Mobo Sata Driver Installations - In General

[ScottD]

Hello all,

This is my first post here so hopefully it is a decent one...

Through searching the forum, I have discovered how to install sata drivers during WinXP installation... the F6 method. What I am still a little confused about is:

a) Is it best to get the latest drivers from the mobo manufacturer or intel (assuming an intel chipset) for this installation, and

b) Some sata connectors are taken off of other chipsets, not just the main intel chipset. Do I need separate sata drivers for each different chipset that a connector might come off of, or is just one driver fine for all?

Obviously this is assuming I am setting up a raid or AHCI for my mobo. Apparently I do not need to worry about this at all if I am just doing stand alone sata drives (IDE mode?).

Which, incidentally, leads me to one last question... since I do not intend on having a raid setup (I'll just do regular backups), is it truely worth setting up drives using AHCI or should I just stick with the standard, stand alone setup? One of my 3 drives has NCQ, but I am not sure if the positives of AHCI are really noticeable or advantageous in my setup.

I will be using an Asus P5B Deluxe mobo but, hopefully, this generic sort of info will apply to anyone wondering what to do about their OS installation regardless of mobo.

Thanks!!!

ScottD

 

[oozish]

a: yes

b: ? confused here, but I think the answer is no.

c. Ya, it's worth it...how long does it take to F6/install the drivers? Just make sure to enable AHCI in your bios PRIOR TO the F6 install. This way you'll make sure you're using your drives as fast as they were designed to run.

 

[BillParrish]

In regards to item B, usually there will be 2 drivers on the cd with the motherboard that are for storage. The Intel INF driver setup will take care of the intel ICH (southbridge) and install the Intel matrix storage manager. Then there will be a seperate driver for the jmicro or whomever secondary controller that is grafted on to provide IDE support with some more SATA ports thrown in.

There is an update for the jmicro chip on windows update, dont use it, get the driver from your motherboard manufacturers website.

 

[ToastMaster]

I didn't enable AHCI and install the AHCI driver, but my system doesn't seem to be suffering any performance issues without it.

I did install the Intel chipset drivers however, so unless those installed the driver by default, I doubt I currently am utilizing it.

 

[dark_reign]

I didn't enable AHCI and install the AHCI driver, but my system doesn't seem to be suffering any performance issues without it.

I did install the Intel chipset drivers however, so unless those installed the driver by default, I doubt I currently am utilizing it.

You won't notice much of a difference, so I wouldn't worry about it. In some cases, the performance is slightly worse when using NCQ or TCQ.

 

[ToastMaster]

You won't notice much of a difference, so I wouldn't worry about it. In some cases, the performance is slightly worse when using NCQ or TCQ.

That's why I didn't enable it. One drive supports NCQ, the other TCQ, and I haven't used either feature in the past, as most of the reviews I've read say essentially what you've just said, and that it generally isn't that great of a difference for most users.

 

[ScottD]

Thanks for the info everyone!

I'm not sure whether I will bother with the AHCI yet, but if I do, I atleast know now that I should only stick to the drivers provided by the mobo manufacturer and I will have to install a separate driver for my intel Jmicron (or whatever it was) as well as the intel chipset... as well as changing the bios to reflect AHCI before I do my OS install.

Great forum and great people!!

ScottD

 

[dark_reign]

You should avoid installing any JMicron drivers because they're buggy. The only thing you should install are the Intel chipset drivers. For IDE controller drivers it's best to use the generic WinXP ones. You only need the JMicron drivers for IDE RAID support.