PierreBr Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 I have a DFI Nforce4 Sli-Dr Expert motherboard which does not support AHCI - no such option in the bios. Will the Corsair Force 60GB SSD function properly on this motherboard? Is it worth going for an add-on card like the Asrock SATA3? If the drive can function properly with this motherboard without substantial losses in performance or features, how can I make it work? Never owned a SSD drive before. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardd43 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 AHCI is a luxury, not a requirement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 11, 2010 Author Share Posted December 11, 2010 I wouldn't call it a luxury when it is the proposed setting for optimal performance/operation or needed for a firmware update process. Although I've read such bits of info, I don't know what I will be missing out exactly by using IDE mode on a Nforce4 SATAII controller instead of AHCI. If AHCI is the proposed setting, what do I have to do in order to get the best of the drive in IDE? Is there any article summarizing the performance/operational differences between IDE/AHCI? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 Ok, I have found this review which seems to fit the bill of the question, where it is demonstrated that the differences could be smaller or bigger (sometimes even in favor of IDE), but it depends on the controller and the implementation... The Sandforce controller exhibited great advantage in favor of AHCI, but this could have been changed in the newest implementations... I cannot find an article comparing performance/features support for the newest Corsair Force series SSD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 12, 2010 Author Share Posted December 12, 2010 no input, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Cmon people, I need your support...I purchased a Corsair Force 60GB and then realized that my motherboard does not support AHCI... What is performance gonna be like more or less compared to AHCI for this SSD? My motherboard also has four sil3114 SATAI connectors...I guess these would be even worse? Should I keep the drive, should I have my system updated first? Any particular setting I need to implement with IDE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 Please keep in mind that your post was posted on a weekend when we are closed. You aren't going to see a major difference in performance but, Force drives will be slower on an NForce controller as compared to an Intel based ICH9 or ICH10 controller. But, it will still be faster than any HDD. Also, with no AHCI support, you will not get WIN 7 TRIM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Please keep in mind that your post was posted on a weekend when we are closed. You aren't going to see a major difference in performance but, Force drives will be slower on an NForce controller as compared to an Intel based ICH9 or ICH10 controller. But, it will still be faster than any HDD. Also, with no AHCI support, you will not get WIN 7 TRIM. Did not know that, couldn't have guessed it also, cause there were other postings.. But, I wasn't really complaining, I'm just in a rush to figure out what to do with the drive. No TRIM support with IDE? Really? I have never come across this info before...I thought that TRIM was a drive/OS issue only... I guess that changes a lot...never owned a SSD drive before (that is before TRIM was a feature) so to me this seems vital... My local retailer won't accept the drive back and have me refunded, unfortunately, because I opened the outer packaging...lame... Maybe I will sell it myself...bummer... Thanks a lot for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 TRIM commands rely on AHCI to allow the TRIM command to be passed to the controller. No AHCI = no TRIM. The drive has its own "garbage collection" feature that is OS independent. It works regardless of the OS used. So, you can still use the drive withouth AHCI. However, if you find that the controller level GC can't keep up with keeping the drive "clean", then you may need to do some manual maintenance such as a secure erase at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 Thanks a lot for the info... I have one more question... Do controllers like the Asrock SATA3 support AHCI? I didn't find any relative information in the webpage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 Thanks a lot for the info... I have one more question... Do controllers like the Asrock SATA3 support AHCI? I didn't find any relative information in the webpage... That will depend on the driver support from Marvell as it is based on a Marvell Marvell 88SE9123 controller. You'd need to check with them or ASROCK. How much is retail on that ASROCK card? Also, if this is the route you are taking by adding a PCI-e SATA controller, you may want to look at one with an Intel based controller if the Marvell does not suit your needs. I am not certain but I would expect that the Intel based controller will have better compatibility and better TRIM support. Of course, you'll need to verify all of this before purchasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 Thank you for your answer... The card retails at about 12-19€, not a big extra cost... You have mentioned the intel based controller two times...is it really that better? Does it offer better proven support for Sandforce or SSDs in general? I have never seen a controller with intel chip, actually (at least at a cost analogous to my needs and below 100€)...usually it's a marvell or silicon image implementation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 The Intel ICH controllers on motherboards have very good driver support. I would expect the driver support for their add in controllers to be equally good. However, I have no way of verifying that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierreBr Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Please keep in mind that your post was posted on a weekend when we are closed. You aren't going to see a major difference in performance but, Force drives will be slower on an NForce controller as compared to an Intel based ICH9 or ICH10 controller. But, it will still be faster than any HDD. Also, with no AHCI support, you will not get WIN 7 TRIM. Just wanted to update this thread to point to a confusing opposition... ...while above you've clarified that TRIM will not work on IDE mode, in the TRIM sticky it says: TRIM Support Checklist - Microsoft Windows 7 operating system - SSD with TRIM-supprting Firmware - Storage Controller configured in IDE or AHCI mode - Microsoft Storage Driver (MSAHCI / working for IDE and AHCI mode) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted December 23, 2010 Corsair Employees Share Posted December 23, 2010 The MSHCI default driver will pass the TRIM command but at that point its up to the controller driver, some situations it will work in IDE or AHCI but nut in AHCI TRIM commands should be passed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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