Will GA-X48-DQ6 boot from a PCIe SATA card?

[sterlingau]

Anyone knows if this (GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 775 - GA-X48-DQ6 (rev. 1.1)) mobo will recognize SSDs on a PCIe card like this one to boot from it?SYBAUSA - SI-PEX40094 >> 2-port SATAIII, PCI-E, x1, Revision 2.0; ASMedia Chipset

[profJim]

Re: Will GA-X48-DQ6 boot from a PCIe SATA card?

Welcome to the forum.

From the SI-PEX40094 specifications:

• This card is bootable.
• Can use 2 at same time.
• Works with SSDs
• Note: SATA ports may not be seen natively by motherboard BIOS made before 2010.

The ssd performance with this or similar add-in pci-e cards will probably be worse than the performance with the native Intel sata2 ports.
Using two drives connected to the card will have worse performance if/when both drives are accessed at the same time.


The following information is from the http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...overclock.html thread, starting with post #35:

The OP says: I recently purchased a StarTech Dual Port PCI Express SATA III 6 Gbps Controller Card so that my SSD would run faster ....

In post #36 I posted the following benchmarks from my systems:

In post #39, the OP says: Positively atrocious scores from my SSD! :/

In post #40 I replied:

To get better ssd performance only use the motherboard's native Intel sata2 ports. Your optimal setup will be:

• sata2_0 port: ssd boot drive
• sata2_1 port: hard drive
• sata2_4 port: hard drive
• sata2_5 port: optical drive

Your ssd partition is properly aligned on a 4K boundary for optimal performance.

My ssd #1 and #2 benchmark results are typical for sata3 ssd's running in a sata2 system.

note: The pci-e 1.0 bandwidth prevents add-in controller cards from delivering their maximum performance.

Even if our P35 motherboards had pci-e 2.0 bandwidth I don't think that sata3 ssd performance would be much better than the native Intel sata2 ports.

In post #48 the OP replied:

Finally back at home, moved the SSD to native SATA port 0 and checked the AS SSD benchmark - Yikes!

In post #51, the OP successfully enabled AHCI mode with these results:

In post #52 the OP updated the ssd firmware and reported:

In post #57 the OP said:

Re-checked with the Startech PCI Express SATA Controller and got worse results from the AS SSD Benchmark test so you were right (not that I ever doubted you):

[sterlingau]

Re: Will GA-X48-DQ6 boot from a PCIe SATA card?

Thanks for the amazing detailed response. Saved me from buying one of these cards. I wonder how they can technically claim to support 6Gbps transfer rate then?
I got the Samsung 850 Pro so will use the native Intel Sata2 port.

Welcome to the forum.

From the SI-PEX40094 specifications:

• This card is bootable.
• Can use 2 at same time.
• Works with SSDs
• Note: SATA ports may not be seen natively by motherboard BIOS made before 2010.

The ssd performance with this or similar add-in pci-e cards will probably be worse than the performance with the native Intel sata2 ports.
Using two drives connected to the card will have worse performance if/when both drives are accessed at the same time.


The following information is from the http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...overclock.html thread, starting with post #35:

The OP says: I recently purchased a StarTech Dual Port PCI Express SATA III 6 Gbps Controller Card so that my SSD would run faster ....

In post #36 I posted the following benchmarks from my systems:

In post #39, the OP says: Positively atrocious scores from my SSD! :/

In post #40 I replied:

To get better ssd performance only use the motherboard's native Intel sata2 ports. Your optimal setup will be:

• sata2_0 port: ssd boot drive
• sata2_1 port: hard drive
• sata2_4 port: hard drive
• sata2_5 port: optical drive

Your ssd partition is properly aligned on a 4K boundary for optimal performance.

My ssd #1 and #2 benchmark results are typical for sata3 ssd's running in a sata2 system.

note: The pci-e 1.0 bandwidth prevents add-in controller cards from delivering their maximum performance.

Even if our P35 motherboards had pci-e 2.0 bandwidth I don't think that sata3 ssd performance would be much better than the native Intel sata2 ports.

In post #48 the OP replied:

Finally back at home, moved the SSD to native SATA port 0 and checked the AS SSD benchmark - Yikes!

In post #51, the OP successfully enabled AHCI mode with these results:

In post #52 the OP updated the ssd firmware and reported:

In post #57 the OP said:

Re-checked with the Startech PCI Express SATA Controller and got worse results from the AS SSD Benchmark test so you were right (not that I ever doubted you):

[profJim]

Re: Will GA-X48-DQ6 boot from a PCIe SATA card?

You're welcome, glad to help out.

I think that the add-in sata2 or sata3 pci-e cards are only useful with older motherboards that don't have enough sata ports and you need to add more drives.

Luke's P35-DS3L only has four Intel sata2 ports and two sata 3Gb/s connectors (GSATAIIA, GSATAIIB) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices. I've never benchmarked the performance of these GSata2 ports and I expect that the performance of these ports would be lower than the performance from the native Intel sata2 ports.

I use add-in pci-e usb 3.0 cards in my P35 and P45 systems and these perform much better than the native usb 2.0 ports, but the performance is nowhere near the theoretical "Up to 5.0 Gbps Data Transfer Rate", even with my Samsung 830 ssd.

[sterlingau]

Re: Will GA-X48-DQ6 boot from a PCIe SATA card?

Thanks again!
Another question if you don't mind is around overclocking this system.

I currently have a QX9770 (9x400MHz) and four of these memory modules Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA1067 - Newegg.com.

Any tips of squeezing more out of this rig? Is there a good OC guide for this mobo? (aside from the 850pro I have an R9 290x coming soon)

You're welcome, glad to help out.

I think that the add-in sata2 or sata3 pci-e cards are only useful with older motherboards that don't have enough sata ports and you need to add more drives.

Luke's P35-DS3L only has four Intel sata2 ports and two sata 3Gb/s connectors (GSATAIIA, GSATAIIB) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices. I've never benchmarked the performance of these GSata2 ports and I expect that the performance of these ports would be lower than the performance from the native Intel sata2 ports.

I use add-in pci-e usb 3.0 cards in my P35 and P45 systems and these perform much better than the native usb 2.0 ports, but the performance is nowhere near the theoretical "Up to 5.0 Gbps Data Transfer Rate", even with my Samsung 830 ssd.

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