Improve SATA performance?

[Kenny]

Trying the tweak here:
http://tweaks.com/articles/44119/improve-sata-hard-disk-performance-convert-from-ide-to-ahci/
No problem editing the registry but I can't find AHCI in the BIOS!
MB is Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770-UD3 and BIOS: Award Software
International, Inc. FG 12/29/2009.
Would it be there under a different name?

Kenny Cargill

 

[Ed Cryer]

Trying the tweak here:
http://tweaks.com/articles/44119/improve-sata-hard-disk-performance-convert-from-ide-to-ahci/

No problem editing the registry but I can't find AHCI in the BIOS!
MB is Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770-UD3 and BIOS: Award
Software International, Inc. FG 12/29/2009.
Would it be there under a different name?

Kenny Cargill

You'll find it in BIOS under Peripheral things.
There'll be something like "Onboard SATA controller" enabled/disabled,
and then "Onboard SATA mode" IDE/AHCI.

Ed

 

[Kenny]

Thanks again Ed, there are 3 settings to change in BIOS, OnChip SATA
Controller, OnChip SATA Type & OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Mode.
Enabled 1st and the other 2 to AHCI. Doesn't appear to have changed much,
Windows Experience Index shows HDD as 5.9 which is the same as before.
HDD is pulling down overall index figure which is why I was hoping changing
BIOS would speed it up a bit.

 

[Paul]

Thanks again Ed, there are 3 settings to change in BIOS, OnChip SATA
Controller, OnChip SATA Type & OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Mode.
Enabled 1st and the other 2 to AHCI. Doesn't appear to have changed
much, Windows Experience Index shows HDD as 5.9 which is the same as
before.
HDD is pulling down overall index figure which is why I was hoping
changing BIOS would speed it up a bit.

Actually, be careful what you wish for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahci

AHCI includes Native Command Queueing (NCQ), which is the ability to
complete commands out of sequence. It allows the shortest path to
be planned for head movement - but that only happens, when the "queue
builds up".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing

In a server situation, with ten people doing ten different things, such
a feature can be a big win. The disk can't possibly keep up with what
the ten people are doing, so the queue builds. And when it does, the
controller board on the hard drive, looks at the "to do list", and
picks the items that have the least head movement required. That
prevents unnecessary excursions of the head and reduces the overall
time to complete the "to do list".

However, you, as a single user, your typical usage pattern has a queue
depth of one. With no queue to "sort" into the most desirable form,
the commands complete in the same time as they did before.

AHCI has a small amount of overhead associated with it. It means,
on average, processing commands on AHCI is slower. If the queue builds
up, it "pays for its keep". If there is no queue, then you lose a
tiny bit in speed.

Now, some users type real fast, are whizzing around doing ten different
things at once. Perhaps their queue depth is greater than one. But
a lot of users, they're "one thing at a time" kind of people, and
for them, NCQ isn't a big deal.

Many SSD owners select AHCI, because the Microsoft version of AHCI
driver (called MSAHCI), supports the TRIM command. And that is the
main reason they'd be looking for that mode of operation, as much as
anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_command

HTH,
Paul

 

[Oldster]

"Paul" wrote in message

Thanks again Ed, there are 3 settings to change in BIOS, OnChip SATA
Controller, OnChip SATA Type & OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Mode.
Enabled 1st and the other 2 to AHCI. Doesn't appear to have changed much,
Windows Experience Index shows HDD as 5.9 which is the same as before.
HDD is pulling down overall index figure which is why I was hoping
changing BIOS would speed it up a bit.

Actually, be careful what you wish for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahci

AHCI includes Native Command Queueing (NCQ), which is the ability to
complete commands out of sequence. It allows the shortest path to
be planned for head movement - but that only happens, when the "queue
builds up".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing

In a server situation, with ten people doing ten different things, such
a feature can be a big win. The disk can't possibly keep up with what
the ten people are doing, so the queue builds. And when it does, the
controller board on the hard drive, looks at the "to do list", and
picks the items that have the least head movement required. That
prevents unnecessary excursions of the head and reduces the overall
time to complete the "to do list".

However, you, as a single user, your typical usage pattern has a queue
depth of one. With no queue to "sort" into the most desirable form,
the commands complete in the same time as they did before.

AHCI has a small amount of overhead associated with it. It means,
on average, processing commands on AHCI is slower. If the queue builds
up, it "pays for its keep". If there is no queue, then you lose a
tiny bit in speed.

Now, some users type real fast, are whizzing around doing ten different
things at once. Perhaps their queue depth is greater than one. But
a lot of users, they're "one thing at a time" kind of people, and
for them, NCQ isn't a big deal.

Many SSD owners select AHCI, because the Microsoft version of AHCI
driver (called MSAHCI), supports the TRIM command. And that is the
main reason they'd be looking for that mode of operation, as much as
anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_command

HTH,
Paul


Anyone know a similar tweak for XP? I have Windows 7 and XP systems
that I switch between in the same box.

Thanks.

 

[Char Jackson]

Anyone know a similar tweak for XP? I have Windows 7 and XP systems
that I switch between in the same box.

Thanks.

I encourage you to try your question again. As it stands, you put your
text inline with Paul's very verbose post (rather than quoting
properly, not to mention trimming!) and it's way more trouble than I
think it's worth to try to go back through Paul's post to see what you
might be asking about.

 

[Bill Blanton]

Thanks again Ed, there are 3 settings to change in BIOS, OnChip SATA
Controller, OnChip SATA Type & OnChip SATA Port 4/5 Mode.
Enabled 1st and the other 2 to AHCI. Doesn't appear to have changed
much, Windows Experience Index shows HDD as 5.9 which is the same as
before.

Mechanical drive throughput doesn't even approach SATA controller
transfer speed specifications, and barely passes P-ATA specs for even
the fastest drives. And that's assuming sequential data write/reads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Comparison_to_other_buses

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd6000hlhx-velociraptor-600gb,2600-5.html

 

[Paul]

I encourage you to try your question again. As it stands, you put your
text inline with Paul's very verbose post (rather than quoting
properly, not to mention trimming!) and it's way more trouble than I
think it's worth to try to go back through Paul's post to see what you
might be asking about.

Some SSDs come with their own maintenance utility, to achieve the
TRIM function. But there are also SSDs that don't need TRIM,
as they have their own equivalent (garbage collection) function
built in.

And as this is bleeding edge technology, you can always find pitfalls
or poorly implemented work. You can spend your whole day, scouting
for issues. If you own an SSD, you'll never be bored :-(

http://www.behardware.com/news/10962/sandforce-trim-listen-up.html

Paul