Just put together new system - is non-AHCI motherboard holding me back

kaczman

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Oct 16, 2011
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Hello all,

I just put together the following system:

Processor: AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T BE AM3
Memory: 2X CORSAIR 4GB DDR31600 DIMM XMS
Motherboard: ASUS M4N68T-M V2
SSD: GSkill 120 GB FM25S2S120GBP2 SSD

I secure erased the drive when I got it, but the motherboard doesnt support AHCI if you can believe that. It was free with the processor, and I'm starting to think not having AHCI enabled is throttling my SSD speeds. Below are two benchmarks:

benchmarkdb.jpg


wtfhw.png


I enabled TRIM via DOS in Win 7, and followed some of the other guidelines. Since I dont have AHCI, I cant update the firmware of the drive to the latest version, but I dont think that would cause such a low benchmark.

I guess my question is if everyone on here thinks my motherboard non-ahci is holding me back. And if so, can I buy a AHCI controller card like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=16-115-073&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

To support AHCI, or am I better off just biting the bullet and putting a new motherboard in this thing. Thanks guys!
 
The card you linked is for external sata drives and does not have internal ports , you would need to get a card that has internat ports. The performance is still better than a conventional hdd. The ACHI feature will make a difference and I guess anything that is free can't be all that good. Since you did not pay for it you would not be wasting any money if you bought one. However there is no rush to do so and you could run it for a while to see how it is and then get one if you want. It is your decision.
 

cathudog

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Mar 17, 2006
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That is about the same speeds I am getting with a dv9720us Laptop which you cannot set the BIOS to the AHCI mode either so that is the speed you get but is twice as fast as convectional HD
 
That is about the best you will get with using the Nvidea driver.

Using an addon card:
(1) Also uses a 3rd party controller. Hard to find out which they use. Some uses a Jmicron controll and some use the marvel controller. If the card supports ahci and you can use the default msahci driver that should improve some, But I'm guessing not a big jump. Advertized speeds are normally based on an intel chipset and using the msahic driver, or the iaSTor driver (which is the best for SSD.
(2) Limited to pci-2 x1 card (you have no avalable slots above 1 x when using a dedicated graphics card.
(3) Do not need a Sata III card as a x1 slot will limit performance.