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Installing Win XP SP3 on Intel X25-V

Z

Zoom123

Member
Hi,

Somebody told me that installing Win XP on Intel X25-V will not be exactly the same as doing it on a mechanical hard drive. He said something about ACHI and some BIOS changes.

Can somebody give me step-by-step instructions on what I should do to install XP on this SSD? I will want it to function as good as possible on XP and also be able to use the intel toolbox to perform manual TRIM.

My motherboard is an ASUS P5B-E.

Thanks!!
 
Zoom123 said:
Hi,

Somebody told me that installing Win XP on Intel X25-V will not be exactly the same as doing it on a mechanical hard drive. He said something about ACHI and some BIOS changes.

Can somebody give me step-by-step instructions on what I should do to install XP on this SSD? I will want it to function as good as possible on XP and also be able to use the intel toolbox to perform manual TRIM.

My motherboard is an ASUS P5B-E.

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

try this
http://komku.blogspot.com/2007/11/integrate-driver-into-windows.html
 
What exactly should I do with that erdemali?

I tried changing to ACHI in my bios (with my current mechanical drive) but this prevents Windows from loading. Does this mean I should not use ACHI when installing Win XP on the SSD?
 
Zoom123 said:
What exactly should I do with that erdemali?

I tried changing to ACHI in my bios (with my current mechanical drive) but this prevents Windows from loading. Does this mean I should not use ACHI when installing Win XP on the SSD?
Click to expand...

That was explaining how to install / use XP in AHCI mode.
Follow the instructions.
 
OK, so is it necessary to install XP in AHCI mode in order to use the SSD? Or I need this in order to be able to use TRIM with the intel toolbox? Or it will be faster in this way?

Is there anything else I should do? I read somewhere that is better to format the drive with Vista or Win 7 and then install XP on it. Will this AHCI mode thing be equivalent to that?
 
Zoom123 said:
OK, so is it necessary to install XP in AHCI mode in order to use the SSD? Or I need this in order to be able to use TRIM with the intel toolbox? Or it will be faster in this way?

Is there anything else I should do? I read somewhere that is better to format the drive with Vista or Win 7 and then install XP on it. Will this AHCI mode thing be equivalent to that?
Click to expand...

That is to utilise TRIM.

If re-installing, I would secure erase first, align and then quick NTFS format NTFS with 4096.
After all you can install XP in AHCI mode.
 
erdemali said:
That is to utilise TRIM.
Click to expand...
Actually, TRIM works just as fine in IDE, but AHCI gets you NCQ.

The only thing you've got to do after installing XP is to align the parition on a 4k boundary - I'd do that just with a linux live CD after the install, but installing a Vista/win7 partition beforehand and then installing XP in the same partition should work as well (but that begs the question why not just use Win7 at all xX)
 
Last edited:
Thanks. What would the benefits of NCQ be?

The only thing you've got to do after installing XP is to align the parition on a 4k boundary
Click to expand...

Is there a significant loss in speed if you don't do that?

I don't have Vista or Win7 available. How would I do it with a Linux Live CD? Some instructions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
AdamK47 said:
Is there any tangible reason to put Windows XP on it rather than Windows 7?
Click to expand...
The only reason I can think of is to save money. XP is getting pretty buggy these days. I truly detest the XP power saving features which are horrible on many rigs.
 
Old Hippie said:
I was going to post that link and this one for you to read.

Those links give you the "How's" and "Why's" but not the specifics for the Intel drive.

Here's an alignment calculator that can adjust for specific manfgs.
Click to expand...


Thanks. But what exactly is specific to the intel drive? Both the NAND Page and the NAND Erase Block Size seem to be exactly the same for all SSDs.

Are you saying that if I follow the Tutorial for the OCZ drives the intel SSD will not be aligned correctly?
 
Well, I have the same SSD running on my wife's computer with XP, and I just cloned the drive. After cloning, I followed a pretty complicated procedure to align the drive (while preserving the data on it), but it really didn't make any difference - my benchmark and real-life performances were the same, after it was aligned (and I verified it was aligned). Also, you really aren't losing much if you go IDE instead of AHCI. AHCI gives you NCQ and hot-swapping, but not much of a performance gain.

You can see this review here:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=23

In many cases, IDE mode even offers slightly faster read and write speeds.
 
kmmatney said:
Well, I have the same SSD running on my wife's computer with XP, and I just cloned the drive. After cloning, I followed a pretty complicated procedure to align the drive (while preserving the data on it), but it really didn't make any difference - my benchmark and real-life performances were the same, after it was aligned (and I verified it was aligned). Also, you really aren't losing much if you go IDE instead of AHCI. AHCI gives you NCQ and hot-swapping, but not much of a performance gain.

You can see this review here:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=23

In many cases, IDE mode even offers slightly faster read and write speeds.
Click to expand...

For my understanding the review you referred to (seeing the test results) was inconclusive. Just claiming better IOPS in IDE mode with no proof.
 
Yeah that review was shred into pieces by so many people that I not even want to repeat myself. They even wrote a followup where they cleared up the problems..

But the major critic points were/are, that they managed to elegantly ignore several drives (most prominently no intel drive? yeah sure) and the most important thing: How exactly should NCQ do any good if they use a program that's limited to single threaded tests? If they're just confering data in that way, it's obvious that the lower overhead of IDE will help a little bit - not much, especially considering the error of measurement.
 
Voo said:
Yeah that review was shred into pieces by so many people that I not even want to repeat myself. They even wrote a followup where they cleared up the problems..

But the major critic points were/are, that they managed to elegantly ignore several drives (most prominently no intel drive? yeah sure) and the most important thing: How exactly should NCQ do any good if they use a program that's limited to single threaded tests? If they're just confering data in that way, it's obvious that the lower overhead of IDE will help a little bit - not much, especially considering the error of measurement.
Click to expand...

in addition, the review starts with a phrase "not the speed of a bus is that important, it is important how many people you can carry in that bus at that speed "(more or less). And there is nothing about how many people can be carried at those speeds but mere speed tests.
 
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