Setting up an SSD

[richardgal]

Hi there! I'm planning on an SSD upgrade next month and so I've been reading into other people's issues. I'm about to use it as main OS drive, with my older SATA II 160GB on storage. So I'm wondering if there's really such amount of tweaking the upgrade requires before it's 100% smooth and operational. I'm not that much of a storage geek, I'm more into graphics and cpu so a few questions remain unclear.

#1 : What is AHCI/ Is it modifiable with an H61 Board ?

#2 : Do browsers and other apps (os stuff) require configuring ?

Don't get me wrong I'm willing to go deep under tweaking if necessary, I just want to know IF it's necessary, and what IS necessary
The drive in question is a Kingston SSDnow 64 GB V200 SATA III. Altough I will use one of my SATA II ports, as I don't have any better.
(I know the major improvement on speed comes from the new drive's architecture/mechanism, not from SATA III.)

It's in a really good price point right now and I figure it would run my x64bit Win7 and GTA IV flawlessly.
I appriciate any opinion

 

[RealBeast]

Set the bios to AHCI sata mode before doing your OS re-install. When you do the re-install, disconnect all hard drives until done, then re-connect. There is no configuration required for any programs or the OS to use AHCI mode as the initial installation. If you first install with IDE then want to change to AHCI, you have to change a registry key prior to the bios change.

AFAIK, all H61 boards allow AHCI mode, although it could be tucked away in an arcane location or labeled SATA mode, which would have AHCI as an option.

Then definitely, yes optimize the SSD. This is a good, complete, and straightforward guide: http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

SATA II performance will show lower benchmarks, but will not be noticeably different than SATA III in my experience, or any articles looking at the issue. While your drive choice is fine, I would favor a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 -- but if the price difference is significant enough go with your budget.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Your board does have an AHCI choice, as shown on page 46 of your manual.
It is set by default to IDE, so you do have to change it (easiest before installing your OS) in the BIOS to AHCI.

SATA Mode Selection
Use this to select SATA mode. Configuration options: [IDE Mode], [AHCI
Mode] and [Disabled]. The default value is [IDE Mode].

Listed above is the entry selection

 

[richardgal]

Thank you very much for your answers gentlemen, you've been very helpful.

 

[John_VanKirk]

You are welcome!

 

[RealBeast]

Sure, and as to question #2, no -- browsers and apps do not need any special configuration. They will just load much faster than from a spinner.