Mobile Chipsets Don't Take Advantage of SSDs faster than SATA150 spec ?

8th March 2009, 11:25

The latest SSDs have surpassed the SATA-I spec and have made 2 things abundantly clear:

1. There is hardly ANY SATA-II mobile chipset out there!

The very common ICH8 provides SATA-II support, but it is not a SATA-II chipset in itself. All it means is that SATA-II HDDs will work with it...
You won't get the speed benefits of SATA-II, as I've discovered upon installing a faster than SATA-I SSD (OCZ Vertex 30GB).

Feel free to benchmark with ATTO, if you don't believe me.

Here's mine:

- A Dell 1720 laptop (ICH8M), the 30GB is the OS drive and there is another 250GB mechanical HDD.
- All tweaks have been performed (and they are a lot!) as detailed here
- The 30GB Vertex is aligned with an 128 offset.
- WinXp Pro SP3 (with all the latest updates), clean install.
- AHCI 8.7, Intel Chipset Driver 9.0.0.1008
- No other programs running in the background (not even text services or Anti-Virus).
- ATTO run of the C drive (Vertex).

2. There is no point for laptop owners to buy any SSD that exceeds the SATA-I spec!

(3. And of course that mobile chipsets are well behind the times when it comes to storage technology.

)

If anyone knows of a true/actual SATA-II mobile chipset, please post a link here.

jmke · 8th March 2009, 11:47

interesting find, definitely something worth looking into. Upcoming AMD/INTEL mobile platform show no change of this?

8th March 2009, 11:48

Well, there is ONE ssd enhancing chipset on the market!

The ICH9M

• Two integrated Serial ATA host controllers, each with transfer rates of up to 3 Gb/s, support four SATA ports for increased storage capacity and speed.

allegedely!

Anyone got one to confirm SATA-II perfromance?

8th March 2009, 11:51

Quote:

The mobile Nehalem (Calpella / Ibex Peak-M / GM47) platform is supposed to have explicit support for non-volatile cache and SSDs. Though we won't be seeing that for some months yet.

As I'm being informed.

jmke · 8th March 2009, 11:58

searching the web for http://www.google.com/search?q=mobile+chipset+SATA300 brings it to a thread of yours

8th March 2009, 12:06

Damn right! I spent 2 hours researching this last night, all while being very angry thinking that I could not even buy a laptop that could take advantage of these great new SSDs.

At least consumers will now be more aware.

8th March 2009, 12:38

As UberGerbil reports:

Quote:

AMD's SB600 is used in some mobile AMD systems and claims 3Gbps capability.
The nVidia nForce Go 430 claims this as well.

The SB600, however, is as bad as SATA-I, while the nVidia one only comes with AMD mobile CPUs...

Do any users have experience with either ICH9M or nVidia Go 430 chipstes and SSDs?

8th March 2009, 19:10

This is interesting, but not a huge surprise? Intel's mobile chipsets have lagged behind desktop by a generation or two. ICH8M is from the 965 chipset, atlhough the desktop ICH8 does support 3 GB/s support.

Intel's spec sheets do not appear to specifically mention the type of SATA spec for the mobile versions of the ICH8 family.

8th March 2009, 19:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kougar

Intel's spec sheets do not appear to specifically mention the type of SATA spec for the mobile versions of the ICH8 family.

Indeed, I've gone through them. All there is, is a passing mention of SATA but not details as to what kind exactly.

thorgal · 9th March 2009, 07:42

How about nvidia's 9400 ? (Mac notebooks)

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...0-chipsets.ars

Looks like these are 3Gb/s, but not sure if that's native...

8th March 2009, 11:25	#1
Faiakes Posts: n/a	Mobile Chipsets Don't Take Advantage of SSDs faster than SATA150 spec ? The latest SSDs have surpassed the SATA-I spec and have made 2 things abundantly clear: 1. There is hardly ANY SATA-II mobile chipset out there! The very common ICH8 provides SATA-II support, but it is not a SATA-II chipset in itself. All it means is that SATA-II HDDs will work with it... You won't get the speed benefits of SATA-II, as I've discovered upon installing a faster than SATA-I SSD (OCZ Vertex 30GB). Feel free to benchmark with ATTO, if you don't believe me. Here's mine: - A Dell 1720 laptop (ICH8M), the 30GB is the OS drive and there is another 250GB mechanical HDD. - All tweaks have been performed (and they are a lot!) as detailed here - The 30GB Vertex is aligned with an 128 offset. - WinXp Pro SP3 (with all the latest updates), clean install. - AHCI 8.7, Intel Chipset Driver 9.0.0.1008 - No other programs running in the background (not even text services or Anti-Virus). - ATTO run of the C drive (Vertex). 2. There is no point for laptop owners to buy any SSD that exceeds the SATA-I spec! (3. And of course that mobile chipsets are well behind the times when it comes to storage technology. ) If anyone knows of a true/actual SATA-II mobile chipset, please post a link here. Last edited by Faiakes : 8th March 2009 at 11:50.

8th March 2009, 11:47	#2
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	interesting find, definitely something worth looking into. Upcoming AMD/INTEL mobile platform show no change of this? __________________

8th March 2009, 11:48	#3
Faiakes Posts: n/a	Well, there is ONE ssd enhancing chipset on the market! The ICH9M • Two integrated Serial ATA host controllers, each with transfer rates of up to 3 Gb/s, support four SATA ports for increased storage capacity and speed. allegedely! Anyone got one to confirm SATA-II perfromance?

8th March 2009, 11:58	#5
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	searching the web for http://www.google.com/search?q=mobile+chipset+SATA300 brings it to a thread of yours __________________

9th March 2009, 07:42	#10
thorgal [M] Reviewer Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1,887	How about nvidia's 9400 ? (Mac notebooks) http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...0-chipsets.ars Looks like these are 3Gb/s, but not sure if that's native... __________________ Last edited by thorgal : 9th March 2009 at 07:44.

8th March 2009, 12:06	#6
Faiakes Posts: n/a	Damn right! I spent 2 hours researching this last night, all while being very angry thinking that I could not even buy a laptop that could take advantage of these great new SSDs. At least consumers will now be more aware.

8th March 2009, 19:10	#8
Kougar Posts: n/a	This is interesting, but not a huge surprise? Intel's mobile chipsets have lagged behind desktop by a generation or two. ICH8M is from the 965 chipset, atlhough the desktop ICH8 does support 3 GB/s support. Intel's spec sheets do not appear to specifically mention the type of SATA spec for the mobile versions of the ICH8 family.

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