Performance - Storage SSD SATA (6G) and USB 3.0

Performance Storage - SSD SATA (6G) and USB 3.0

USB 3.0

With the new SATA3 6G controller and USB 3.0 controllers we started adding SSD performance numbers measured on such interfaces (when applicable). Putting these in nicely styled charts would be better, but with technology so new we just do not have anything out there yet to compare to, so here are some raw peak performance numbers.

To test USB 3.0 performance we use an A-DATA N002 Solid State Drive which has a USB 3.0 port.

Above, you can see a N002 series A-DATA Solid State Drive running over the USB 3.0 controller on this motherboard. The implementation works well. Obviously the N002 is limited at roughly 200 MB/sec.

SSD SATA (6G)

Below, some tests based on the SATA3 6G controllers of this motherboard, there surely is nothing to be ashamed about with that performance. We measure in AHCI mode this time we use a SandForce 881 based SSD with read/write speeds of over 500 Mb/sec.

Despite drive wearing, garbage cleanup and TRIM, after each run the SSD results might differ a little as NAND cells are written, so the performance you see below is a SATA3 SSD performance indication.

Above, a SandForce 2281 based SSD connected to the SATA3 (6G) Intel controller. AHCI mode is enabled in the BIOS, especially with SSDs that helps a little on peak performance. The Intel SATA3 controller is the fastest of any motherboard really.

And here are results running over the Marvell 9172 6G controller. As you can see, the Intel controllers are so much better, we really dislike the fact that Intel only included 2 SATA 6G ports on such a high-end platform as the X79.

ASMedia 1061 controllers used on many X79 boards are on their end better then the Marvell controller performance we have seen on other boards.