Use AHCI or IDE on new Win 7 build with HD

[Passman1]

I'm building a new system that will be using STAT hard drives and windows 7 64 Premium. My question is, should I install win 7 using AHCI or IDE? In the future I plan on installing a SSD and use that as my boot drive and I know that should use AHCI. If I install win 7 in IDE, will I have problems switching to AHCI for the SSD?

Thanks for any help.

 

[p4nz3rm4d]

y dont u install it on ide, then reinstall it on ur ssd wen u get 1. thats the simplist solution...

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, Passman1 !

The real answer is you'll get better read/writes and boot ups with the SATA set to AHCI...IDE was for setting the drives in slave/master order. In SATA/todays bios setups+mobos; that's not necessary.

You can easily migrate to RAID from AHCI. But will have a tougher time to go from IDE to AHCI...provided your rig is up-to-date e.g: P55 chip mobo as the issue of chipset drivers will come into play.

For my Asus Rampage Extreme x48 with ICH9R, I had to set the SATA as AHCI then install the chipset drivers during Win7 OS install. Cos if you don't, windows barely goes to the loading screen and reboots(if your OS was installed with SATA set to IDE initially and then decided to move to AHCI/RAID).

Simply put - set it to AHCI and you'll see a better output from HDD's. Since your going with another drive (SSD) as a boot drive, you could do all the above mentioned hassle during OS install.

Can we have more info on your specs?

 

[Passman1]

Thanks for the information on this. I was hoping to avoid any problems when I upgrade to SSD in the future. I guess I can wait until the price comes down a bit for the extra speed benefits of SSD vs HD.

Here are my specs:

MB = ASUS Rampage III Formula LGA 1366
CPU = Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz
RAM = CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
PS = CORSAIR Professional Series AX850 850W
HD's = (2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB
Graphics Card = EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570
CPU cooler = CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50
Case = COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942

 

[Lutfij]

OK! ICH10R nice looking build there but you should check out ASrocks's Fatal1ty board

Here's aguide to setting AHCI on windows 7:
1| Prior to installation of OS, make a driver disc for the chipsets on a Flash drive.
You can do this on another pc...there's a utility included on the driver disc that helps create the chipset driver disc. They ask for a floppy but once you plug in a USB flash drive, you can choose it from the drop down menu and write the files to USB. Mind you you'll have 2 drivers to write. 1)for the ICH10R - IMSM and 2) the Marvell driver (I can't remember the name)

I find it easier to sort the files into folders, one named IMSM (after writing to USB) and then after writing the Marvell drivers i sort them into a Marvell folder.

2| Prior to OS install when they ask for drivers, use the usb and have the drivers installed - this is the point where they show the available HDD drives. Located on your bottom left corner is a button for driver install.

Then continue OS install as usual. The plus point to this is, that you can setup a RAID array later on if you plan to keep the initial HDD and have SSD's in RAID...or any drives other than the SSD

 

[Passman1]

Best answer selected by Passman1.

 

[Lutfij]

Thank YOU for vote