Damn, had no idea about this limitation.
Had I known I would have gotten the Pro version since it wouldn't have actually cost me anything but time. The $30 difference would have been absorbed by my labor installing my Q6600 setup I sold.
While that is true...
The PLX bridge chip combines four PCIe x1 into one, creating a bandwidth of 1GB/s. This bandwidth is split equally between the USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 data buses, effectively giving 500MB/s bandwidth for each. Both buses are connect to the P55 chip, which in return is connected to the CPU via the 2GB/s DMI data bus.
The SATA 3.0 specification has a maximum data transfer rate of 750MB/s per connected devices, effectively doubling SATA 2.0's 375MB/s maximum transfer rate. In light of this, there's a limitation for the P7P55D-E Pro as well, in regards to supporting the SATA 3.0 maximum data transfer rate.
Here's a link for comparing Asus PLX based board with Gigabyte's version of true SATA and USB 3.0 support.
SATA 6Gbps Implementation Investigated – ASUS vs. GIGABYTE P55 :: TweakTown USA Edition
Please keep in mind that the review in the above link is rather dated and since then Gigabyte did release their PLX bridge chip based motherboard as well.
Well if I were putting together a new system, I would wait a couple of weeks for the Sandy Bridge line. TheIntel P67 chipset supports SATA 6 Gb/s native.
Cheers & Happy New Year!
or AMD bulldozer.....
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