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BIOS settings - all IDE instead of SATA

red454

red454

Senior member
I was looking at the BIOS on my son's computer which is 2 yrs old.

I noticed that the drive settings were all set to IDE instead of SATA (from the factory). Can I change them to SATA, and if so, will there be speed difference?

SPECS

Gigabyte P55M-UD2 (SATA II)
SATA 500GB hard drive
SATA DVD RW drive
 
More likely than not, you'll get a BSOD when trying to boot into Windows because the drive controller is different. You could try it and if it doesn't work, just switch it back, but I don't think it makes a huge difference (at least not with a regular hard drive).
 
Changing IDE to SATA usually means it enables ACHI which also enables NCQ which will increase performance when the disk, especially an HDD, has several requests queued.

As nitrous mentioned, Windows can blue screen on bootup if you don't prepare it beforehand.
 
I wouldn't bother with it.

That HD you have probably doesn't even achieve SATA1 speeds and AHCI does little or nothing for mechanical drives.
 
Old Hippie said:
I wouldn't bother with it.

That HD you have probably doesn't even achieve SATA1 speeds and AHCI does little or nothing for mechanical drives.
Click to expand...


Good point - I bought him a 1TB Barracuda (SATA III) for his birthday in a couple weeks. Got a good deal right before the prices shot up. I know his MB only supports SATA II but I got two of them - one for .

Perhaps a fresh Windows install is in order on the new hard drive, along with the appropriate SATA settings in the BIOS...
 
Good point - I bought him a 1TB Barracuda (SATA III) for his birthday in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...
That drive won't even touch SATA II much less SATAIII.

The SATA interface has NOTHING to do with the drive's speed and most mechanical drives barely hit SATA1 speeds much less anything higher.

I doubt it will make any difference but a reinstall in SATA/AHCI mode would be the ticket.

After you're done reinstalling check the drive speeds in each mode to see which is better for ya.

EDIT......If your Son is running W7 there is a trick that usually works to enable AHCI mode after the install.

Good Luck!
 
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that "trick" works for Vista as well and is well worth the gained NCQ support all the way when the system is multitasking. NCQ was specifically designed for HDD's weaknesses in the first place and should be leveraged whenever possible.

Then there's the added benefits from stronger AHCI drivers with AHCI which will enable better caching performance. The newer sata 3 HDD will have larger dram based cache to take full advantage of it with AHCI mode.

Worth every penny(especially since it's free)... aside from the 5 minutes of time it takes to do it.
 
Old Hippie said:
That drive won't even touch SATA II much less SATAIII.

The SATA interface has NOTHING to do with the drive's speed and most mechanical drives barely hit SATA1 speeds much less anything higher.

I doubt it will make any difference but a reinstall in SATA/AHCI mode would be the ticket.

After you're done reinstalling check the drive speeds in each mode to see which is better for ya.

EDIT......If your Son is running W7 there is a trick that usually works to enable AHCI mode after the install.

Good Luck!
Click to expand...


Excellent - thanks. That sounds relatively easy to implement. I have modified the registry before, so I am comfortable with it...
 
why must everything become a debate?

and I hardly think linking that thread has relevance here since the OP is NOT running XP and a pata drive on that 2 year old PC.

I do alos know for fact that the P55 chipset will respond quite favorably to AHCI mode. Not huge.. but gains nonetheless. Same effect can also be seen with SSD for that matter.

So, just the same as you indicated.. the advice I gave is also based on very heavy testing(hundreds of driver specific configs) as well.

When he tests the 2 drivers out on late HDD in combination with later chipsets and newer OS?.. he will see what's up regardless of what we type here. 🙂
 
Just for giggles I checked my work computer that was recently upgraded to a new ASUS P8H67 motherboard, and it too was not set to AHCI.

So I followed the instructions in the link that was posted earlier and everything is back up and running. I will see if I notice any changes...
 
Old Hippie said:
I musta missed the debate part. 😀

I gave my personal experience with supporting views.

Why must you comment? LOL!
Click to expand...

yeah.. pretty obvious oversight.

And.. as did I.

I also tend to comment when someone quotes me and then contradicts it all in the same post. That kind of thing usually indicates an intent to debate. :sneaky:

Every user has a differing usage scenario and most of the time having greater driver caching and NCQ support will help most modern OS/hardware to be more efficient. The OP will not probably not be blown away with the speed differences.. but they are still there to be had by all who choose to implement them.

One could even go so far as to point out that IDE based installs are a thing of the past and could even be called legacy mode these days. I say use all the tech has to offer. :thumbsup:
 
groberts101 said:
yeah.. pretty obvious oversight.

And.. as did I.

I also tend to comment when someone quotes me and then contradicts it all in the same post. That kind of thing usually indicates an intent to debate. :sneaky:

Every user has a differing usage scenario and most of the time having greater driver caching and NCQ support will help most modern OS/hardware to be more efficient. The OP will not probably not be blown away with the speed differences.. but they are still there to be had by all who choose to implement them.

One could even go so far as to point out that IDE based installs are a thing of the past and could even be called legacy mode these days. I say use all the tech has to offer. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Agreed - I don't like to leave things like speed or bandwidth on the table.
 
red454 said:
Agreed - I don't like to leave things like speed or bandwidth on the table.
Click to expand...

Which is what I assumed to be the case based on your avatar pic.

As a long time engine builder/hotrodder the best analogy that I could give is that it would be like adding a larger accelerator pump cam on the primaries of that holley double pumper. Not going to shave off 4/10th's in the quarter.. but sure makes for a bit funner drive with that extra snort on the take off.

or better yet.. NCQ = 20 thou of extra cam lift.. and stronger caching drivers = .10 gear ratio jump for better accelleration and a bump in torque multiplication. yee haa!
 
groberts101 said:
Which is what I assumed to be the case based on your avatar pic.

As a long time engine builder/hotrodder the best analogy that I could give is that it would be like adding a larger accelerator pump cam on the primaries of that holley double pumper. Not going to shave off 4/10th's in the quarter.. but sure makes for a bit funner drive with that extra snort on the take off.

or better yet.. NCQ = 20 thou of extra cam lift.. and stronger caching drivers = .10 gear ratio jump for better accelleration and a bump in torque multiplication. yee haa!
Click to expand...


Yep - made the avatar from my '72 Impala convertible with the factory 454.

Pics here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/365737/1972-chevrolet-impala


As for the IDE / AHCI situation - it did not work out very well. Really slowed things down, particularly my SolidWorks program.

Switched it all back to IDE and everything runs at normal speed. The only thing I can figure is that the drive is from 2004ish and does not like the AHCI setting.

Oh well, I can add the experience to my knowledge base...
 
^ that's certianly true.

it's also true that the older hard drives/firmware do not resond in the same manner so the 2004 HDD would probably be a factor there. Which would again fall back to Hippie's outdated links becoming relevant on this particular ocassion. Score one for the hippies! lol

Although, it would not be wise to assume that would be a similar outcome on that 1TB drive.

And that is an awesome Impala there bud! My old school buddy had a 69 with a mild cammed 427 we stuffed into it. Well.. not really stuffed.. it had tons of room left.

I've had many old cars myself and even think about getting another 69 Mach to replace the one my buddy wrecked years ago. Restomodded G-machine would be the way to go for me, especially with the aftermarket offerings these days. Sold my shaker hood equipped 71 SCJ Torino GT about 8 years back and kick myself almost every time I see an old Ford nowadays. It was an automatic car and I didn't want to chop it up. Yeah.. I know.. what a dummy. Many just do what they want and keep the original parts for later restoration, right?

Oh well.. my overly large cammed 383 S-10 Blazer(563HP) keeps me in tickets these days. Last one was a doozy for street racing and almost cost me a divorce attorney along with the one required to help straighten me out. Clocked me at 113mph on a well known street racing stretch,... and cost me nearly 2 grand in fines/attorney fee's in the end. Now my kids get drilled by the wife everytime they get back after we've gone fishing or cruising for ice-cream. Needless to say.. they don't like it when she rides along anymore. At least someone still appreciates my need for immaturity and rebellion. lol
 
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