SSD and AHCI

[TanyaC]

Recently it was suggested to me that AHCI doesn't offer enough benefit to be particularly worthwhile. That's fine. Am ok to turn it off.

I have purchased a new SSD drive - OCZ Vertex 3 120gb. I will format it as a single partition.

On the OCZ site it said to disable AHCI as it can cause problems. On another website it implied that trim wont work unless it's on, and of course NCQ wont work as that's an AHCI feature.

The question is - who is right? Do I leave AHCI off, or must I turn it on if I want the best from my SSD?

Pro AHCI
tips and tricks for installing Win 7 on a brand new SSD - Overclockers Forums

Anti AHCI
http://www.ocztechnology.com/res_old/images/Configuring-and-Setting-Up-SSDs.pdf

thanks
Tanya

 

[essenbe]

I am not sure about that article, and have never seen it before. It has no date on it and if you will notice it makes constant reference to Vista SP1 and XP. Which would indicate it is an older article. The problem with OCZ Forums is determining whether the articles you read are about Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen 3 devices. It can be rather confusing and they are not separated on the forums. And it makes a big difference in how they are handled. I have a Vertex2 in AHCI and it works great and i get expected numbers. I also have an Intel X25-M and 2 Crucial M4's. They are also in AHCI mode. Most everyone I am aware of are running their drives in AHCI without issue.

EDIT: Most people report better performance in AHCI over IDE. I know some say they see no difference, but most do. Some problems arise in doing a secure erase. Most programs I am aware of that do a secure erase require the drive to be 'Hot Plugged' to unfreeze the drive so a secure erase can be done. AFAIK, Hot Plugging is not supported in IDE mode but is supported in AHCI.

 

[TanyaC]

Most everyone I am aware of are running their drives in AHCI without issue.

Ok. I'll install in AHCI mode and see how I go..

Hopefully be back online tomorrow..

 

[smarteyeball]

Nothing wrong with using AHCI at all.

 

[Hopalong X]

You will/may need this tutorial. Turn on AHCI first in Windows then in the Bios as explained in tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

This is a good all around tutorial if you wish to double check your steps, alignment etc.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html

Mike

 

[essenbe]

Tanyam, Let us know how it goes. And don't over tweek the system. Windows does a good job of setting things up pretty well.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I was always told that AHCI needed to be enabled for Windows 7 to auto-detect the fact you were using an SSD and configure itself accordingly. Not that IDE mode wouldn't work, but then you'd have to configure the OS manually for the SSD drive.

 

[Hopalong X]

DeaconFrost

I installed my Intel in IDE mode then switched Windows to AHCI then the Bios per WHS tutorial I posted above.
Windows did recognize and install SATA drivers for the SSD in the beginning.
I was setting an Image.

Fresh install from Windows disk I'm not sure????
I can't find anything in our forum tutorials one way or the other. Strange.

 

[essenbe]

You can enable AHCI to do a clean install. If you clone the old OS or restore an image, they don't have the AHCI drivers in them. If you clean install in AHCI mode, they are installed during the OS install.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Yes, on a fresh install with AHCI enabled before the install, the drive is setup properly and the OS configures itself accordingly.

 

[sygnus21]

I am not sure about that article, and have never seen it before. It has no date on it and if you will notice it makes constant reference to Vista SP1 and XP. Which would indicate it is an older article.

I agree. Here's a more recent tip from SSD Tips and Tweaks | OCZ Technology - Posted June 21, 2011

Verification of ACHI Mode

Make sure your SATA controller is set to AHCI mode (you can do so in your BIOS). AHCI is needed for native TRIM support in Windows 7. It’s recommended to run your SSD in AHCI mode to enable TRIM to do its job.

 

[OldMX]

Its 2011, Windows Vista and 7 were designed to run in AHCI mode.

 

[TanyaC]

Tanyam, Let us know how it goes. And don't over tweek the system. Windows does a good job of setting things up pretty well.

Hi All,

thanks for your wonderful support.

I have pretty much finished. Only have a few printers to install, set up backups and take some images.

I installed the OCZ Vertex 3 drive on the GSata SATA 3 controller and enabled AHCI for both the SATA2 and 3 controllers.

I have created a single partition and the alignment is at 1,048,576 where it should be. The drive formatted to 111.79GB, as hoped (Some of the older drives had a lower formatted size).

All Windows files, applications, drivers and so on are on the C:\ Drive now. I haven't done that since the mid 90's.

There was a problem with the eltron USB3 driver on the 6-series install CD. Installed fine, but system still didn't recognise USB 3 ports. I downloaded the latest driver from Gigabyte and all was well. Of course, I'm on latest F4 BIOS too.

The Old drive (ST31000528AS) is on the SATA2 controller with the 2 DVD drives and the BDROM.

System is slightly overclocked at 3.70ghz (I5-2500K native is 3.3), with memory running at 1600mhz. temps stable at 21C

Ran Prime95 for an hour - no issues.

Turned off defrag for C: drive.

Some MSXML patches and Office 2K10 failed to install, but when I updated my .NET to 4.0 with latest patches these problems were resolved.

After initial install total boot time after AHCI scan to desktop was 3 seconds. After installing all apps it's now up to 6. Before putting the SSD drive in it was 20-25 seconds.

Have I missed anything?

 

[essenbe]

You can save 8GB of space on your SSD by deleating the hibernate file. Hibernate will not be an option then. To do that open an elevated command prompt (Start-type cmd in search box- right click cmd and select run as administrator.) In the command window type or copy/paste powercfg -h off It will appear to do nothing but it deletes the hibernate file. In the same command window you can determine if trim is enabled by typing
fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify if the response is DisableDeleteNotify = 0 then trim is enabled. other than changing Defrag to manual there is nothing else you need to do. Run the windows experience index soon. I have been told that will cause windows to recognize the drive as an SSD and handle it properly. And congratulations on the install. I don't have a Gigabyte board, but on my board the gsata is the marvell controller. i believe you would get better results if you put it on the P67 controller on port 0 which should also be a sata 3. You may also save some boot time if you disable the marvell controller if you are not using it. It added 5 seconds to my reboot time on my board. Windows also prefers to boot from port 0. It will still work otherwise but usually works best on port 0.

 

[Britton30]

Just FYI, Gsata means Gigabyte SATA.

 

[essenbe]

Only you gigabyte fans would know that. On most of my boards the secondary controller is called Gsata or on mine it is Msata (Marvell)

 

[TanyaC]

You can save 8GB of space on your SSD by deleating the hibernate file. Hibernate will not be an option then. To do that open an elevated command prompt (Start-type cmd in search box- right click cmd and select run as administrator.) In the command window type or copy/paste powercfg -h off It will appear to do nothing but it deletes the hibernate file. In the same command window you can determine if trim is enabled by typing
fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify if the response is DisableDeleteNotify = 0 then trim is enabled. other than changing Defrag to manual there is nothing else you need to do. Run the windows experience index soon. I have been told that will cause windows to recognize the drive as an SSD and handle it properly. And congratulations on the install. I don't have a Gigabyte board, but on my board the gsata is the marvell controller. i believe you would get better results if you put it on the P67 controller on port 0 which should also be a sata 3. You may also save some boot time if you disable the marvell controller if you are not using it. It added 5 seconds to my reboot time on my board. Windows also prefers to boot from port 0. It will still work otherwise but usually works best on port 0.

Hi,

yes, I'm familier with the powercfg command. I always do that.
Yes, fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify returned 0.

On my Z68X board (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), as I understand it the first 4 sata ports are sata 2 only. That's why I had to connect it to the gsata port 0. (GSATA3_0 on board).

Have run WEI. WIll post results shortly.

 

[essenbe]

As long as it is port 0 is all that will really matter, no matter they they call it.

 

[Britton30]

If I see the labels right, yes you are right, the Black SATA headers are SATA 2, white (2) are SATA 3 and the gray ones are gSATA 3. Gigabyyte boards are real picky about what SATA headers you use and which will become disk 0.

 

[TanyaC]

Here's the system performance results since the upgrade.

Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: System memory performance assessment ''
> Run Time 00:00:05.10
> Memory Performance 21989.05 MB/s
> Total Run Time 00:00:06.15

This was 22,686 before the new SSD install.

HD-Tune reports the SSD drive temp as 128C. The drive has a fan behind it blowing through. How could it be that hot? Turning the fan to high makes no difference. Is this a false alert? The drive is cold to touch.