Is there a way to install AHCI drivers for a MB that does not apparently have AHCI support?

Forums › Desktop computing › Is there a way to install AHCI drivers for a MB that does not apparently have AHCI support?

lchiu7

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#127259 4-Aug-2013 16:54

I have a machine with an Asustek M2N-E SLI MB. There doesn't appear to be an option in the BIOS to set AHCI.

A while ago I replaced the boot drive with a Samsung 830 240GB SSD. Performance was better but whenever I ran the Samsung SSD Magician it would report AHCI not turned on and a transfer rate of read of about 130MB/s. That's certainly better than what I was getting with a hard drive but no where near the 500MBs a SSD can do.

I realise my MB does not do SATA3 so 500MBs is out of the quetion but it does do SATA2. I enabled ACHI in the registry (Windows 7 32 bit) and on reboot a check does show that Windows is issuing TRIM commands.

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotifyDisableDelete
Notify = 0

That's good but it would be nice to get better speed from the SSD

The Motherboard uses the Nvidia chipset but I have (without realising) replacing the NVidia drivers with Microsoft ones which I guess is why TRIM works.

Is there a way to enable AHCI in Windows or do I have to purchase a new MB with AHCI support to take full advantage of this drive?

Thanks

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insane

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#871651 4-Aug-2013 18:09

I thought AHCI was part of or is the SATA standard, as in you can't not have it. If you run in non AHCI mode it's having to emulate that.

Perhaps someoneelse has a definitive answer

richms

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#871685 4-Aug-2013 19:43

I have never installed any AHCI driver specifically, windows has always just picked it up on install time and enabled it.

I do recall that there was support on a limited number of chipsets back in the XP days for it, for no logical reason other than intel being dumb.

My craptastic 780G based machines are giving ok speeds on the SSD with whatever AHCI driver comes with windows. No match on the H77 board with an i3 in it, but that has 5 years of progress to play with.

Richard rich.ms

sidefx

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#871687 4-Aug-2013 19:49

This may be applicable?

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20100802031013859&board_id=1&model=M2N-SLI+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

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lchiu7

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#871692 4-Aug-2013 20:04

sidefx: This may be applicable?

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20100802031013859&board_id=1&model=M2N-SLI+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Thanks but I have been there. That MB is slightly different as it has two SATA controllers, the Nvidia and the JMicron. Mine only has one. But I do have TRIM working so that's a start. Just seems like the SSD is just not being used to its full potential.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

insane

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#871713 4-Aug-2013 20:26

How are you determining that it's not giving you the right speed? Did you benchmark it using IO meter or crystal diskmark?. They won't do 500MB/s under all conditions, in fact its VERY unlikely for you to get the max speeds out of them unless you're specifically benchmarking them with large block sizes

Here is a test run on a 830 by someone else

Compared to my Corsair Force GT 60GB on my Asus M4N78 SATA2 Mobo which is more like your setup

Hammerer

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#871748 4-Aug-2013 21:22

lchiu7: I have a machine with an Asustek M2N-E SLI MB. There doesn't appear to be an option in the BIOS to set AHCI.

A while ago I replaced the boot drive with a Samsung 830 240GB SSD. Performance was better but whenever I ran the Samsung SSD Magician it would report AHCI not turned on and a transfer rate of read of about 130MB/s. That's certainly better than what I was getting with a hard drive but no where near the 500MBs a SSD can do.

I realise my MB does not do SATA3 so 500MBs is out of the quetion but it does do SATA2. I enabled ACHI in the registry (Windows 7 32 bit) and on reboot a check does show that Windows is issuing TRIM commands.

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotifyDisableDelete
Notify = 0

That's good but it would be nice to get better speed from the SSD

The Motherboard uses the Nvidia chipset but I have (without realising) replacing the NVidia drivers with Microsoft ones which I guess is why TRIM works.

Is there a way to enable AHCI in Windows or do I have to purchase a new MB with AHCI support to take full advantage of this drive?

Thanks

Update your 2006 motherboard to get the best from your 2011 SSD as five years is a long time in this case.

Your motherboard is older than my similar Asus so I don't think Asus or nVidia will have updated drivers for Windows 7. If you did have nVidia drivers on the system then perhaps you upgraded from XP or Vista. Anyway, that's an aside.

The nVidia nForce 500 doesn't appear to support ACHI so Samsung SSD Magician is reporting correctly.

130MBps is low for SATA 2 but not unusually so given your situation. I presume it is average but it is low for peak so which did you mean? At average the most you can expect to improve is another 30-40MBps anyway. Also I doubt that AHCI, even if you could run it, would give you more than another 10% improvement given that you already have TRIM running and you're not doing anything that needs AHCI features.

[Edit to fix badly written sentence in last paragraph]