AHCI vs IDE - I Need to Decide Now

RhoXS · 05-13-08, 11:50 AM

Later today I am going to to do a clean install of Windows XP.

I do not know if I should use an AHCI interface or stay with IDE. I have seen pros and cons for both and many of the articles I read contradict one another. I already made up the AHCI install floppy so it is just a matter of a decision which way to go.

At this time I am leaning toward IDE because I perceive that there will be no noticeable speed difference but I am not sure this is the right decision. I would certainly appreciate some additional thoughts about the best choice to make.

My system consists of a 750 GB 'C' drive, a 160 GB drive for miscellaneous data, two DVD optical drives, and a third hard drive in a removable tray that is normally only installed when I am making a GHOST clone for backup purposes. All are SATA drives. I have no PATA devices.

silencer51 · 05-13-08, 12:26 PM

Since you 're going with XP, I would suggest the IDE route.

From the benchmarks I've seen, AHCI doesn't make any noticeable difference. Actually some benchmark scores are slightly lower with AHCI, probably because XP doesnt support it natively.

conway · 05-13-08, 12:56 PM

If you run ide mode you'll lose ncq, and potentially have your burst limited to 100 or 133 because of that being the dma100 or 133 limit. The limit depends on the chipset though, not all boards will do that.

petteyg359 · 05-13-08, 02:49 PM

I still get ~190MB/s burst with my drives in IDE mode (Darn XP won't accept ANY of the SATA drivers from floppy, AHCI, SATA, RAID, or otherwise) but obviously my board is a different chipset that OP's...

forceman · 05-13-08, 06:19 PM

You would also lose hot-swap capability in IDE mode, if that is important to you. Biggest drawback to AHCI mode, in my opinion, is that it can make it difficult to move the install to a new motherboard without having to reinstall windows.

meionm · 05-13-08, 06:30 PM

There won't be any significant difference between ahci or ide in terms of performance. For xp, ide mode equals easy install.

RhoXS · 05-14-08, 08:16 AM

Thanks for all the responses.

Hot swapping is of no importance to me. My primary motivation for considering AHCI was for a possible performance gain. Since the overwhelming opinion appears to be that there would be no significant performance gain, I installed using IDE.

Thanks again for all the advice.

05-13-08, 11:50 AM	Thread Starter #1
RhoXS Member Join Date: Nov 2001	AHCI vs IDE - I Need to Decide Now Later today I am going to to do a clean install of Windows XP. I do not know if I should use an AHCI interface or stay with IDE. I have seen pros and cons for both and many of the articles I read contradict one another. I already made up the AHCI install floppy so it is just a matter of a decision which way to go. At this time I am leaning toward IDE because I perceive that there will be no noticeable speed difference but I am not sure this is the right decision. I would certainly appreciate some additional thoughts about the best choice to make. My system consists of a 750 GB 'C' drive, a 160 GB drive for miscellaneous data, two DVD optical drives, and a third hard drive in a removable tray that is normally only installed when I am making a GHOST clone for backup purposes. All are SATA drives. I have no PATA devices. __________________ Asus P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1 Intel i7 2600K Samsung 840 256GB SSD WD 750 GB Caviar Black 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA 9800GTX Graphics Corsair H50 Corsair HX850W Power Supply Corsair 600T Case W7 Professional 64 bit
	QUOTE Thanks

05-13-08, 12:26 PM	#2
silencer51 Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Greece	Since you 're going with XP, I would suggest the IDE route. From the benchmarks I've seen, AHCI doesn't make any noticeable difference. Actually some benchmark scores are slightly lower with AHCI, probably because XP doesnt support it natively. __________________ ---------Main Rig--------- Core i7 920 D0 @ 3,8GHz with Prolimatech Megahalems HSF (Dual Noctua 120mm Fans) / Asus P6T Deluxe V2 BIOS 1108/ 6x2GB OCZ Gold 1600MHz DDR3 @ 8-8-8-24-2T / 2x5870 Crossfire/ 2x150GB WD Raptors ADFD (RAID0) / 3x1,5TB Seagate 7200.11/ 1x2TB Seagate 7200.12 / Samsung SH-223Q DVD Writer / Corsair HX1000 PSU / CM Stacker Case / Dual LG W2600HP-BF 26" TFTs (effing great!!!)
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05-13-08, 12:56 PM	#3
conway Join Date: Aug 2007	If you run ide mode you'll lose ncq, and potentially have your burst limited to 100 or 133 because of that being the dma100 or 133 limit. The limit depends on the chipset though, not all boards will do that. __________________ cpu - Phenom II x4 810 @ 3640 motherboard - Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe ram - 8gb Kingston Hyperx 1066 video - GTX 560 ti storage - 750 gb Seagate junker psu - Silverstone ST56ZF
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05-13-08, 02:49 PM	#4
petteyg359 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: University of Southern Mississippi	I still get ~190MB/s burst with my drives in IDE mode (Darn XP won't accept ANY of the SATA drivers from floppy, AHCI, SATA, RAID, or otherwise) but obviously my board is a different chipset that OP's... __________________ MSI 890GXM-G65 - FX 8350 - 16GiB 12800 - 7950 3GiB - 8 Pro x64 / Gentoo amd64 - AX760 Dell XPS 15 L502x - i7 2760QM - 16GiB 12800 - GT 540M 2GiB - 7 Pro x64 / Gentoo amd64 - Agility 4 512GB [GB ≠ GiB] [MB ≠ MiB] [kB ≠ kiB] [1000 ≠ 1024] [Giga ≠ gram] [Mega ≠ milli] [Kelvin ≠ kilo] [Byte ≠ bit] "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a “dozen,” because some bakers would view a “dozen” as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006
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05-13-08, 06:19 PM	#5
forceman Member Join Date: Nov 2001	You would also lose hot-swap capability in IDE mode, if that is important to you. Biggest drawback to AHCI mode, in my opinion, is that it can make it difficult to move the install to a new motherboard without having to reinstall windows. __________________ Gigabyte P67A-UD4 i7-2600k @ 4.5 @ 1.3V Thermalright Venomous-X w/GT @ 1450 8 GB (2 x 4) G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 Gigabyte GTX 480 Corsair 750HX
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05-13-08, 06:30 PM	#6
meionm Member Join Date: Mar 2004	There won't be any significant difference between ahci or ide in terms of performance. For xp, ide mode equals easy install.
	QUOTE Thanks

05-14-08, 08:16 AM	Thread Starter #7
RhoXS Member Join Date: Nov 2001	Thanks for all the responses. Hot swapping is of no importance to me. My primary motivation for considering AHCI was for a possible performance gain. Since the overwhelming opinion appears to be that there would be no significant performance gain, I installed using IDE. Thanks again for all the advice. __________________ Asus P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1 Intel i7 2600K Samsung 840 256GB SSD WD 750 GB Caviar Black 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA 9800GTX Graphics Corsair H50 Corsair HX850W Power Supply Corsair 600T Case W7 Professional 64 bit
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