Is the Marvell 9128 good for anything?

[DarkScythe]

Hey there guys,

I have a question for anyone who might know more about this stuff than I do.
As I'm looking to expand my data storage, I'm running once again into the limits of available SATA ports on my motherboard.

Currently, I have an ASUS Z77 V-Deluxe mobo. I have 2 external enclosures hooked up to the rear Asmedia (I think?) eSATA ports. Internally, I have 4 WD Blue 1TB drives hooked up to the Intel SATA2 ports. Additionally, I have my Crucial M4 SSD hooked up to the Intel SATA3 port.

This leaves one last Intel SATA3 port, as well as two more "SATA3" ports controlled by a Marvell 9128, and ASUS has marked one of these ports as useful for SSD caching.

Until about a week ago, I had my optical drive hooked up to one of these Marvell ports, because I figured if I ever wanted a second SSD, I'd plug it into the last remaining Intel port. Unfortunately, when it came time to rip a couple CD's I had bought, the Marvell controller failed spectacularly.

With my DVD drive hooked up to it, any attempt to rip a CD either in secure mode or burst mode using EAC or dBpoweramp resulted in ..... well, nothing happening, and both programs hanging so hard that I could not kill the processes. After some struggle, I decided to swap the DVD drive to the other Marvell port (same issue) and finally to the Intel port, at which point it suddenly started ripping perfectly fine. I should note that while in the Marvell ports, Daemon Tools had no problem ripping the CD as an iso, which I could then mount and rip through EAC (which is really dumb, lol.)

So, now I have my DVD drive in my last remaining Intel SATA3 port - a waste of a port in my opinion, but it's clear the Marvell controller simply will not work with my optical drive.

This brings me to my question:
I need/want to expand my storage capacity by adding another HDD or two. But considering the problems it caused me with an optical drive, is it even worth trying to use this controller for anything at all, HDD or otherwise? I know a lot of people have problems with SSD's on this controller, which is odd considering they advertise this port being used for their proprietary SSD caching thing.

Does this controller at least work okay with traditional HDD's, or should I simply not bother and look elsewhere?

If the latter, I would be fairly bummed, as I went for this mobo specifically because it had a nice number of SATA ports. :/

Thanks.

 

[-Dragon-]

I'm of the opinion that when you start getting more than one or two "data drives" in your day to day box, it's time to seriously consider a NAS of some sort.

 

[DarkScythe]

I have considered a NAS, as well as a standalone home server at one point or another. I have the parts from my old PC that I could turn into an (overly powerful) file server, but considering at this point I still only have my single desktop to access it, I can't justify the extra power consumption to keep it running versus just consolidating it into my daily machine.

The major problem with a NAS as well is just the extra cost of the unit, where if I were to get one, I'd do research to get a good one. On the other hand, my PC is already here, and only requires plugging in an extra HDD.

To that end, I'm still wondering if it's wise to plug even an HDD into these Marvell ports, or if they're just more trouble than they're worth in terms of possible data corruption or whatnot.

 

[-Dragon-]

The marvel ports on motherboards are not, what you would call, popular in these parts. I tried the ones out on my board for a short while and was less than impressed with the results.

Lets just say if your idea of a good time involves being on the receiving end of whips, chains, and hot pokers, then using the marvel controllers is a great idea.

 

[DarkScythe]

Hahaha, nicely put.

I was afraid of that, though are they truly useless for HDD's as well? I guess I am not surprised at this point, considering they are broken with SSD's and even ODD's.

 

[Aesma]

I have two of these in my rig and plug not two but 8 drives on them (via enclosures that also have marvell chips for port multiplication). Before I did that I also used them with internal drives and they were fine.

 

[Old Hippie]

I was afraid of that, though are they truly useless for HDD's as well?

There's no problem with mechanical HDs.

They fail miserably with SSDs.