For SSD which is best? IDE or AHCI

essenbe · 29 Apr 2012

Try it and see. You can always change back. But, I've read several places that Marvell does not get along well with SSDs. There's really no risk involved.

Sol Invictus · 29 Apr 2012

essenbe said:

Try it and see. You can always change back. But, I've read several places that Marvell does not get along well with SSDs. There's really no risk involved.

Just did it. No improvement in speed and also I got a "missing driver" error for SATA2 ports 0 & 1 (yellow triangle noting that "the device could not start"). I have to say that my current configuration (2 disks in SATA3 ports in IDE mode) works fine so far.

essenbe · 29 Apr 2012

As long as you're happy, that's all that matters.

DanielDH · 27 Jun 2012

I just ran into this same issue myself. I did a clean install on my new SSD but forgot to change the bios to AHCI. After realizing this I did some research and turned on the Windows 7 AHCI driver, then went into the BIOS and turned on AHCI. There were two different places to change from IDE to AHCI and I used them both at first. With both turned on I got this same issue with one of my CPU cores running constantly at 70%. I then disabled the two BIOS AHCI options one at a time until the problem went away. I'm pretty sure I ended up with just the Intel ports set to AHCI. I ran benchmarks on my SSD performance along the way, and this configuration also gave the best results. FYI, my Mobo only has SATA-II, so I didn't have to worry about losing SATA-III.

Motherboard: Gigabyte P55-UD4
CPU: Core i5 750
4GB RAM
Samsung SSD 830
Window 7 Home Premium x64

Lotuzz · 24 Aug 2012

Hello all,

I recently installed a ssd (samsung 830) on my desktop. I cloned my original hdd and all works fine.
The only problem i got is that my old hdd was installed on a Sata port with IDE.
I installed the SSD, also on the Sata port with IDE.
I wanted to change to AHCI after doing some reading about it.
When i change the registry, following the steps from the link in #1, im getting some troubles. Infact the trouble starts after changing IDE to AHCI in the Bios.
The system boots until the windows startupscreen popsup (the 4 floating balls comming together), then it stops and reboots again, doing the same things over and over.
When i change from AHCI to IDE in the bios, all is fine again.

The mb i have is a Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme with F12 firmware.

BugMeister · 26 Aug 2012

- there should be an option in the BIOS for IDE+AHCI

- make sure you have it selected..

Lotuzz · 28 Aug 2012

No, i can only choose Ide, Raid or Ahci.

chrysalis · 28 Aug 2012

windows 7 has a built in msachi driver which should make this procedure easier? it was much harder on vista and XP due to the lack of a built in driver.

but since you get the boot loop I guess that means I am wrong

satchmo · 25 Aug 2013

I am sorry to resurrect this thread a year later, but I have to say that my transition from IDE to AHCI was the best decision I have ever made.

After hearing so many problems from people who made the switch, I hesitated. I got my SDD's two years ago, and I just switched them to AHCI this weekend. A benchmark in Maximum PC finally convinced me to take the risk for the boost in performance.

The switch was extremely simple. I followed the same steps illustrated at the beginning of this thread, and the transition was flawless.

I have a GA-P55A-UD3 rev 2.0 board, with F11 BIOS. It uses a Marvell 9128 controller for the two SATA 6 GB/s connections. The Intel ones are all SATA 3 GB/s.

I have two SSD's, a OCZ Vertex 2 128 GB and OCZ Vertex 3 128 GB. The boot drive is the Vertex 3. I am running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium with SP1.

Here are my benchmark results. They speak for themselves. The switch has dramatically improved my drive performance.

Before (IDE)

After (AHCI)

It even boosted my disk Windows experience score from 7.5 to 7.9. I also noticed the significant faster boot time and program startup. I use Lightroom 4, which starts instantaneously now.

And I have been monitoring my CPU usage since the migration. It's hovering around 1-2%.

Mike89 · 11 Feb 2014

Sol Invictus said:

I enabled AHCI mode using this tutorial, thank you.

Did anyone notice an increase in used resources after this? If I remember well, while in IDE mode, CPU usage while idle was around 2-3% and RAM usage was around 9%. Now, when idle, CPU is up to 10-12% with constant fluctuations/spikes and RAM is around 12-14%. A certain lag is also apparent. Is this a normal result after enabling AHCI mode?

EDIT:
Just to check out whether this was a "placebo" impression, I reverted back to IDE mode via BIOS. The change was clear: IDE mode works far better than AHCI mode. Didn't make any read/write measurments yet but CPU & RAM resources are back to normal. No lags whatsoever and my setup is very snappy indeed. I think I'll pass AHCI mode...

Many years ago (before SSDs) I experienced this myself when I had switched to AHCI. I also went back to IDE because of it. Now I have a newly installed SSD (Crucial M500 120 GB) with Windows 7 on it. I also have 3 HDDs. My system is still IDE (from my way back experience with AHCI). Now in the present, I'm reading trying to decide if I should try AHCI again. Then I read the post I quoted that brought back old memories.

I bit my lip and went AHCI again. Big difference in my experience from years ago. This time I'm content as my speeds have gone up and no lag present like years ago.