Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3 BIOS settings for AHCI help please?...

[ShuDog]

Hi,

I'm currently waiting on a Samsung 850 Evo 500Gb to install into my system with a fresh install of windows 7 to finish off my rebuild

My Gigabyte board is as stated a 990fxa-ud3 with the latest FE drivers

I currently have 3 Sata HDDs which i will keep in the system for games, files , work etc. one of which is currently hosting the OS, and 2 DVD drives, one of which i will be removing. (system details below)

My question is what are the correct setting on my bios to install the SSD in AHCI mode? theres multiple mentions of Sata controllers etc in the bios

The Bios Page I need settings advice for...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Uu1lZOg6y-Y/maxresdefault.jpg

Ive played around with different setting to see whats what, but I'm not sure about it

My aim is to install the OS from the DVD onto the SSD and have it booting windows and the 3 sata HDD's visible in there for me to use, I'm not worried about them not showing up in bios as the SSD will be my main concern for the new OS

I have re-installed windows many times, but this is the first time installing an SSD with this setup

My setup:

Ocz 750 psu
Gigabyte GTA 970
AMD FX8350
Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3
Sound blaster Z
Sound blaster audigy zs2 (for midi)
Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 HDD
Samsung HD103SJ HDD
WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 HDD
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NS95

Any help would be greatly appreciated so i can know what i need to do get on with once the drive arrives...

 

[anti-duck]

You should have the option 'OnChip SATA Port0/1/2/3 Type' but it was cut off in your picture, change that to AHCI.

 

[ShuDog]

i'll check tonight, if that the case leave the other options IDE? and make sure the devices are connected to the right ports, if they don't show in bios post screen will the still be usable in windows regardless? or will i need to tweak something to get them to show?

 

[anti-duck]

Yeah, just leave SATA Type on ports 4 and 5 as IDE, although you could just whack everything in any port and it would work. I can't remember the BIOS options for my AM3+ Gigabyte 970A-UD3 (which has the same BIOS as the 990FXA-UD3 Rev 1.0/1.1/1.2), but I know that there is an option to see the devices connected to the SATA ports, try looking through your boot priority.

 

[ShuDog]

Ok thats great thanks, i'll check it tonight when i get in from work, I'll let ya know how it goes or if i get stuck

Dose the TRIM option for the SSD need to be turned on in windows or will it be set up automatically?

New to all this SSD stuff, hope its a simple a plug in and use when come to do it....disconnect all drive for the windows install and plug them back in once its booted and verified as working fine?

 

[anti-duck]

It should be on automatically, some SSD's firmware handle's TRIM functionality too but there is a command you can use to check that (Windows) TRIM is enabled -

'fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify'

If it returns 1, TRIM is disabled, 0 is enabled.

And yeah, it's as easy as that, just have the SSD and the installation media connected, install Windows and then initialise all your other drives.

 

[ShuDog]

Cheers, I'll let you know how it goes!

Will i be ok to overlock the DDR to 1666 without additional cooling do you think? just thought it might bottleneck, do you think that build is decent for a while?

 

[anti-duck]

You didn't say what RAM you have mate, but aslong as it's decent quality, I don't see why not (and why stop at 1666 lol?).

 

[ShuDog]

I'll crack on with it tonight n tomorrow and get back to ya, thanks for your help so far

let me know when i start bugging ya lol

 

[anti-duck]

I'll crack on with it tonight n tomorrow and get back to ya, thanks for your help so far

let me know when i start bugging ya lol

Bug away lol, I'm glad to help.

 

[ShuDog]

Was thinking of installing to OS from USB thinking that should be a lot quicker with the SDD, ifs thats the case is it worth disconnecting to DVD drive too, or would you think its a more straightforward option from the dvd? I have to make the SSD the primary boot device don't i in order for the USB to install with out throwing up errors about partitions etc..

 

[anti-duck]

Nothing can be installed on an optical drive so it wouldn't matter if you disconnected it or not, personally I would just disconnect all storage media except for the installation media and the boot drive. You'd need to set the USB as the first boot device until all the files have transferred from the USB stick to your boot drive and then go back into BIOS when your computer restarts and make your SSD the first boot device.

 

[ShuDog]

Oh right, I thought id read somewhere it has to be the 2nd boot option, so OS set up didn't give the error "setup was unable to create a new system partition", which is what i experienced in the past when tying to install from USB to HDD in the past

I was guessing this is so the system doesn't try to to install th OS to the USB for some buggy reason

But this shouldn't be the case then? I wonder what that error was from then

 

[ShuDog]

Its mentioned on this page, so I guess its an option if I run into this issue again...

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/cannot-install-windows-7-from-usb-error-setup-was/4b3c0430-9e41-47f6-b1cd-aed55fea7dad

 

[anti-duck]

I guess you could set the USB as the 2nd boot device and just manually boot from it.

 

[ShuDog]

Yeh I'll probably go with that, right i'll try and leave you in peace for a while and I'll let ya know how it goes or if i run into any issues

Cheers for the help, it's appreciated

 

[ShuDog]

I spoke too soon! , I forgot to ask, the HDD's have jumpers on them, is that still any kind of issue regarding SATA, should i set them all to Master/slave etc?

just wondered if it could cause congficts

 

[anti-duck]

I think it was back in the day of those ugly PATA ribbon cables where you had 2 HDD's connected via 1 data cable where you needed to set 1 drive as master and the other as slave, these days with only 1 drive connected per data cable, this master/slave thing is irrelevant

 

[ShuDog]

Oh yes many hours wasted trying to link up those bad boys in the right order to get the damn thing to boot, they were so temperamental...

I'll have a look at all this tonight/tomoz and if it all goes pear shaped you can come and sort it lol

 

[anti-duck]

Oh yes many hours wasted trying to link up those bad boys in the right order to get the damn thing to boot, they were so temperamental...

I'll have a look at all this tonight/tomoz and if it all goes pear shaped you can come and sort it lol

You can't really go wrong mate

 

[Meat5000]

Gigabyte 990fxa-UD3 is a proper temperamental beastie.

I had real problems trying to install windows with this mobo or even to get drives to show up at all at times.

In the end I was forced to perform all my installs in IDE mode otherwise the fresh HDD (or SSD) wouldn't function or if it did, windows install could not use it giving some weird error message I don't remember.

So install in IDE mode, insert AHCI drivers during install and then on next boot, move it to AHCI in BIOS.

I have a very very similar setup to you except I have 16GB of 1866MHz Corsair Vengeance. The motherboard is built for those speeds so no extra cooling should be required. You can increase the speed under the Profile setting and once it has changed, change the Automatic Voltages settings back on to AUTO. The mobo will Re-optimise the voltages without the need for manual settings.

 

[ShuDog]

Gigabyte 990fxa-UD3 is a proper temperamental beastie.

I had real problems trying to install windows with this mobo or even to get drives to show up at all at times.

In the end I was forced to perform all my installs in IDE mode otherwise the fresh HDD (or SSD) wouldn't function or if it did, windows install could not use it giving some weird error message I don't remember.

So install in IDE mode, insert AHCI drivers during install and then on next boot, move it to AHCI in BIOS.

I have a very very similar setup to you except I have 16GB of 1866MHz Corsair Vengeance. The motherboard is built for those speeds so no extra cooling should be required. You can increase the speed under the Profile setting and once it has changed, change the Automatic Voltages settings back on to AUTO. The mobo will Re-optimise the voltages without the need for manual settings.

Since this posted I did all of what you pretty much suggested, trial and error and tinkering got me there in the end...I've still got the same set up apart from now running Windows 10 and over clocking the processor, these days I'm easily getting 60fps on things like the witcher on ultra settings, with only hair works disabled, which seems to be almost over performing to me!? Not that I'm complaining! Just surprised I just wonder how your set up performs? ... And thank so much for the reply, I really rate Gigabyte products but this board is a little difficult at times lol