ICH9 AHCI Sata2 problem with Asus P5KC

[shoestring]

Hi
Greetings from Ireland.

Firstly let me advise you I am a first time self builder.

I recently purchased Asus P5KC, but now I find I cannot run the Southbridge ICH9 in AHCI mode. As a result I assume I will never get the best out of my Sata2 Seagate Barracuda 500GB. Am I right in assuming I will never have Sata300 performance as this was advertised by the reseller of the board. Do you think I have grounds to return the MOBO, or would the increase in transfer rates not warrant the hassle. The system is running stable in IDE mode.

I do understand there are problems with the Intel drivers.

As I feel slightly cheated I am considering returning the board. Could you please advise me on a replacement that will run in ahci mode whenever Intel sort out the driver issue.

Vista Ultimate
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Seagate Barracuda 500GB ( with matal clicking noise, which I am assured is normal !! )
Samsung Sata Optical Drive
2 Gigs Corsair Ram
GE Force 8800GTS OC

I would greatly appreciate your advice .
Many thanks,

Tom.

[shaihulud]

It can be very disconcerting. There is a list that Intel has that mentions which core logics can implement AHCI. Some will get the non-RAID south bridges and cannot run AHCI even though it is supposedly possible according to the list and the ones that they have. Mainly, it is a BIOS mode combination of placing the controller into PCI native mode, usually called just native or enhanced with ASUS, and also enabling AHCI as long as it is supported. Personally, ASUS’ methods are the worst for implementing the BIOS enabled bits for AHCI.

It is true that the controller will not be using NCQ if not in AHCI mode. Also, the iastor.sys driver is a bit more robust compared to the normal PCI controller driver that Windows uses. However, the transfer rate will be SATA 300 no matter what as long as the controller and the drive can utilize. Note, it may mean that you may have to configure the drive via a jumper.

To install the driver in AHCI mode you have to do this during installation. The famous “F6 for mass storage drivers part.” If you do not do this then you will not be in AHCI mode at all, even if set correctly within the BIOS. Note, that you do not, at all, need to install the Maxtrix utility afterwards. It is only necessary for RAID ready and RAID. Only the driver is needed for AHCI.

I wish I can say which ones are supported, because the list I have consulted would say that AHCI is supported and some that I tried to help were not able to implement. It could have been user error or the very fact that it cannot be used with that motherboard even though intrinsically supported. This is for certain though, you can always run AHCI mode (and obviously RAID) if the south bridge is an R based chip. E.g.: ICH9R.

[shoestring]

Many thanks for your time and advice.

Tom.