Standard IDE VS AHCI for a Raptor

[Zoom77]

Hello,

I am about to build a new system with the 150GB Raptor drive. What I am not sure yet is if I should leave it at "Standard IDE" or if I should press F6 to install drivers for AHCI.

What I know already is that NCQ which comes with AHCI will affect nagetively single user performance. But I heard AHCI has other features, like hot-pluggable drives.

So the questions are:

1) Can I have AHCI with NCQ disabled?
2) Which one would offer the best performance for a Raptor?

My MB is the P5B-E

 

[Zoom77]

Nobody?

 

[SomeJoe7777]

1. No, enabling AHCI will enable NCQ.
2. Difficult to predict - depends on your usage pattern of the hard drive.

Yes, there are some benchmarks that have been done that suggest that NCQ negatively impacts single-user performance. However, your usage pattern may not coincide with the assumptions used in the benchmark. I'm of the opinion that NCQ, even in single user situations, has the opportunity to potentially help more than it can hurt. I personally turn it on/enable AHCI when possible. I have not experienced any performance decreases from having it on.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

Wow... I had no idea that this was even an option. I always thought that there was a jumper on the drives which enabled/disabled NCQ. Good to know.

-mcg