ACHI vs IDE for an HDD?

[A_Goat]

Well I've just completed installation of my new SSD. It was added into a system that previously only had a single HDD. Now of course it has the SSD as a boot drive, but I was hoping to get some guidance on what to do next.

In the BIOS, it states that SATA slots 0-3 are ACHI, but slots 4-5 are IDE.
I have my SSD in slot 0, my HDD in slot 2, and my DVD disc drive in slot 3.

Should I move the HDD and DVD disc drive over to slots 4/5 or are they fine where they are?
I'm hoping to use the HDD as extra storage for the SSD so that I can put steam and a few select games on the SSD... and the bulk of other games on the HDD.

Here is userbenchmark and PC specs

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/331290
^click


^click

Thank you

 

[Xemko]

Keep them, where they are.
AHCI stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface and is a faster mode of operation compared to IDE.
Read : http://www.diffen.com/difference/AHCI_vs_IDE

 

[A_Goat]

Keep them, where they are.
AHCI stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface and is a faster mode of operation compared to IDE.
Read : http://www.diffen.com/difference/AHCI_vs_IDE

Cool! Thanks.
One more question, can I leave the old HDD as is with the OS on it and everything?
Steam seems to have linked up to it just fine (I added it as a secondary library) ... didn't even have to re-download any games

 

[Xemko]

Shouldn't be a problem.
Have you installed fresh new Windows on SSD? or have you migrated OS from HDD?

 

[A_Goat]

Shouldn't be a problem.
Have you installed fresh new Windows on SSD? or have you migrated OS from HDD?

Did a fresh install on the SSD

 

[Xemko]

Then, nothing to worry about. Enjoy.

 

[Paperdoc]

You misunderstand a bit the options for your last two SATA ports.

In your manual on p. 46, Section 2-6, the second line of the Integrated Peripherals screen is where you set the On-Chip SATA Type, which is for your first 4 SATA ports. I presume you have this set to AHCI since you are using an SSD and two SATA drives on those ports. Now, look at the instructions for the next line, On-Chip SATA Port 4/5 Type. IF you had set the first 4 ports to the IDE option, then this line would be fixed at IDE also and you could not alter it. BUT if you have set the first 4 ports to AHCI, then the Ports 4 and 5 line WILL allow you to select either of: IDE or "As SATA Type". That last option would make those last two ports act the SAME way (i.e., as AHCI) as the first four ports.

Note also the last item on this manual page, "On-Chip SATA3.0 Support". If you Enable this your SATA ports will act as SATA3 mode with a max communication rate of 6Gb/s, which may benefit your SSD's performance. It will make no difference for standard hard drives and optical drives.

 

[A_Goat]

Forgot to come back with an update.

Seems I misunderstood IDE entirely.
My HDD used/uses a SATA connection so it was already set to ACHI.

I had no idea IDE referred to those ancient wide ribbed cables!
Ended up not changing anything in the BIOS as when I went there it was already ACHI.

 

[teflonfrog]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from teflonfrog : "What is IDE for HDD?"

What does it mean? What does it compare to ACHI and ATA?