Standard SATA AHCI controller vs Intel (R) Server express chipset SATA RAID controller.

[TurboVirgin]

Hi all,

I have a new system with a Samsung EVO850 (using for OS boot and applications) and a 2TB HDD Toshiba for storage with no RAID setup. I wanted to know which controller under the device manager my drives should be under for the very best performance possible (please refer to the screen shots to see the exact names of both controllers)

In short, because my system in a new Alienware A51R2 desktop (I know its a Dell but it was free) the BIOS does not have an option to turn AHCI or Intel RAID options on/off, and for some reason any drive plugged into SATA port 1-3 goes to the Intel R Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID controller and anything plugged into the SATA ports 4-6 appear under the Standard STA AHCI controller.

From my research there seems to be some divide in the community on if the IRST software does anything at all or is necessary at all, but most seem to suggest that if you're not running RAID, then you should not have your drives appear under the Intel RAID controller, thus making the standard AHCI controller a better option.

I wanted to come to this expert community however to make sure that I was making the correct decision in having all of my drives under the Standard SATA AHCI controller instead of the Intel R RAID controller. Moreover, I can only install the IRST software/driver if I move one of the drives to SATA port 1-3, but I'm not sure if it is worth it because this would put my HDD in front of my SSD in the SATA ports, and I dont think that would be best. Could any experts in the community assist me with should I keep all drives under the Standard AHCI controller you see in the screen shot or have both or 1 on the Intel R RAID controller? I dont want to miss out on any features/performance like TRIM, etc and from what I've read, Im leaning towards the Standard SATA AHCI controller option to have all my drives on because it seems to provide everything but I need an expert to confirm.

SSD, HDD, and optic drive on Standard SATA AHCI controller

OR

SSD and HDD on the Intel SATA RAID Controller

 

[Elixer]

Looks like you already got the answers from your posts in Alienware Club forums.

 

[Fernando 1]

He seems to post the same questions everywhere. Look >here<.

 

[TurboVirgin]

What's wrong with seeking assistance from multiple communities when people are giving conflicting recommendations/information?

- Some say to install drives on Intel RAID controller and some say to install drives on Standard AHCI controller.

 

[denis280]

He seems to post the same questions everywhere. Look >here<.

+1

 

[denis280]

What's wrong with seeking assistance from multiple communities when people are giving conflicting recommendations/information?

Not to be rude,but Fernando is right.trying to go from forums to forums wont help,when you already have your answer

 

[TurboVirgin]

Not to be rude,but Fernando is right.trying to go from forums to forums wont help,when you already have your answer

You're confused, clearly there is not a consensus on which is best, hence why I'm still spending time trying to gather opinions and make a decision--thanks for the unhelpful comment though.

 

[denis280]

thanks for the unhelpful comment though

any time

 

[XavierMace]

I think you're not understanding how the connection works and what device manager is telling you. The physical ports on the motherboard are wired to a specific controller. As you've discovered, ports 1-3 are wired to the Intel SATA controller. Ports 4-6 are connected to (from what I can find) a Silicon Image SATA controller. I'd take the Intel controller over the Silicon Image any day of the week.

 

[TurboVirgin]

I think you're not understanding how the connection works and what device manager is telling you. The physical ports on the motherboard are wired to a specific controller. As you've discovered, ports 1-3 are wired to the Intel SATA controller. Ports 4-6 are connected to (from what I can find) a Silicon Image SATA controller. I'd take the Intel controller over the Silicon Image any day of the week.

Thank you for your clarification. Just to confirm I understand your recommendation, you would have all your drives (SSD, HDD) appear under the Intel RAID controller and not the Standard AHCI controller yes? (please confirm if the following image shows the setup you recommend)

This would mean you are recommending me not to have my drives connected to SATA ports 4-6 and appear under the Standard AHCI controller, instead you would recommend they are connected to the Intel RAID controller seen above correct sir?

If I have your recommendation correct, would you be so kind as to provide a detailed explanation as to why you would choose to have all drives under the Intel RAID controller seen above as apposed to the standard AHCI controller? My apologies, as I only ask for the elaboration because I have been given conflicting recommendations/information--some saying use the Intel RAID controller because even though I am not and don't plan to ever be using RAID config with my drives, the Intel RAID controller provides better performance and AHCI included (even though it just says Intel RAID controller, if I don't have any of my drives in a RAID config, the Intel RAID controller will default AHCI for my drives).

 

[XavierMace]

Ignore the fact they are calling it a RAID controller. The second controller (which may or may not be a Silicon Image controller, Dell's done a remarkably good job of providing zero info on the second controller) probably supports RAID too. Just because it supports (software) RAID doesn't mean you have to use it. If you aren't using RAID, then they are just going to be operating in AHCI mode. Therefore it boils down to which is a "better" controller. The Intel controller is a built in part of the chipset. The secondary controller is an add on controller. If they were adding on a "better" controller, they'd tell you what that controller is. Otherwise it's generally the cheapest SATA controller they could find. Therefore the Intel controller is more than likely going to be the faster controller.

 

[UsandThem]

Ignore the fact they are calling it a RAID controller. The second controller (which may or may not be a Silicon Image controller, Dell's done a remarkably good job of providing zero info on the second controller) probably supports RAID too. Just because it supports (software) RAID doesn't mean you have to use it. If you aren't using RAID, then they are just going to be operating in AHCI mode. Therefore it boils down to which is a "better" controller. The Intel controller is a built in part of the chipset. The secondary controller is an add on controller. If they were adding on a "better" controller, they'd tell you what that controller is. Otherwise it's generally the cheapest SATA controller they could find. Therefore the Intel controller is more than likely going to be the faster controller.

+1

Always use the Intel SATA ports. It is always faster than whatever 3rd party controller they add onto the board. Here's a video and a review showing that Intel (since at least the Intel BX days, and probably even before that) has always had better performance than any other 3rd party controller. The Intel one's are more expensive, so almost all motherboards add in another brand in case someone needs to use all of the SATA connections, but in turn they pay a price in lost performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rpm2EcQ47Q

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/storage-controller-performance-ssd,3540-2.html

 

[TurboVirgin]

I think you're not understanding how the connection works and what device manager is telling you. The physical ports on the motherboard are wired to a specific controller. As you've discovered, ports 1-3 are wired to the Intel SATA controller. Ports 4-6 are connected to (from what I can find) a Silicon Image SATA controller. I'd take the Intel controller over the Silicon Image any day of the week.

Wow, I had not idea that half of my ports (the first 1-3) and that the other half (4-6) ran on entirely different quality SATA port hardware. It makes sense that the first few SATA ports on any board would always be the highest performing ones. I was just worried because in device manager it just says Intel SATA RAID and nothing about AHCI and my samsung magician software says no AHCI detected when under the Intel RAID controller, but it seems that if a RAID array is not made, the Intel SATA RAID controller provides AHCI automatically.

Ignore the fact they are calling it a RAID controller. The second controller (which may or may not be a Silicon Image controller, Dell's done a remarkably good job of providing zero info on the second controller) probably supports RAID too. Just because it supports (software) RAID doesn't mean you have to use it. If you aren't using RAID, then they are just going to be operating in AHCI mode. Therefore it boils down to which is a "better" controller. The Intel controller is a built in part of the chipset. The secondary controller is an add on controller. If they were adding on a "better" controller, they'd tell you what that controller is. Otherwise it's generally the cheapest SATA controller they could find. Therefore the Intel controller is more than likely going to be the faster controller.

Can you confirm from the benchmarks in the images provided below and by looking at the green text in the AS SSD image that AHCI is in fact activated? I encountered someone else attempting to help me with this and they said that by looking at the AS SSD screen shots provided below, they could definitively confirm that my drives were running in AHCI mode even while connected to the Intel RAID controller--can you confirm the same thing in looking at these images as well?



Always use the Intel SATA ports. It is always faster than whatever 3rd party controller they add onto the board. Here's a video and a review showing that Intel (since at least the Intel BX days, and probably even before that) has always had better performance than any other 3rd party controller. The Intel one's are more expensive, so almost all motherboards add in another brand in case someone needs to use all of the SATA connections, but in turn they pay a price in lost performance.


Wow, thank you guys so much for clearing it up. Just to be clear, it seems you all agree that the SATA ports 1-3 that show my drives under the Intel RAID controller in the device manager (seen in the screen shot provided) support AHCI (even if the controller in device manager just says Intel RAID controller and not anything about AHCI) if a RAID array is not setup and always provide better performance as the Intel SATA ports are always higher quality, thus recommending that I install everything under the Intel Raid Controller. I have no BIOS option to turn on/off RAID/AHCI and my samsung magician software says no AHCI detected when my drives are connected under the Intel RAID controller so I was scared that I did not have AHCI benefits/enabled, but it sounds like although it just says Intel RAID controller, AHCI is in fact active on this controller if no RAID arrays are present.

For reference and just to make sure I'm interpreting your recommendations correctly, I'd like you helpful friends to compare the following two benchmarks (done with AS SSD & magician software) and device manager windows to ensure that my drives are under the right controller and look to the left of AS SSD in green text to make sure the driver and everything you're seeing is the correct best performance setup for me:

1st screen shot = Benchmark with both SSD and HDD connected to SATA ports 1 & 2 appearing under the Intel SATA RAID controller in device manager. Is this your recommended setup and is this the most current driver I can have? Do all the benchmarks and the green text to the left of AS SSD look correct? Finally, can you tell by looking at AS SSD info in this image if AHCI is in fact enabled under this Intel Controller?:

2nd screen shot = Benchmark with SSD and HDD connected to SATA ports 4 & 5 appearing under Standard SATA AHCI controller in device manager







Please confirm if these numbers, what you see to the left of AS SSD, and everything you see in the device manager all looks correct.



From what I see from the benchmarks is that they are very close with the performance slightly in favor of the Intel RAID controller. Although Samsung Magician does not detect AHCI (I dont know why), AHCI should be activated correct? Please give me your final recommendation of if I should keep the drives in the first setup or the second.

Thank you all so much for the help![/QUOTE]

 

[Elixer]

The ones I read did tell you what to use, the Intel ports are the faster ones, the other ones are not as fast. I just assumed the question was already answered.

Thank you for your clarification. Just to confirm I understand your recommendation, you would have all your drives (SSD, HDD) appear under the Intel RAID controller and not the Standard AHCI controller yes? (please confirm if the following image shows the setup you recommend)
...

As was already mentioned, they both support AHCI (assuming the correct drivers are installed), it is just one set of ports are intel's built-in, and the other set of ports (which are usually a different color) are from another company using a different chipset (ASMEDIA / SI / whatever)

 

[tidy]

.