marvel chipset question
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cheers mate.
am i better off with the z79 2011 mobo, or getting a 1150 motherboard.
this is all because my current 1366 motherboard has a waranty issue, and they have offeret to replace it, with a 2011 socket board. but im wondering if thats a good replacement. this system is used as a home media server, gaming machine, home backup server etc... so i just want to make sure that the 2011 is a suitable replacement. does the fact that its only ivy bridge matter? should i get a broadwell?
cheers
Jason
am i better off with the z79 2011 mobo, or getting a 1150 motherboard.
this is all because my current 1366 motherboard has a waranty issue, and they have offeret to replace it, with a 2011 socket board. but im wondering if thats a good replacement. this system is used as a home media server, gaming machine, home backup server etc... so i just want to make sure that the 2011 is a suitable replacement. does the fact that its only ivy bridge matter? should i get a broadwell?
cheers
Jason
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ok, so the 2011 is looking like the better choice then. is it going to be the next big socket? why did they relese the 2011 and then a few months later, go back to the 115X sockets? was it just because of the costs? also, the x79 Chipset supports port multiplication, so from what i can gather, it will work with the SIL3726 chips. but i cant find any info if any of the other chips on the 115X series support it.
also, is the fact that i have been offered a 2011 board a good trade? or are they effectivley giving me the short end of the stick, and should i push for something else?
cheers
Jason
also, is the fact that i have been offered a 2011 board a good trade? or are they effectivley giving me the short end of the stick, and should i push for something else?
cheers
Jason
lga2011 is Intel's high-end socket right now. It takes up to processors that have like 12 cores in them (24T) and can scale in server platforms to quad processor configs. It certainly is high end. The processors do cost more and use more power. If you need a GPU they are not onboard. x79 has like 40 pcie lanes so if you wanted to put like 4 gpus onboard you are much better off with lga2011 than 1150. you can do like 64GB of ram on some boards with the i7 chips.
For you though, I think you would want an onboard GPU and lower power consumption, more sata 3 and stuff. For that lga1150 is better. But the boards are much cheaper than lga2011 so you could probably turn a profit getting the 2011 and buying a lga1150 depending on what they give you and what you sell/ buy for.
For you though, I think you would want an onboard GPU and lower power consumption, more sata 3 and stuff. For that lga1150 is better. But the boards are much cheaper than lga2011 so you could probably turn a profit getting the 2011 and buying a lga1150 depending on what they give you and what you sell/ buy for.
hmmm ok. well i already have a gtx580. and the system is not on 24/7. i have a NAS that everything in the house backs up to, and it also does my downloading etc... and then the nas backs up to my PC as an extra backup. data storage is of no concern to me with the potential for 180 TB onboard. do any of the 1150 boards support PM nativley in the chipset? as i am trying to move away from the PCI-E 1x SIL 3124 Sata cards that are supplied with the backblaze unit.
i also like to have the latest and greatest. but functionality and speed is more important to me. i also plan to get another 1366 board to re-use my cpu, might make it into a HTPC. or am i better off, getting the 1150 setup, and then getting another 1366 board and using that as the server like i do now? i have a few options open to me at the moment.
cheers
Jason
i also like to have the latest and greatest. but functionality and speed is more important to me. i also plan to get another 1366 board to re-use my cpu, might make it into a HTPC. or am i better off, getting the 1150 setup, and then getting another 1366 board and using that as the server like i do now? i have a few options open to me at the moment.
cheers
Jason
I would probably get the best board you can and sell it on eBay, then buy what you want 
. But If the plan is to keep, then the 1150 boards will get you lower cost CPUs. One video card won't saturate the board.
Regarding the port multipliers, are you referring to the external SATA multipliers? I don't know many boards have them natively but you would have to look at the chip set. How many drives? I assume you already have them in an enclosure? Another option in the future is to switch out to SAS like the m1015 and that does a good job of port expansion. External shells can cost more but infinitely expandable and no SATA bottleneck if those were concerns.
. But If the plan is to keep, then the 1150 boards will get you lower cost CPUs. One video card won't saturate the board.Regarding the port multipliers, are you referring to the external SATA multipliers? I don't know many boards have them natively but you would have to look at the chip set. How many drives? I assume you already have them in an enclosure? Another option in the future is to switch out to SAS like the m1015 and that does a good job of port expansion. External shells can cost more but infinitely expandable and no SATA bottleneck if those were concerns.
my case is a backblaze pod. and i have the 9 5-port backplains that are based on the SIL 3726 Chipset. currently, i have 3 PCI-E cards that are based on the SIL 3124 chipset that interface the backplains to the computer. but i think that they are casuing an IO bottleneck, and want to eliminate them. so i need a MOBO that supports PM (nativley in the chipset like the X79) or another board. im not looking at getting other interface cards, as that will increse my costs. i am looking to keep them down from what i have already spent.
the MOBO also needs to have 10 SATA ports, and 9 of them need to support PM. so that i can use all 9 backplains. i currently can only use 18 of the available 45 HDD slots, so thats 2 per card, even though the backplains will cause a IO bottleneck, but i wouldnt think that 2 drives in it would slow it down to ~25M/S that is far to slow. and i think that the PCIE card is the problem, as there are 3 backplains in each, so its running 6 drives through a PCI-E 1x slot.
Cheers
Jason
the MOBO also needs to have 10 SATA ports, and 9 of them need to support PM. so that i can use all 9 backplains. i currently can only use 18 of the available 45 HDD slots, so thats 2 per card, even though the backplains will cause a IO bottleneck, but i wouldnt think that 2 drives in it would slow it down to ~25M/S that is far to slow. and i think that the PCIE card is the problem, as there are 3 backplains in each, so its running 6 drives through a PCI-E 1x slot.
Cheers
Jason
Thanks for the details, this explains a lot and frames the question better since I thought this was more of a desktop.
Looking around I do find a few references to the Marvell supporting PM with latest BIOS updates. Which boards were you looking at? Some of the boards split the onboard STA ports between Intel and third-party (Marvell/JMicron/etc). So even if you had 10 ports, you may only get 4 on the Marvell for example. Also even if you were able to get all on one board, each SATA controller (usually 2 ports) is connected via a single 6Gbps link or a PCIe x1 link to the board, so similar to your current config. It looks like some of the 4 port controllers are now doing 2 x1 links, so same as your current cards perhaps.
If you tell can tell me which options for boards you are looking at, you can pull up the block diagram. Here's one for a Z87 board for example.
Looking around I do find a few references to the Marvell supporting PM with latest BIOS updates. Which boards were you looking at? Some of the boards split the onboard STA ports between Intel and third-party (Marvell/JMicron/etc). So even if you had 10 ports, you may only get 4 on the Marvell for example. Also even if you were able to get all on one board, each SATA controller (usually 2 ports) is connected via a single 6Gbps link or a PCIe x1 link to the board, so similar to your current config. It looks like some of the 4 port controllers are now doing 2 x1 links, so same as your current cards perhaps.
If you tell can tell me which options for boards you are looking at, you can pull up the block diagram. Here's one for a Z87 board for example.
thanks mate.
i am looking at the Gigabyte X79 series. The UD5 specifically, as i just had a 1366 ud5, and it was rock solid and never gave me a drama. acording to the specifications from GB's dite on the UD5,
So, the way i look at that, is i have 6 ports from the X79, and 4 from the Marvell.
also, i am able to get any of the boards in the GB x79 range, so not locked to the UD5.
cheers
Jason
i am looking at the Gigabyte X79 series. The UD5 specifically, as i just had a 1366 ud5, and it was rock solid and never gave me a drama. acording to the specifications from GB's dite on the UD5,
from one site i visited, here is the block diagram for the UD5 http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/201203/gbtx79ud5_block.jpg
So, the way i look at that, is i have 6 ports from the X79, and 4 from the Marvell.
also, i am able to get any of the boards in the GB x79 range, so not locked to the UD5.
cheers
Jason
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Cool, the specifying the board helps a lot. So here's what I see from the motherboard manual.
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You have 6 SATA3 ports from the Marvell (left side of the X79 PCH), each pair is fed by a PCIe x1 link. Four are internal, 2 external.
You have 2 SATA3 6Gbps - Looks to be fed off of a 6Gbps link (Intel, right side of X79 PCH)
You have 4 SATA2 3Gbps - Looks to be fed off of a 6Gbps link (Intel, right side of X79 PCH)
So moving off of the SIL card to a Marvell onboard will give you a little more bandwidth but the overall bus speed is probably not your limiting factor. since even a PCIe 1.0 x1 is 500MB/s over 5 drives and these links are probably higher.
Back to the original question if the Marvell does PM, I'm not sure but from what I'm reading on the web, it seems that it can. In addition, this MB has 4 internal ports so you'll get at least 20 drives on those. Worse off is 2 of the current cards for an additional 20 drives. I'm not sure if the Intel's do PM, didn't see a definite answer.
Sorry couldn't help more.
Page 8:
You have 6 SATA3 ports from the Marvell (left side of the X79 PCH), each pair is fed by a PCIe x1 link. Four are internal, 2 external.
You have 2 SATA3 6Gbps - Looks to be fed off of a 6Gbps link (Intel, right side of X79 PCH)
You have 4 SATA2 3Gbps - Looks to be fed off of a 6Gbps link (Intel, right side of X79 PCH)
So moving off of the SIL card to a Marvell onboard will give you a little more bandwidth but the overall bus speed is probably not your limiting factor. since even a PCIe 1.0 x1 is 500MB/s over 5 drives and these links are probably higher.
Back to the original question if the Marvell does PM, I'm not sure but from what I'm reading on the web, it seems that it can. In addition, this MB has 4 internal ports so you'll get at least 20 drives on those. Worse off is 2 of the current cards for an additional 20 drives. I'm not sure if the Intel's do PM, didn't see a definite answer.
Sorry couldn't help more.
acording to https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/SATA_hardware_features, the X79 does support PM nativley.
and the way the BB is set up is so that there are 9 backplains, each with 5 ports (so there is the 45 drives) and the backplains interface to the PCI-E cards in sets of 3, so 3 SIL3124 PCI-E 1X cards to 3 SIL3726 backplains; for a total of 15 drives per PCI-E slot, which in my understanding, will divide the available bandwidth of the slot by 15 drives. whereas, if i can get them to be supported in the chipset, then there is only 5 drives per port, therefore dividing the availabe bandwidth by 5.
correct me if im wrong.
also, am i better off with a 2011, notwithstanding or am i been shafted by been offered a 2011 board with an ivy bridge chip, opposed to a haswell?
cheers
Jason
and the way the BB is set up is so that there are 9 backplains, each with 5 ports (so there is the 45 drives) and the backplains interface to the PCI-E cards in sets of 3, so 3 SIL3124 PCI-E 1X cards to 3 SIL3726 backplains; for a total of 15 drives per PCI-E slot, which in my understanding, will divide the available bandwidth of the slot by 15 drives. whereas, if i can get them to be supported in the chipset, then there is only 5 drives per port, therefore dividing the availabe bandwidth by 5.
correct me if im wrong.
also, am i better off with a 2011, notwithstanding or am i been shafted by been offered a 2011 board with an ivy bridge chip, opposed to a haswell?
cheers
Jason
Sure thing mate. I am away on holidays atm. But will post them when i return. Not to interested in the networking. As its only for home. And its also my main pc and gaming rig. More after speed and data throughput. Hence why im trying to do what i can to get faster IO speeds.
I think going from a 1366 to a 2011 is a good trade. It is in the same class of chipset (workstation/server class) versus dropping to desktop class.
I also agree with the math of 15 drives 5 drives. I don't think that their model was as concerned about performance as they are concerned about price and quantity. So moving to this model seems like a good idea if you can make it work. I didn't look but are there any x4 or x8 cards available with PM?
I also agree with the math of 15 drives 5 drives. I don't think that their model was as concerned about performance as they are concerned about price and quantity. So moving to this model seems like a good idea if you can make it work. I didn't look but are there any x4 or x8 cards available with PM?
Just did some searching and found my first PCI express x2 device. Didn't know that even existed.
The Syba SI-PEX40071 has 8 ports on a Marvell chip. Interesting product that could help if you needed more ports. Regardless this board you mentioned seems like it has everything you need.
The Syba SI-PEX40071 has 8 ports on a Marvell chip. Interesting product that could help if you needed more ports. Regardless this board you mentioned seems like it has everything you need.