Enable AHCI or not?

[Burner27]

I have the option to enable AHCI just like anyone else and i have AHCI-capable HDDs (5 of them). I am just wondering if it is worth it? I am not sure what software i would use to benchmark such a change. Does anyone have any personal experience they could share? I have a WD Velociraptor as my OS/Apps drive and 4 x 1TB HDDs.

Thx

 

[RadXge]

As you may know, AHCI is required for enabling NCQ which is a technology designed to increase performance of SATA hard disks.

http://expertester.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/ahci-vs-ide-%E2%80%93-benchmark-advantage/

My personal recommendation, turn on AHCI if your system permit you to do so.

BTW, it is recommended to enable AHCI before installing Vista...

 

[Nenu]

AHCI does make more use of CPU but can be faster.
As RadXge said, make sure AHCI is enabled before installing the OS to have an easier time getting it going.
You can disable it in the CMOS any time to compare speeds etc.

 

[Adidas4275]

isnt AHCI the only way to get hotswap for SATA?

 

[Nenu]

Supposedly although I'm running XP without AHCI enabled (driver not installed either) and have been able to hotswap.

 

[astrallite]

Well you probably should run in AHCI mode if you don't mind a reinstall. It's basically a performance upgrade with no additional hardware required.

 

[greenfrogman]

depends on drivers if you can hotswap or not, But AICH must be turned on before OS is installed its only natively supported on vista and win7, it its turned off or on its unlikely the pc will boot (you just move the setting back to the option you had it on last)

 

[dirtrider]

Is this AHCI on oem? Specifically is it an option on an hp (dc7100 and dc7700)?

 

[vsboxerboy]

I found the 10 seconds that it took to load the AHCI drivers every time I turned my computer on to be more of a hassle than the performance increase that there is supposed to be. I don't hot swap or anything and I really can't tell a difference with it disabled. Just my $.02

 

[lawrence131]

I found the 10 seconds that it took to load the AHCI drivers every time I turned my computer on to be more of a hassle than the performance increase that there is supposed to be. I don't hot swap or anything and I really can't tell a difference with it disabled. Just my $.02

For daily use, you're never going to see the difference. Same with using built-in MS drivers from 2005 rather than updating to newest intel drivers, etc. I don't think the NCQ advantages really kick in unless you're in a multi-user environment or check load times while copying files, downloading torrents, running a virus scan, etc.