Which SATA ports?

wblastyn

wblastyn

wblastyn

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7 Nov 2008
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133
Hello, I bought an OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 120gb, and I was wondering if anyone knew which SATA port I should plug it into on my motherboard?

I have a Gigabyte GA-p55A-UD4, which has SATA2 and SATA3 ports. SATA2 is controlled by "P55 Chipset" and SATA3 is controlled by "Marvell 9128".

Does it matter which one I plug it into?

Any help is much appreciated, thanks.
 
The OCZ doesn't take advantage of 6 Gbps SATA and I think the general consensus is that plugging the SSD into the motherboard chipset SATA ports is better. I've also heard that SSDs should be plugged into the first SATA slot if possible - sounds like a baseless rumour to me but it can't hurt.

So I'd go for the first P55 3 Gbps slot (usually port 0).
 
Thanks for the reply.

I was planning to use my current hdd as a second hard drive.

So to get my ssd working optimally do I need to:

Plug Hdd with os installed into sata2 port 0.

Plug ssd into sata2 port 1.

Change bios setting from IDE to ahci and perfem reg fix in windows 7.

Update firmware on ssd and perform format with pcs software.

Switch ssd and hdd sata ports.

Install windows 7 to ssd.

Transfer any files I want to keep from hdd to ssd.

Format hdd and transfer file back to hdd.

Will there be any issues if windows 7 is installed on both drives (before formatting obviously).
 
The OS doesn't need to be on the drive in port 0 so you can put the SSD in port 0 and HDD in port 1 before any other step:

1) Plug SSD into port 0, HDD into port 1.
2) Perform AHCI registry change, then set BIOS to AHCI.
3) Boot to Windows, update SSD firmware and then secure erase it.
4) Install Windows to SSD.

There is no issue with having Windows 7 installed to both drives at once as long as your HDDs are unplugged when you install Windows 7 to your SSD.

If you forget to do this, you'll be unable to boot to Windows when you format the HDD. However, it is still possible to prevent this from happening using EasyBCD. Choose the "BCD Backup/Repair" option on the left hand side, then click the "Change boot drive" option button and click the "Perform Action" button. Lastly, choose your SSD partition from the drop-down box and click "OK". Now you can safely format the HDD and your new Windows installation will be fine.
 
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Ok so if I unplug the hdd before installing windows, can I plug it in again afterwards and boot into windows on the ssd, to get the files I need from it? Without having to use easyBCD?
 
Well I followed your instructions and got my SSD up and running, however, I think my benchmark looks a little strange...

ssdbench.jpg


The write speed increases, then starts to decrease? Also, the read speed doesn't seem as high as other's I've seen.

I didn't need to update the firmware as it had 1.23 installed already.

I performed a secure erase, which said it would take 400 mins and actually took about 5 seconds. I don't know if something went wrong or that's normal, as there was nothing on the drive. I had to change the bios from AHCI to IDE in order for HDDERASE to detect the SSD. I changed it back to AHCI before installing windows.

I installed the SATA drivers for my motherboard, Gigabyte-P55A-UD4, which also has the latest bios installed.

I transferred files from my HDD, so I could format it, which left me with 3GB on the SSD. However, I transferred all these files back to the HDD afterwards. I wonder if this caused the problem, since I read the SSD can slow down if you have too much data on it, or if you write files to it too often?
 
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