AHCI-mode on Marvell 9128 controller in Windows 7 Ultimate x64  

Windows MSAHCI drivers will work with the Marvell chipset. You don't need drivers. I have run with both the Marvell and Microsoft drivers and the Marvell are slightly faster for a SATA 3 SSD.

Also, you are using very old versions of the Marvell drivers. Try the 1.2.0.1002 at Marvell drivers I have been running them for months.

Having said that, your SATA 2 SSD will not see any benefit from The Marvell port. You will get better performance using one of your board's Intel SATA 2 ports and the Intel iastor drivers.

RickVB said:

Guys, sorry, new to this forum, but rather than start a new thead I believe my question is pertinent here. As you can see from my system specs, I'm running a Gigabyte mb with the Marvell 9128. I can't find the "1051 driver" you guys are referring to. The Gigabyte website has only "Marvell Console Driver (SATA3) vers. 1.0.0.1027" and "Marvell RAID Utility (SATA3) vers. 4.1.0.1700" available. I'm assuming the "Console Driver" is what we're talking about here.

The French website cited earlier in this thread doesn't have any "1051" version; rather it has "drivers" vers. 1.2.0.1003 and "Marvell Storage Utility 4.1.0.1915". Has anyone tried these, or do you have another location for "1051"?

Use the 1.2.0.1002 drivers from that French site. The 1.2.0.1003 drivers have a bug in that a unchecking "Enable Safely Remove Disk" has no effect and all of your internal drives will appear as hot swappable and removable in the "Safely Remove Hardware" system tray utility.

Yesterday I clicked update driver in Device Manager and Windows 7 updated my 9128 driver from v1.2.0.1002 to v1.2.0.1003. I can confirm the 1.2.0.1003 drivers for the Marvell 9128 have the bug GeneO mentioned.
I just noticed Station Drivers now has a v1.2.0.1006 driver on their site.
I will give it a try when I get time.

Both of these are from station-drivers' website where I downloaded them:

APRIL 25, 2011 - - - - marvell_91xx_1.2.0.1200_1.1.0.6(www . station-drivers .com).exe

Today, Nov 5, 2011 - marvell_91xx_1.2.0.1006-WHQL(www . station-drivers . com).exe

(w/out the spaces of course)

Am I crazy or does the previous release have a higher number? (I suppose both could be true :) )

I saved both on my HDD so I know I typed their names correctly.

I finally gave up on the Marvell 91xx back in April, switched to the msahci driver.
I really hope you have better experiences with them than I did.

rcanino said:

Both of these are from station-drivers' website where I downloaded them:

APRIL 25, 2011 - - - - marvell_91xx_1.2.0.1200_1.1.0.6(www . station-drivers .com).exe

Today, Nov 5, 2011 - marvell_91xx_1.2.0.1006-WHQL(www . station-drivers . com).exe

(w/out the spaces of course)

Am I crazy or does the previous release have a higher number? (I suppose both could be true :) )

I saved both on my HDD so I know I typed their names correctly.

I finally gave up on the Marvell 91xx back in April, switched to the msahci driver.
I really hope you have better experiences with them than I did.

I'm using the driver v1.2.0.1006. It still has the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray but it doesn't let me disconnect my SSD accidentally - says "drive in use" so I have just left it. I'm used to it now.

Good to hear it's working for you Z -

I guess I'm the only one bothered by the numbering scheme.

I'm frustrated at how it seems that they never try the obvious configuration, and then say that their stuff is "compatible".

My board is a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6
I've disconnected all other hard drives. Only working with the Marvell 9128.
On the Marvell, I have two SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD, set as RAID-1.

I figure that should give some serious throughput - two 6 GB/s drives/channels in RAID 1 should be VERY fast for read, and decent for write but I don't expect that much writing will happen.

But... Windows 7 won't install. I would NEVER leave a customer site with my software not working. Yet, windows 7 won't install on this obvious win of an installation. Nor an error message except "Doesn't work. Try something else." Why is it that all the cutting edge technology is great for promises and sales, yet doesn't work? And how do they get away with that? Sigh.

can somebody tell me the max (write) speeds you ever had with the marvell controller?
i can't get out more than about 180mb/s write speed (max i ever saw was 185 in crystal disk mark).
on intel i've got +/- 300mb/s with my 2hdd raid 0.

with my kingston hyperX ssds i saw more read speed but even less write speed, even if they are much faster!

thanks for your infos!