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SSD Upgrades - Dual-boot scenario - BIOS settings for RAID / AHCI - what matters??

Tags:
  • SSD
  • Dual Boot
  • Storage
  • NAS / RAID
Last response: in Storage
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May 17, 2014 9:21:09 AM

The Context: I’m wanting to upgrade to new SSDs in a dual boot scenario. This is for a computer circa 2006-7 era that is used for audio / recording studio use and some of the vintage (specialized, expensive) Firewire gear requires using either XP or Windows 7 due to driver availability issues. Unfortunately, audio gear manufacturers only do a so-so job in updating drivers, given the expense of the gear in the first place.

For more modern audio gear I have a very recent HP customized desktop with high-end i7 CPU, plenty of RAM, dual monitors one of which is touch enabled, etc. The focus for this thread, however, is solely on getting noticeably better/smoother performance out of an older desktop unit and being practical about it.

This Gateway Media Center computer in question started life as a Core 2 Duo Intel CPU and Intel motherboard. The system works quite nicely, and runs XP 32-bit Media Center and Win7 64-bit, 4GB RAM; The dual boot is controlled by a SATA hardware selector switch at start up (works well) that totally firewalls each OS from the other. I’ve a near duplicate of this machine, used for other purposes, that also runs XP & Win7 but dual boots using the more typical software approach. SATA on the motherboard is older type (SATA II??).

My question today centers on configuration as RAID or AHCI in BIOS settings, etc… There’s just a single drive for each OS instance; RAID is not being used to work across multiple drives. Originally, the system was set from the factory as RAID for a single system drive (presumably there was thought to be a performance advantage, but I’m not sure about that).

From what I’ve read, there are advantages (necessities??) for using AHCI, but I’ve also read that AHCI is a subset of RAID… I understand that it would have been “better” to have had AHCI set up before OS installs, but it wasn’t practical in this circumstance, nor were SSDs on my mind at the time.

Thus, I kept the RAID BIOS configuration in place when I fresh installed Win7 since I didn’t want to undo what was already working on the XP side of things, nor did I want to enter BIOS to switch between RAID / AHCI under the dual boot usage. If I continue to use RAID in BIOS, what are the ramifications for using SSDs to replace the two existing drives (one for XP OS, the other has Win7)? I’m thinking to use the Samsung 840 series EVO or PRO drives, however, I realize these units may be overkill as I won’t be able to see the full speed advantages of those models, and alternative SSD model suggestions are welcomed!

More about : ssd upgrades dual boot scenario bios settings raid ahci matters

a b G Storage
May 17, 2014 10:04:50 AM

Well I would be thinking of more RAM. And running XP Media in 32 bit mode may hold you back a bit. when the new SSD's come backup what you need, remove the old drives and place the new ones in there... then in BIOS switch to AHCI mode. and load your OS.
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a c 182 G Storage
May 17, 2014 10:33:01 AM

You will be very pleased with converting to SSD.

I see two issues.

1. 6gb sata will let the SSD do faster sequential data transfers compared to 3g sata. But, a SSD even on slower sata will still be faster than your current hard drive. More importantly, most of what we do is small random I/O and that is not impacted by sata speeds. Net... not to worry about performance.

2. Trim is the ability of a ssd to intelligently manage blocks of nand by avoiding unnecessary updates. A SSD has a finite number of updates per nand block. Without AHCI, you limit the ability to transmit trim commands to the ssd. But to put this in perspective, it takes a VERY active update frequency like those found in a server environment to run out of updates. Even if you ever do, the drive can still be read so you could clone to a fresh ssd. Practically speaking, your ssd will be long opsolete before you ever have a problem.

Both 1. and 2. issues can be helped by buying a larger ssd than you need. More nand blocks will insulate you from running out of updates. And more nand blocks can be read in parallel, helping sequential performance.

In your case, The longer endurance of the Samsung PRO version is probably worth the extra cost.
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May 17, 2014 11:58:04 AM

anonymous1 said:
Well I would be thinking of more RAM. And running XP Media in 32 bit mode may hold you back a bit. when the new SSD's come backup what you need, remove the old drives and place the new ones in there... then in BIOS switch to AHCI mode. and load your OS.


Thanks for your thoughts. I'm not able to change XP bit mode as it would require reinstalling the OS fresh, plus there's the problem of lack of audio recording gear drivers for XP 64 for the equipment I have. My understanding is that switching to AHCI mode also requires installing drivers and tweaking the existing OS, which I'd rather not do without understanding how it may impact the system's performance and stability. Comments on this point welcomed.
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May 17, 2014 12:07:16 PM

geofelt said:
You will be very pleased with converting to SSD.

I see two issues.

1. 6gb sata will let the SSD do faster sequential data transfers compared to 3g sata. But, a SSD even on slower sata will still be faster than your current hard drive. More importantly, most of what we do is small random I/O and that is not impacted by sata speeds. Net... not to worry about performance.

2. Trim is the ability of a ssd to intelligently manage blocks of nand by avoiding unnecessary updates. A SSD has a finite number of updates per nand block. Without AHCI, you limit the ability to transmit trim commands to the ssd. But to put this in perspective, it takes a VERY active update frequency like those found in a server environment to run out of updates. Even if you ever do, the drive can still be read so you could clone to a fresh ssd. Practically speaking, your ssd will be long opsolete before you ever have a problem.

Both 1. and 2. issues can be helped by buying a larger ssd than you need. More nand blocks will insulate you from running out of updates. And more nand blocks can be read in parallel, helping sequential performance.

In your case, The longer endurance of the Samsung PRO version is probably worth the extra cost.


Thanks geofelt. If I leave the BIOS setting to RAID, is there a way to enable "trim" such as installing drivers or a utility etc? Good suggestion about ordering larger than needed drive. I'm leaning toward the Samsung PRO. Related to these issues, should the paging file be set to reside on the SSD along with the OS? Presumably that's better than using a spinning drive or an external USB thumb drive, but wouldn't it result in a lot more reads/writes?
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