Confusion with Abit IC7 (i875) and Intel App Accel.

[MIDIman]

I have an Abit IC7 max3, i875-based motherboard, and I'm still a bit at odds about the Intel Application Accelerator software.

1) True or False - It does improve performance.

2) True or False - If I have no sata drives installed, I should disable all sata controllers in BIOS, and NOT install Intel Application Accelerator.

3) True or False - If I have a single sata drive installed, no RAID, I should use the SiliconImage's sata connections, enabled in BIOS, and Intel App Acc. should be installed.

And finally:

4) Should I install the drivers listed as with "Matrix Technology" or not? The drivers listed in Intel's i875 downloads section is different. i.e.:

Intel i875 downloads

vs.

Intel Matrix Tech downloads, with i875 listed as supported

Am I the only one that finds this whole thing a complete undocumented mess!?

 

[vailr]

1. True, only if using SATA Raid, connected to the Intel SATA controller.
2. True.
3. False. The Intel SATA controller is faster than the Silicon Image controller. The Intel App Acel. should only be installed when running 2 Raided drives (attached to an Intel SATA controller).
4. The first link is the chipset driver. Install in any situation. The second link is the Intel App. Acel. driver, and should be used only when 2 SATA drives are Raided, and connected to an Intel SATA controller.

 

[MIDIman]

Fascinating...could've sworn I was told time and time again that there was an Intel App Acc for i875 that should be used at times without sata and/or without raid.

Thanks for clearing all of this up!

 

[Geomagick]

In fact just to add a little something when I used my IC7-G the Intel application accellerator would only install and run when I had the correct hard drive configuration. Which means you can't screw it up anyway.