Installing SSD on HP desktop

[margrave]

I have an HP HPE-480t desktop. The original C: drive was 1.5 TB drive was good, but when it died the 1 TB replacement turned out to be a bit slow. Slower than the second (500 GB) D: drive.

So I want to replace the C: drive with a 500 GB SSD. The existing C: has 620 GB of stuff on it, but I can remove movies and various junk to skinny it down to around 350 GB. And then I can clone it onto an SSD. (The IT guy at work has a dedicated hardware cloner device. Plug in the drives and one gets copied to the other. Nice. And free.)

The target setup will be:
C: 500 GB SSD
. . . Windows boot, plus apps and data that will benefit from speed

D: 1 TB disk
. . . Right now, this drive is C:
. . . As the D: drive it will hold a complete backup image (or two). Slowness won't matter.

E: 500 GB disk
. . . Right now, this drive is D:, holding data backups from two computers.
. . . It will continue in that role.

The info on the Pegatron 2A86 motherboard shows four SATA II (3 Gb/s) connectors. That should be good, yes?

I've read that the BIOS SATA mode must be set properly for SSDs. My choices are IDE, RAID, and AHCI. Right now it's set to RAID. (Why? Dunno. I'm not doing any RAID. Just plain old disks.) Should it be AHCI when using an SSD? If so, will it still properly "see" the D: and E: plain disk drives?

BTW, the BIOS version is 6.10 - 09/16/10, and it also says Core version 08.00.15.

Also, I've read about TRIM. What must I do with that?

Can someone answer these questions and/or point me to comprehensive instructions?

 

[margrave]

Any help with this?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I think TRIM is a function of the operating system, so if you have Win 7 you should be OK.

The 4 SATA II connectors should be OK.

I'd try to use AHCI if possible, but I'm not sure if it would be available on a motherboard that old. If it is, OK. Your other drives should be seen OK when reconnected.

I'd be somewhat concerned about a 5 year old board and 5 year old BIOS, but I'd still try it and see how it goes.