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SSD without AHCI

D

digifred

n00b
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
50
Hi,
I'm thinking of adding a SSD to my system. The problem is my motherboard doesn't support AHCI. I've been reading about it and still can't figure out if it will work. If I run it in IDE mode will I have TRIM? Will I be able to flash it? Could I use a PCIe controller to bypass the problem. I don't have a good understanding of how it will work and was hoping someone could help me along. My mobo is a Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 using an nForce 550 chipset and SATA2 connectors. Thanks for the support!
 
The drive will work and you should see a big improvement in random access speeds over a hard drive. Probably some improvement in sequential transfers though maybe not the full speed the SSD is capable of.

The problem with using a PCIe controller is that afaict most of them suck compared to the controllers built into chipsets.

Dunno about trim and firmware flashing.
 
Yes, you can flash it and most or all current ssd's have trim built into their firmware these days.
 
If I run it in IDE mode will I have TRIM?
Click to expand...
Yes if the OS (w7) is capable of TRIM.

AMD's-nVidia's AHCI mode has never been implemented to take full advantage of all it's features.

That nForce 550 chipset will be pretty crappy and although an SSD will upgrade will benefit any system, I'd be buying another MB before an SSD. ;)
 
Old Hippie said:
Yes if the OS (w7) is capable of TRIM.

AMD's-nVidia's AHCI mode has never been implemented to take full advantage of all it's features.

That nForce 550 chipset will be pretty crappy and although an SSD will upgrade will benefit any system, I'd be buying another MB before an SSD. ;)
Click to expand...

I have looked at other motherboards that are compatible with my processor and Ram. What do you think of an Asus M3N78 PRO with a Nvidia 8300 chipset? Or is there a problem with all nVidia chipsets? It supports AHCI for example.
Did you mean upgrade to a new configuration?
 
nVidia is lost.

I wouldn't bother with anything AMD/nVidia.

Do yourself a favor and buy an Intel board.
 
Or is there a problem with all nVidia chipsets? It supports AHCI for example.
Click to expand...
nVidia and AMD are lost when comes to drive interface speed.

AFAIK AHCI is an Intel thing which cost money to implement and AMD/nVidia never paid the royalties.

Like I said, if you want the HD performance (mechnical or SSD, RAID or not) to match those great performance tests, do what the testers do......buy Intel.
 
Old Hippie said:
nVidia and AMD are lost when comes to drive interface speed.

AFAIK AHCI is an Intel thing which cost money to implement and AMD/nVidia never paid the royalties.

Like I said, if you want the HD performance (mechnical or SSD, RAID or not) to match those great performance tests, do what the testers do......buy Intel.
Click to expand...

I'll have to admit your post did refrain me at getting a SSD for my current system. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. I don't really feel the need to upgrade the whole setup either at this moment. Thanks for the input anyway.
 
I'll have to admit your post did refrain me at getting a SSD for my current system.
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An SSD will make an improvement to any system.

You just won't get the last 10% of it's potential improvement.

It's not like you can't use the drive on your next MB......AFAIK they will move. :D

It's just another updated component and I wouldn't deny myself a nice improvement even if I did only get 90% of it's usefulness.

That sounds like cutting your nose off to spite your face. :)

Do yourself a favor a buy something decent (Intel, Crucial) and go your merry way.
 
Fry's has the Kingston 128gb V-100 for $125 AR until Thursday. Probably a good match for a setup like this.
 
I've run SSDs on a selection of Intel and AMD based boards using AHCI and IDE modes and to be honest it appears a total crapshoot if you manage to get the peak of performance out of them.

Generally they all run just fine and show a vast improvement over standard mech HDDs.

Sweating the small stuff really.
 
Ran my Vertex 1 on ide for a year, not knowing any better, plus OCZ reccomended ide for compatability purposes, and it was super fast. SSD is easily best upgrade I've done in a long time.

When I recently purchased a M4 I switched to AHCI and moved my Vertex to game drive duties and it gets about the same numbers it did on ide.

So, I guess my advice is to buy the SSD and use it in ide if you have one of the motherboards that don't support AHCI all that well and then transfer it to whatever new system you build in the future.
 
Old Hippie said:
An SSD will make an improvement to any system.

You just won't get the last 10% of it's potential improvement.
Click to expand...

it's more like 20% imo.
i have a ahci mobo but i never knew that switching on would make it go faster, now i do and it is better faster. (you must reformat to make ahci work.)
get one that has support for sata3 and capable of 500mb/s read/write.
having a ssd is like buying a new faster cpu.
 
Just to steal the thread a little.

I'm running an SSD (Not RAID) and 2xHDD (in RAID-0) on the same controller with it set to 'RAID' in the BIOS.
Would this have any affect on the SSD?
 
Will a SATA3 SDD work on my SATA2 board? Also do I need to reinstall windows 7 or can I just clone my system partition? From what I see in benchmarks the new SSD units are close to each other in term of performances. This will be a nice upgrade.
 
MeAgain said:
I'm running an SSD (Not RAID) and 2xHDD (in RAID-0) on the same controller with it set to 'RAID' in the BIOS.
Would this have any affect on the SSD?
Click to expand...

RAID mode enables AHCI so it shouldn't make any difference as long as your chipset can handle the total MB/s presented to it before it hits it's limits.

For example, my Intel ICH10R chipset is supposed to have 250MB/s per port or 660MB/s overall limit.
 
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