First ssd install, need help

[Kronk42583]

Hello, i have an ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176

and just bought a corsair force 3 180gb sad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233220

i still have windows set up on my HDD and figured i'd plug it in and do anything i need to get the ssd for a fresh windows install.

i keep reading about firmware updates, ahci modes... i don't really get everything,

do i need to update the firmware?? i downloaded corsair's utility and it does say that i am one revision behind the newest...

also do i need to enable ahci mode to do this? how about while running afterwards.

so far i fired up my bios, entered "load performance setup ahci mode" and rebooted. windows crashed on loading screen. i reset to ide mode and windows boots normally.

do i also need to enable ahci in windows or something? I read so much about tweaking ssd to make sure ahci mode is enable, trim enabled... i am totally confused....

if someone with experience doing this could tell me what my best course of action is to get the drive ready for format and windows install i would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Kronk42583]

hrm. so i just tried to use the corsair update utility per the sites instructions. i run the program, but it still shows firmware as 1.3.2 and the new firmware is 1.3.3... maybe because I'm not in ahci mode its not updating? i've read that's an issue with some drives.