Asus p5n32-e sli with SSD?

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Hi there,

I purchased an OCZ Agility 3 SSD from here the other day when it was on offer, it arrives today :)

My motherboard is an Asus p5n32-e sli. Old, I realise, and only SATA 2. However I am waiting for LGA 2011 before upgrading the rest of my rig.

What I would like to know is do I need to do a BIOS update or anything else on my motherboard in order to get it work with the SSD or is it more or less just plug and play?

And is there anything else other than switching my SATA port to ACHI mode?

Thanks :)
 
I switched to achi and never saw a difference from IDE, in the benchmarks. Also unless the drivers were enabled during loading the OS you have to do a fix, otherwise you get a blue screen.
 
beardyweirdy said:
I switched to achi and never saw a difference from IDE, in the benchmarks. Also unless the drivers were enabled during loading the OS you have to do a fix, otherwise you get a blue screen.
Click to expand...

just turn it on in windows then reboot, go into the bios and change over to Achi, :)
 
beardyweirdy said:
I switched to achi and never saw a difference from IDE, in the benchmarks. Also unless the drivers were enabled during loading the OS you have to do a fix, otherwise you get a blue screen.
Click to expand...

I am getting blue screens at the moment - what drivers do you mean? If you could fill me in on your fix, that'd be great :)
 
Windows 7 doesn't install the drivers via default so when you enable achi without them, it causes a crash. Don't despair Microsoft have done a fix, it is via one of those 'fix my problem' widgets: Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB922976 - have a look at the article, the fix is on there
Cheers
 
Last edited:
I've updated my motherboard bios to the most recent version (v1903), however still can't find ACHI mode anywhere? Puzzling :S However I shall have a look on the MS website and see what I can find, thanks.

I was going to update the firmware on my Agility 3, however turns out it came with v2.11, which as far as I'm aware is the most recent version.

Will let you know if I get anywhere. Anyone else been in the same boat?
 
Surveyor said:
The Asus P5N32-E uses an Nvidia chipset and I'm almost certain Nvidia chipsets don't support AHCI.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. However if I understand correctly, ACHI is not a necessary requirement? I'll just have to hold out till my cpu/mobo/ram upgrade to enable it.

Any ideas as to why I'm getting blue screens all over the place?
 
Yep, no other hardware changes. I also get a blue screen every time I attempt to install Windows updates...

I can try a clean install again tomorrow after work but as of now I am out of ideas.
 
Surveyor said:
If you're going to try a clean installation then you might as well see how that goes first.
Click to expand...

Right, all other drives unplugged, clean install done. All W7 updates successful :D

Plugged in my other SATA drives, and now on every second or so boot, my motherboard fails to see the Agility 3 drive.

Not sure if that is a problem with my motherboard or the drive. When it does find the drive and boot, it seems reasonable stable, I've not had a blue screen yet (been up and running for 6 hours).

Will report back if there are any issues. Not sure what the constant blue screens with the first install were about.

Anyone know if a new motherboard would sort the problems of not detecting the SSD on boot?
 
Is the system overclocked at all? I remember having the same motherboard and it being really flaky with more than one drive installed or more than 2 sticks of ram installed. Random blue screens and drives dropping out occasionally.

Increasing the voltage on NB and SB fixed these issues for me. In fact the chipset on this mobo loved voltage.

Try it and see if it fixes your problem. Keep an eye on the NB temps though ot runs pretty hot.

/Salsa
 
I'm using an E8500, however it unfortunately has faulty/stuck temperature sensors, so I haven't overclocked as I don't feel comfortable not knowing how hot it runs.

However I can increase the NB and SB voltages tonight when I get in. How much did you bump them by?
 
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