Gigabyte GA P35-DS4 - AHCI mode and RAID?

[Britgeezer]

I've been trying to add an SSD to my trusty P35-DS4. But having problems to get my new SSD running in AHCI mode with an upgrade version of W7 Pro.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...51#post4494351

I think my issue was that I had set the previous OS on 2 Raptors in RAID using RAID/IDE mode and when you select AHCI it broke the RAID and the old OS could not be seen.

The question here is:

Does anyone know if the MB, having 2 SATA controllers can be set in AHCI mode say on the Gigabyte controller for a single SSD and leave the other contoller in RAID/IDE so I could still use the Raptors in RAID?

I've done the RTFM bit, its looks like it should. How can you tell if an SSD (or any drive) is running in AHCI mode vs. IDE

Would I be best off with the SSD in AHCI connected to the Gigabyte controller - I think thats what I did.

The RAID was previously set on the Intel controller.

Thanks

[richardd43]

The SSDs do in fact run a bit faster in AHCI mode but you will only notice the difference if you are benchmarking.

In day to day use you will never notice the difference if you run in IDE.

[AMDScooter]

I've been trying to add an SSD to my trusty P35-DS4. But having problems to get my new SSD running in AHCI mode with an upgrade version of W7 Pro.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...51#post4494351

I think my issue was that I had set the previous OS on 2 Raptors in RAID using RAID/IDE mode and when you select AHCI it broke the RAID and the old OS could not be seen.

The question here is:

Does anyone know if the MB, having 2 SATA controllers can be set in AHCI mode say on the Gigabyte controller for a single SSD and leave the other contoller in RAID/IDE so I could still use the Raptors in RAID?

I've done the RTFM bit, its looks like it should. How can you tell if an SSD (or any drive) is running in AHCI mode vs. IDE

Would I be best off with the SSD in AHCI connected to the Gigabyte controller - I think thats what I did.

The RAID was previously set on the Intel controller.

Thanks

IMHO it should not be an issue. I've done a lot of mixing with SATA controller modes and have been able to get them all working in AHCI as long as the drives support it. Typically the Intel Intel ICH9R chipset does slightly better speed wise than other controllers.. very mature drivers. There are 4 different Rev's of the GA-P35-DS4 MOBO... which one do you have?

What I have been doing of late is simply setting all the SATA controllers to RAID mode. It takes a hair longer to boot as each controller will seek RAID sets at boot. But even in RAID mode single drives on a controller work in AHCI and if you wanna build a RAID later it's not an issue. I rarely shut down my PC and boot from scratch anyway.. sleep mode FTW. But even when I do.. with boot partitions mounted on SSD's.. waiting for windows to boot (even with all the crap I load at startup) is a thing of the past.

Usually the drive or RAID utilities will tell you what mode they are running in.



Just looked at your system specs.. rev. 2.o.

[kbohip]

I'm looking into buying an SSD as well, but just realized that my old Abit IP35-E doesn't seem to run AHCI. I'll probably just buy one anyway and see what happens.

[Britgeezer]

OK thanks for the replies. I managed to get the SSD running (I think in AHCI) and have the Raptors in RAID 0.

I had to reinstall XP since once the raid was broken W7 could not see the original OS.

Its (SSD) nice, but not a blazing real time difference - guess I should have changed a non Raid PC.....