Lack of AHCI Support - Dell E1705 / 9400 / 6400

Hello all.

There is a thread in the Dell IdeaStorm forums where users are requesting Dell release a BIOS update that adds AHCI functionality to users of the E1705/9400/6400.

I just posted a comment and I hope that those of you with E1705/9400/6400 laptops will post a comment. The more feedback Dell gets in this matter increases the chances Dell will assist us!
** In addition to posting a comment, you can promote the idea which will add 10 points to its value.

Here is the link:
http://www.ideastorm.com/ideaView?id=087700000000AUNAA2

What for would you need ahci for? Ahci is good if you use hot swap but on laptop when will you be changing hard drives.

meionm said:

What for would you need ahci for? Ahci is good if you use hot swap but on laptop when will you be changing hard drives.

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multitasking HDD performance. I dunno how it would help hotswap since there is no consumer SATA chip that supports hotswapping.

pharoer said:

multitasking HDD performance. I dunno how it would help hotswap since there is no consumer SATA chip that supports hotswapping.

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Hotswaping = ESATA, there is plenty of that.

There is not a bit of difference in performance between Ahci and ide mode on 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm drives. Since these drives can't sustain transfer speed of higher than 100mb/s. It's like a difference between organic dirt and black dirt. The only benefit to ahci comes when using SSD drive which can overcome 100mb/s. Now the cheap ssd with jmcron controller are crap and give choppy performance. So, ssd drive with better controller will cost about 40% more for the same volume.

meionm said:

What for would you need ahci for? Ahci is good if you use hot swap but on laptop when will you be changing hard drives.

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It will allow for NCQ support.

probably more for linux support i think
more people are using linux these days