mATX Board with AHCI

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musicknight

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Nov 9, 2005
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I am currently trying to build a inexpensive <$500 HTPC with the current build below. The problem is that i am thinking of using a SSD as the main HDD for both sound and speed benefits. However, I am a little new to the AHCI interface and the benefits as well. I have come to the conclusion that it would be better to run in AHCI but not needed. How can I tell if a MOBO is SUPPOSED to have AHCI? I have only been able to tell based on someone in the review section saying that they were unable to run AHCI.

AMD Athlon II 255 Regor 3.1 GHz
MOBO - ???
HDD - 128GB SSD preferably with Sandforce Controller
Saphire low profile, fanless ATI 5450 - Ability to bit stream TrueHD Audio, etc.
2-4 gigs of Ram
Antec Minuet 350 Case(Still deciding)

Thanks
 
I thought all motherboards with sata had ahci mode selectable in bios except maybe really old ones.
 
Though i have experience building a computer, it was some time ago. I am no expert and can only go off of other people's comments. Here is an example of a Zotac and Gygabyte board that both had a lack of AHCI support through SATA. They could be wrong, but I just need to find out for sure how I check before I spend money on equipment that will not work. Do I just need to write to every company I am thinking about and give them a list of boards that I want to know supports AHCI? I certainly hope that is not the case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500045
- Cons: Despite what the manual and web site say, this product does NOT support SATA AHCI. All SATA ports appear to be running in IDE mode, meaning 133Mbps tops for transfer speeds, and no support for hot-swap or NCQ. I confirmed this with a support ticket from Zotac. The guy who addressed my ticket didn't apologize for the confusion or promise a BIOS revision to enable the AHCI function, just flat-out said tough luck, we advertised the feature but it isn't there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=(keywords)&Page=1

Was dissapointed when I tried to set up AHCI in the BIOS for the HD's, but the feature is not there. All SATA devices function in IDE mode, which makes a basic Win XP install easy, but means a performance drop when using 7.

Thanks!
 
I didn't realize they were so shady.

Why not go for a AMD 7xx series chipset. I personally wouldn't toch those old leftover nvidia chips. There are way better options out there.

Like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138290

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128342

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130288

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157186

These should all support AHCI. And be much more power efficient than an old nvidia chipset.
 
I build sub $500 home / HTPC systems with these boards quiet often:

Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H

I've had zero issues with any of them so far, all are sent out AHCI, mostly with 1tb drives tho (we're talking ~$430 CAN builds). It's basically the Gigabyte version of the Asus board listed above (M4A88TD-M).
 
It's a pain in the ass to install the AHCI drivers if there is no floppy for XP. They need to do a 4th service pack and security rollup so that AHCI drivers are included. No prob for Vista SP1 or 7.
 
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