[coreboot] (libre) Add-on cards for getting higher SSD throughput on the KGPE-D16?

[Daniel Kulesz]

Hi,

after plugging a rather newish 2,5 SATA SSD to my KGPE-D16, I realized that the regular SATA ports connected to the SP5100 on this board can only handle SATA2, limiting transfer speeds to max. 300 MB/s. I thought about various options what I could do now:

(1) try to get the PIKE 9230 card => but does come with a co-processor and non-free firmware like the SAS Pike cards? Seems almost impossible to get one though
(2) get the PIKE 2008 card => will SATA3 work without non-free firmware?
(3) put in some PCIe SATA3 card => any recommended chips that respect freedom?
(4) get a m.2 SSD instead together with some PCIe adapter => the cards don't have a co-processor, right?
(5) stay with SATA2 and live with the limited speed

Any recommendations for a freedom-respecting choice?

Cheers, Daniel