ECS Readies USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s Addon Cards
Following ASUS and ASRock, ECS will be the third manufacturer to offer USB 3.0 and SATA 3 6GB/s connectivity for their motherboards through the use of expansion cards.
Pictured above are USB 3.0 expansion card featuring the NEC µPD72020 controller and SATA 6GB/s expansion card featuring the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 controller. The USB card provides two USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel, while the SATA card provides one SATA 6 GB/s and one eSATA 6GB/s port inside the case.
Source: XFastest
Could anyone please tell me, have the problems with the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 controller chipset been solved. Also, can the ECS Readies USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s Addon Cards be used on the PCIe 2 x16 slot. These slots are normally referred to graphics slots but can any add on PCIe card use these slots. I have two PCIe 2 x16 slots on my motherboard. One slot is occupied by a graphics card.
Thanks
Don
What issues with the Marvell controller? I have seem some reviews where the performance is not so spectacular, however.
Yes, you can usually install a 1x, 4x, or 8x card in a higher performance slot, so it is possible to seat a 1x card in a 16x PCIe slot.
Beware that with some chipsets, you may have issues. If you have PCIe 16X graphics that is shared between 2 lanes and install any card in the second slot, you will cut your primary slot down to PCIe 8X bandwidth for your graphics card. Also some MBs with integrated graphics may also have issues with it.