G-P55-UD6 Dual OS Boot system advice

madbad3k

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Apr 5, 2010
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Hello folks,

Hopefully some one willl be able to give me some formative and time saving information about the the best way to set up a dual boot system on a Gigabyte P55-UD6 Mobo.
I have recently upgraded to the above MOBO and am self building my own system. Apart from my head exploding with having to determine which SATA connection to use on the this MOBO, combined with the RAID / IDE / AHCI options, which very much confused me!! Not difficult i know...
I have the following MOBO and installed components.. (currently using an older WD RAPTOR 75 & 150 combo in XP32 pro mode.. but wish to upgrade to a dual boot W7 & XP 32 system.

G-P55-UD6 Mobo Revision 1.0 Bios F8 - all other drivers are latest install via Gigabyte webiste = 5 Apr 10
i5 = 750
Corsair H50 Watercooled CPU (idles at 34C - mean average x4 cores temp)
4GB Corsair CMX4GX3M2A 1600C9 (2 x 2GB)
Saphire ATI 5870 Vapor X-OC
Siverstone Temjin Case
Enermax Ininity 650W PSU
Dell 2707FWP LCD

I have the following SSD & HDD drives that have not been installed yet, but I wish to install as follows... ?

1 x 30GB OCZ SSD = Win7 (64) System drive - (AHCI Mode)

1 x 320GB Samsung (322HJ) HDD = XP32 Pro - patitioned as a sytem and XP games HDD = (SATA (IDE?) Mode)
(Could connect via eSATA).

2 x 1TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint HDD (HD103SJ) = GAMES-Win7 ( RAID 0 Mode)

1 x 1TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint HDD (HD103SJ) = DATA (AHCI Mode)

1 x DVD RW Pioneer DVD-212 = (SATA (IDE?) Mode)
1 x DVD HD/Blu Ray LG GGC-H20L = (SATA (IDE?) Mode)

Does this set up seem achievable?
How easy is it to set up a dual boot OS, do i need specialised software?
How easy would it be to set up the drives?
Which SATA connections / set up sequence for the drives will give me the best performance?
How idiot proof is the RAID / AHCI driver set up (as there are both Intel & Micron AHCI / RAID drivers ?).
If I boot into OS XP32, would all the W7 drives still be active, (dont want to waste power and generate extra heat)?

I would mainly be using the W7 OS and drive combination (but have some (XP only) strategy games on the legacy XP boot drive).
Is it possible to have the XP boot drive as an external drive, to connect via eSATA if required?

Not sure if the above set up would be too complex for the bios etc... any advice would be most welcome. I'm pretty competent as self builds etc, but havent attempted a multi / multi drive set up like this before.

Ref: the Quick Boost utility, it indicates that the twin turbo can boost upto 4Ghz, but so far it reaches 3.8Ghz when tried.
Scores 24,200 = 3dMark 06 (latest version)
Is it possible to easily tweak Quick Boost to reach 4Ghz, I assume there is the headroom for this, otherwise Quick boost wouldnt indicate a 4Ghz target overclock?
I would only use it for games, so dont need to overclock at 4Ghz permanently.

Any advice would be gratefully recieved.

 

bilbat

Splendid
...what do you mean by:
2 x 1TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint HDD (HD103SJ) = GAMES-Win7 ( RAID 0 Mode)
You intend to install games there, instead of on your SDD 7 boot partition? Or, a separate partition to boot a different 7 with games installed?

I would never use QuickBoost/EasyTune for anything but testing - do your OC in the BIOS; ET is an ill-mannered, buggy POC, and a resource hog, as well...
 

madbad3k

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Apr 5, 2010
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Hi there fella,
many thanks for the prompt reply..

ref the x2 1 TB Spinpoint HDDs. The 2 drives will be combined into a RAID 0 drive and for the installation of Win 7 Games (DirectX 11).It will be labelled as "Games-Win7"

The SSD (OCZ 30GB drive) will be the Win 7 OS system drive. Its too small to install games on it.

The 320GB HDD Samsung will be the alternative OS drive with XP Pro (32) installed and XP games installed on it- some of my games are not Win7 compatible, hence a separate XP OS installation on this drive.

With regard to overclocking, are there any utilities you can recommend, as i dont need the PC to be clocked at 4Ghz permanently, only when gaming?

Many thanks for your assistance.
 

bilbat

Splendid
For the OC settings to be 'adjustable' (matter of entering the BIOS, selecting a 'named set' of parameters, and rebooting to switch), see the BIOS - Saving CMOS topic in the sticky:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/272698-30-gigabyte-guide-read-first

Here's how I would proceed:

SDD cabled to SATA2_0
320 for Xp cabled to SATA2_1
Data drive to SATA2_3
RAIDs to GSATA2_0 & GSATA2_1
ODDs to GSATA2_2 & GSATA2_3

In the BIOS, on the "Integrated Peripherals" page:
"SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" to "AHCI"
"SATA Port0-3 Native Mode" to "Enabled"
"USB Storage Function" to "Disabled"
"eSATA Ctrl Mode " to "AHCI"
"GSATA 0_1 Controller" to "Enabled"
"GSATA 0_1 Ctrl Mode" to "RAID"
"GSATA 2_3/IDE Controller" to "Enabled"
"GSATA 2_3/IDE Ctrl Mode" to "IDE"

Follow the procedure on PP 96-99 to create your RAID volume;
follow the procedure on 101 to create 'pre-load' floppy driver disks for both Intel Matrix Storage for Xp32, and GSATA for both 32 & 64... Tou will need the Intel AHCI 32s, as Xp does not support AHCI without drivers; you will need the 32 GSATAs for RAID under Xp, and the 64 GSATAs For RAID under seven...

Go to TeraByte:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm
and download 'BotIt_NG': http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/bootitng.zip
They have a ton of docs there to walk you through a multiboot installation...