Firmware required?

[idata]

I installed my 320 SSD, cloned from my old HHD using the provided software. It runs fine, but the benchmarks are low. Was I supposed to install firmware before I cloned it? Didnt remember seeing anything about firmware in the directions.

CrystalDiskMark:

218 MB/s Read Speed

92 MB/s Write Speed

I thought they would have been higher! Any help is appreciated.

[idata]

The "pciide - BAD" message indicates that your system (which is almost certainly Windows 7) is using the Microsoft IDE driver rather than AHCI or Intel-specific drivers. As such, your performance will be decreased. If you switch to AHCI, be aware you will need to reinstall your entire OS given device string changes that happen (you can blame Microsoft for this; FreeBSD, Linux, etc. all let you change underlying IDE vs. AHCI types without any need to reinstall).

You can read more about it http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?90860-AS-SSd-show-quot-pciide-BAD-quot here or http://www.google.com/search?q=as+ssd+%2B%22pciide%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:o... here. This is outside the scope of Intel-specific issues; this has to do with OS drivers, not the SSD itself.

Finally, this forum is to discuss Intel products, not OCZ products. Comparing products here is more or less pointless. If you're happier with OCZ products, go with OCZ products. You should always use what works best for you.

[idata]

I have an Asus Essentio 5571, that came without the install disc. Can I set my bios for AHCI and clone the drive again? My Bios has no option for AHCI at least not that I can see now with the OS on it.

[idata]

If your BIOS has no option for AHCI, and your system indicates you're using the classic IDE driver, what makes you think you can use AHCI? 🙂

According to http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ASUS_Essentio-CS5110 this Linux page (since I couldn't find the southbridge chipset mentioned anywhere else), your chipset is ICH8. Intel made many different revisions of the ICH8, and from what I can find http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/313056.pdf in the product specification only the RAID models support AHCI. RAID and AHCI are separate technologies, please keep that in mind. The ICH8R, ICH8DH, ICH8DO, and ICH8M-E are the only models of ICH8 which appear to support AHCI.

Your board might support AHCI but Asus may have chose not to include support for it. There isn't much you can do about it. If the BIOS doesn't show any SATA controller mode operation change (from IDE or sometimes called "Enhanced") to AHCI, then you're out of luck.

There is nothing else you can do. You will have to accept the performance you have, and you will have to ignore the "pciide - BAD" message AS SSD tells you; you'll simply have to remember you're using a non-AHCI interface.