AHCI

mame · 31 Mar 2008 at 17:53

Does AHCI make much difference? I've just done a clean install of windows vista 64 home premium OEM on the follwing hardware:

e2180
gigabyte p35-ds3l
4gig (2x2) geil black dragon 6400
8800gt 512mb
samsung spinpoint 500gig sata
maxtor 250gig sata

I have the option to enable ahci in the bios, i know i should have done this before installing windows but i'm wondering if it's worth doing another install with this enabled. Is it much trouble to do ? I see that there are some workarounds to avoid the full install but as i've only just done it, it won't take me long at all to get it re-installed as it is now.

Hxc · 31 Mar 2008 at 20:31

does it require a reinstall? I turned it on on my DS3 and it booted into Vista and detected my SATA drive.

mame · 31 Mar 2008 at 21:13

I don't know much about but from what i have read if you don't use it, your HD works in IDE mode? I've tried googling about it but most the results are people asking the same question or people who are having trouble using it

steve258 · 31 Mar 2008 at 21:22

IDE is compatibility mode I'd only use it if you have problems running AHCI, which you shouldn't since Vista comes with AHCI drivers integrated. Even on XP it's just a matter of finding the right drivers and use FDD or slipstream it on the installation disk.

Without AHCI you lose all functionalities of modern HDDs like NCQ, hot-plugging, sequential start...etc. But speed wise you won't lose out much.