# JMicron vs ICH8

## stuorguk

I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard.  Should I plug my SATA Hard drives into the JMicron ports, or the ICH8 ports?  Is one faster/more stable than the other?

Also, I need JMicron for my ATA Optical drives... do I still need "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support" in the kernel?

Stuart

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## colo

libata boasts support for Marvell PATA Controllers since 2.6.20 (or 2.6.19-mm), which are often found on ICH8-powered mainboards. JMicron is supported even longer, so you don't need "vintage" ATA/IDE-support any more.

I're recommend plugging your SATA-drives in the ports provided by the ICH8 southbridge, its performance seems superior over all other implementations,. according to various benchmark-sources across the web.

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## stuorguk

 *colo wrote:*   

> libata boasts support for Marvell PATA Controllers since 2.6.20 (or 2.6.19-mm), which are often found on ICH8-powered mainboards. JMicron is supported even longer, so you don't need "vintage" ATA/IDE-support any more.
> 
> I're recommend plugging your SATA-drives in the ports provided by the ICH8 southbridge, its performance seems superior over all other implementations,. according to various benchmark-sources across the web.

 

Thanks. Mine is using the Intel SATA Controller 2.

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## bubbl07

I have the same motherboard as you (965P-DS3) and the same setup (SATA HDDs and a PATA DVDRW).

The HDDs are hooked up to the ICH8 SATA ports and the DVDRW is working (shows up as /dev/sr0) using the newer version of the JMicron PATA controller, so you don't necessarily need "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support" in your kernel.  Just make sure that if you choose to take that approach that you enable "SCSI CDROM support" otherwise you won't be able to use your optical drive.

I'm using gentoo-sources-2.6.19-r3 because I can't get ck-sources to boot for some reason, but I don't care enough to try to fix it.

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## stuorguk

 *bubbl07 wrote:*   

> I'm using gentoo-sources-2.6.19-r3 because I can't get ck-sources to boot for some reason, but I don't care enough to try to fix it.

 

I'm having terrible stability issues with mine.  It keeps randomly hanging.  I first thought it it was a hardware problem, but I don't think it's that (swaped stuff out, new psu, tested memory etc).  2.6.19-rc4-mm caused random Kernel panics under heavy load.  I have just tried 2.6.20-rc3-mm1, and it hangs within minutes.   :Confused: 

I'm now looking at my kernel options, hence my original query.

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## VoVaN

 *colo wrote:*   

> libata boasts support for Marvell PATA Controllers since 2.6.20 (or 2.6.19-mm), which are often found on ICH8-powered mainboards. JMicron is supported even longer, so you don't need "vintage" ATA/IDE-support any more.
> 
> I're recommend plugging your SATA-drives in the ports provided by the ICH8 southbridge, its performance seems superior over all other implementations,. according to various benchmark-sources across the web.

 

Could you point me to these benchmarks? I have the same motherboard as the author and would say that my Maxtor SATA drive with NCQ support works faster if connected to JMicron controller (using ahci kernel driver with corresponding BIOS settings).

I'd like to note that the motherboard we're talking about has ICH8 chip (not ICH8R) and ICH8 doesn't support NCQ, while JMicron in AHCI mode does. So I would suggest using JMicron controller.

2 stuorguk: I'm using vanilla 2.6.19 kernel + ck patches with the same motherboar as you and don't have any stability issues so far (I'm using this mobo anly for one week). If you need any help with kernel/sensors/BIOS configuration just let me know. FYI: It's possible to get a _real_ cpu temperatures for each CPU core separatelly using coretemp kernel module.

```
it8718-isa-0290

Adapter: ISA adapter

VCore:     +1.33 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)

VDDR:      +2.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)

+3.3V:     +3.28 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)

+5V:       +4.78 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +6.85 V)

+12V:      +0.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max = +16.32 V)   ALARM

in5:       +0.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)   ALARM

in6:       +1.02 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)

5VSB:      +5.19 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +6.85 V)

VBat:      +4.08 V

CPU Fan:  1188 RPM  (min =  900 RPM)

Case Fan: 1198 RPM  (min =  900 RPM)

M/B Temp:    +38°C  (low  =   +10°C, high =   +60°C)   sensor = thermistor

CPU Temp:    +21°C  (low  =   +10°C, high =   +60°C)   sensor = diode

vid:      +0.000 V

coretemp-isa-0000

Adapter: ISA adapter

Core0 Temp:

             +23°C  (high =   +85°C)

coretemp-isa-0001

Adapter: ISA adapter

Core0 Temp:

             +29°C  (high =   +85°C)

```

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## stuorguk

 *VoVaN wrote:*   

> 
> 
> 2 stuorguk: I'm using vanilla 2.6.19 kernel + ck patches with the same motherboar as you and don't have any stability issues so far (I'm using this mobo anly for one week). If you need any help with kernel/sensors/BIOS configuration just let me know. FYI: It's possible to get a _real_ cpu temperatures for each CPU core separatelly using coretemp kernel module.

 

Thanks.  I am sure it's not a heat problem, as I use water cooling, although the core 2 doesn't seem to get very hot - unlike the AMD I had before.  I am using the -mm series of kernels, for reiser4 support.  2.6.19 is more stable than 2.6.20.  Having just upgraded to 2.6.20.mm-rc4, I am no longer getting kernel panics, but after a while, I can't execute anything from the console (I am not using X at the moment).  If the console hangs (after entering a command), I can switch to another console, but that too will hang if I try to execute anything.  All existing apps, continue to run, just not new ones from there on... all I can do it ctrl-alt-del.  :Sad: 

Stuart.

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## xanas3712

I have this board, some stability issues, but I'd probably blame those on the 8800 GTS and the nvidia drivers (I somehow think these vista compatibility and drm changes may be to blame).

I do get a lot of this in dmesg though, related to the jmicron for my /dev/hde (dvd burner).  It works though, but it has on occasion detected phantom discs.  One of my 250 GB Maxtor drives also recently wigged out on me, but the other did not and I have no idea if it could be related or not.  Before it wigged out enough for me to get rid of it it was making clicking noises when doing some transfers and causing occasional lockups, but that could have just been the HD.

```

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

hde: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

```

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## VoVaN

 *xanas3712 wrote:*   

> I have this board, some stability issues, but I'd probably blame those on the 8800 GTS and the nvidia drivers (I somehow think these vista compatibility and drm changes may be to blame).
> 
> I do get a lot of this in dmesg though, related to the jmicron for my /dev/hde (dvd burner).  It works though, but it has on occasion detected phantom discs.  One of my 250 GB Maxtor drives also recently wigged out on me, but the other did not and I have no idea if it could be related or not.  Before it wigged out enough for me to get rid of it it was making clicking noises when doing some transfers and causing occasional lockups, but that could have just been the HD.
> 
> ```
> ...

 

As I mentioned already for all of you having this board, it's the best (according my tests) to set AHCI mode for JMicron in BIOS and use ahci kernel driver for JMicron. In this case all you drives (HDD and CDROM's)  will be presented as /dev/sd* (dont forget enabling SCSI CDROM support in the kernel). You don't need ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support in the kernel.

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## VoVaN

 *stuorguk wrote:*   

>  *VoVaN wrote:*   
> 
> 2 stuorguk: I'm using vanilla 2.6.19 kernel + ck patches with the same motherboar as you and don't have any stability issues so far (I'm using this mobo anly for one week). If you need any help with kernel/sensors/BIOS configuration just let me know. FYI: It's possible to get a _real_ cpu temperatures for each CPU core separatelly using coretemp kernel module. 
> 
> Thanks.  I am sure it's not a heat problem, as I use water cooling, although the core 2 doesn't seem to get very hot - unlike the AMD I had before.  I am using the -mm series of kernels, for reiser4 support.  2.6.19 is more stable than 2.6.20.  Having just upgraded to 2.6.20.mm-rc4, I am no longer getting kernel panics, but after a while, I can't execute anything from the console (I am not using X at the moment).  If the console hangs (after entering a command), I can switch to another console, but that too will hang if I try to execute anything.  All existing apps, continue to run, just not new ones from there on... all I can do it ctrl-alt-del. 
> ...

 

If you go for stability, I wouldn't suggest any of mm series nor non stable kernel branches... Check if you have the letest version of BIOS and check all settings there. As I mentioned already, the mobo working fine for more then one week even with heavily overclocked CPU and memory... (see my /proc/cpuinfo above)

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## aidanjt

PATA support by libata is still experimental for most of the drivers, stick with the old ATA implimentation until it matures and the other drivers are shifted over to libata.

As for SATA, stick with ICH controllers where you can, they're the most stable and perform brilliantly.

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## bubbl07

I don't know, I was having issues with my PATA optical drive (on gentoo-sources) when I was using the old ATA implementation.  Those errors went away (same kernel) once I changed the PATA controller to the JMicron libata driver.

Here's my kernel config if you're interested.

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## VoVaN

 *AidanJT wrote:*   

> PATA support by libata is still experimental for most of the drivers, stick with the old ATA implimentation until it matures and the other drivers are shifted over to libata.
> 
> As for SATA, stick with ICH controllers where you can, they're the most stable and perform brilliantly.

 

I mentioned already, but everybody says that ICH is better then JMicron, but where's a prove, benchmarks??? I'm having better experiences with JMicron then with ICH8, but probably ICH8R is better.

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## bubbl07

Here're some benchmarks for anyone that's interested.  Keep in mind that this is running on Windows XP using Windows drivers, so there may be a difference (in fact, there probably will be).

With that disclosure out of the way, in general, the performance of each SATA controller seems to be the same.  I personally use my ICH8 SATA ports over the JMicron ones because the Intel drivers are much more mature.

It wouldn't be difficult for someone to do this test under linux though.  A simple "hdparm -tT /dev/sdX" would suffice with the same hard drive running under each controller, using both the old ATA linux driver and the new libata controller.

I leave that to someone much less lazy than me.

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## stuorguk

Just for the record, I have switched to 2.6.19.rc6-mm2, and my stability problems have gone away.  I have also dropped "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support", and everything is fine.   :Smile: 

Stuart.

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