final verdict on ncq/ahci on or off?

[plion]

I'm reading and searching and can't find a clear answer. For a gaming system (e8400 4gb wd640gb) should I enable ahci to use ncq?

 

[akhilles]

When I first learned about NCQ, I was obsessed with getting only NCQ-capable drives. After looking at benchmarks & trying it out myself, NCQ doesn't matter to me. A more noticeable speed gain would be RAID 0. Keep in mind that AHCI may BSOD XP. If you're installing XP, turn on AHCI now or never. If you're running Vista, it's ok.

 

[Bored SysAdmin]

I don't see reason not to use NCQ, if you installed right drivers on your ich9/10 things should nice and fast. According to anandtech the difference between NCQ on or off is minimal to none :
http://www.anandtech.com/stora...owdoc.aspx?i=2396&p=13

 

[EarthwormJim]

The hot swapping feature is very handy. If you have any esata drives, it's a pain to have to turn off your computer every time you want to plug one in.

It really doesn't hurt performance at all to enable it (except in rare cases). If anything it's a nice free gain to enable it.