: ah i get your point. you're saying the article is about 1.0/1.1.

I will confirm.

 

[btarunr]

Yes, and get your comprehension of the same quoted text right. For PCI-E 1.1, it pushes 250 MB/s per direction.

 

[Mussels]

i saw the article was last updated in 2008, and assumed it was about PCI-E 2.0

he doesnt actually say if he's talking about 1.1, or 2.0... damnit, that does take us back to ground zero


In fact, after googling i'm starting to lean your direction. every damned google seems to be coming up with graphics card crap, and i did indeed make the mistake with that article thinking it was 2.0 based.


My testing did seem to show otherwise, when it came to my PCI-E 1x E-SATA card, (with numbers exactly where i'd expect them) but maybe thats just a coincidence.

 

[btarunr]

i saw the article was last updated in 2008, and assumed it was about PCI-E 2.0

he doesnt actually say if he's talking about 1.1, or 2.0... damnit, that does take us back to ground zero

It does not. There's no mention of PCI-E 2.0 anywhere, and it's talking about PCI-E vs. AGP, so it's the default 1.x standard. It does't take us back to to ground zero. PCI-E 1.1 is 250 MB/s per direction, and 2.0 is 500 MB/s per direction. Ask any expert you want to.

 

[Mussels]

god, stop quoting me before i finish editing

you dont even get enough time to let me agree with you!

yes folks, thats it: BTA has proven me wrong.
I am beaten, weak and feeble and submit to his authority. (for about an hour...)

 

[REVHEAD]

No point gys , rember sata 3 is 600mbps so even is 1X pcie was 500mbps its still a fail for pple who want to raid there ssds, they will still be starving for bandwidth with this half baked card.