IDE-AHCI-RAID... so far

[idata]

When I start my bios i can choose how to set up my SSD: AHCI,IDE,RAID

AHCI and IDE are similar (AHCI newer and more advanced, IDE more standard and compatible) AHCI, I guess, support the automatic TRIM in window7 while IDE don't but i am not sure about this...

RAID has two possibilities:

a) single SSD

Doesn't support automatic TRIM but support the TOOLBOX (correct me if wrong)

b) With RAID-0 SSD (2xSSD disk)

Doesn't support anything but go faster ^_^ (there is any way to trim or clean the empty space with this configuration?)

This said if you have just one SSD which one would you advice?

AHCI?

IDE?

RAID-mono disk?

[idata]

Perhaps I should flip it around, using the motherboard's SATA (in non-RAID mode) for the SSD and buy a PCI RAID controller for the storage array. The PCI penalty may not be as significant in this setup.

[GCatt]

That's a good option. Of course, you would need to get a PCI card with RAID support. Or you can do what I'm doing: Waiting for Intel to release their RST drivers with TRIM support. That way you can have all your disks running off the high performance Intel raid controller, in RAID mode, with full TRIM support. Intel is known to be working on new drivers with TRIM support, but no one has a idea of their planned release date. Hopefully, soon.

[idata]

Here is a post by xact from another thread relating to actual bootability of drives connected to the ASUS card--

Feb 16, 2010 4:35 PM /message/83366# 83366 in response to: /message/83366# 83366 algoroth /message/84032# 84032 Re: Will Toolbox work without AHCI?

I have an XPS 720 with a 680i-based mobo/clunky nvidia SATA hardware and was in the same boat as you guys. Performance was fine, but I had no Trim support, no SSD Toolbox, and firmware had to be upgraded using a different machine.

To bypass the restrictive nvidia hardware, I ended up purchasing a $29 ASUS U3S6 PCI-E add-in card to control my SSD. This ended up working out very well; once the SSD was connected to the new controller, my BIOS allowed me to select it as a boot device instead of the mobo's controller. I left my bulk storage drives connected to the motherboard's SATA ports.

The U3S6 has 2 SATA 6G ports and is based on a Marvell 9123 controller. This controller is picked up by Windows as a standard AHCI device and works fine with the MS AHCI drivers. Intel's SSD Toolbox is now 100% functional and I assume Trim is working as it should since I'm using the MS drivers.

There are other add-in cards on the market based on the same controller that would do the same job. Whatever you get, just make sure it will work with the standard MS AHCI drivers.

Not an Intel motherboard, but I would expect similar results with Intel and AMD. However, I have not seen any other reports. The "same boat" referred to by xact is that creating a Raid array on the main chipset Sata controller forces all other Sata drives using the controller to use the Raid controller, making the SSD Toolbox unusable for all drives--including any SSDs--on the controller.

The only manual available on the ASUS site is in Chinese. So I ordered a U3S6 from Amazon to find out what it will do. I found one report from a user with an AMD cpu (definitely not an Intel chipset) to the effect that the U3S2 required the installation of a drive to prevent a boot freeze. However, that user may not have looked at the Bios boot order prior to installing a drive, and hence missed pertinent information.

Message was edited by: Einride

[GCatt]

Einride wrote:

Here is a post by xact from another thread relating to actual bootability of drives connected to the ASUS card--

Feb 16, 2010 4:35 PM /message/83366# 83366 in response to: /message/83366# 83366 algoroth /message/84032# 84032 Re: Will Toolbox work without AHCI?

I have an XPS 720 with a 680i-based mobo/clunky nvidia SATA hardware and was in the same boat as you guys. Performance was fine, but I had no Trim support, no SSD Toolbox, and firmware had to be upgraded using a different machine.

To bypass the restrictive nvidia hardware, I ended up purchasing a $29 ASUS U3S6 PCI-E add-in card to control my SSD. This ended up working out very well; once the SSD was connected to the new controller, my BIOS allowed me to select it as a boot device instead of the mobo's controller. I left my bulk storage drives connected to the motherboard's SATA ports.

Hmm. Tha's interesting. I sent an e-mail to ASUS to verify the ability to boot from the U3S6. Here's their reply:

Hello, 

No this card is set up for data transfer only as the card is configued in AHCI at all times, and there is no OS driver for the card. The card will let Windows install the generic PnP driver.Best Regards,Rob Lead Support Technician The "No" asnwer in this message from ASUS means that you can't boot from a disks connected to the U3S6. Now, I'm not sure what to believe. Perhaps the cobination of my motherborad (ASUS P7P55D) with the U3S6 will not allow the boot?

[idata]

The "No" from Rob @ ASUS does not match up with the rest of the text in Rob's message. Drives do not boot from drivers. Drives boot--this occurs when the machine bios hands off the start-up process to a selected disk--from the boot sector on the disk. Boot sector code then hands off the process to the selected operating system. Disk drivers are added to the equation by the operating system later in the overall boot process. Maybe Rob was responding to some other question--whether asked or not.

By the way, Rob, there is are drivers on Rapidshare for the Marvell Sata 6 controller.

I will be able to speak more knowledably in a few hours when my U3S6 arrives. Testing will be done on ASUS P55 boards.