• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Improve SATA hard disk performance (Convert from IDE to AHCI)

Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
381 (0.07/day)
Location
Lost in space
System Name Geting old
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor BE 3.8 Ghz
Motherboard MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL.. MS-7388 1.0
Cooling CORSAIR H50 water cooler
Memory 8 GB of Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB)PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1 TB
Display(s) LG FLATRON W2361V 23"
Case RAIDMAX SMILODON
Audio Device(s) HD Realtek
Power Supply Two 1000W ULTRA X3 wired together
Mouse Logitech G9x Laser
Keyboard Corsair K65 RGB
Software Windows 10 pro
Every hard drive in a modern computer is connected to the system through a storage controller. This controller typically can communicate with the hard drive via a number of different interface protocols. For maximum compatibility many computers are configured in the BIOS to use the older IDE interface protocol to communicate with modern SATA hard drives. This setting is acceptable for the average computer user but IDE lacks support for new technologies such as native command queuing (NCQ) and hot-plugging hard drives (add or remove drives without restarting the computers).

Intel invented a new storage controller interface known as AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) that supports these new technologies with modern SATA hard drives. If you have a hard drive that supports NCQ, it is worth a try to see if your disk performance improves with your workload.

The main problem preventing users from changing the storage interface protocol from IDE to AHCI in the past has been blue screens that could only be cured by undoing the BIOS change or reinstalling Windows. The cause of the problem is the mass storage driver installed when Windows was first setup. Since IDE was enabled at install only the IDE storage driver was configured in Windows. With the AHCI driver missing, Windows cannot read from the hard drive and throws a BSOD with error code 0x0000005B.

Now there is an easy solution that will allow you to switch between IDE and AHCI in the bios and Windows will boot without any problems. The key is to enable the AHCI driver in Windows before you make the setting change in the BIOS.

For most users this will work:

Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci.
Right click on the Start registry DWORD and select Modify.


Set the value to 0 and click OK.


Now the Start setting should be set to 0.


Reboot and enable the AHCI setting in your BIOS.
If you are using a RAID adapter or other interface try the following:

Open up Registry Editor and naviage to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV OR HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor.
Repeat the steps above.
Not all users will see a major performance improvement with AHCI and a SATA hard drive but NCQ can be very helpful under the right workload. Post your experience and setup in the comments below.

by: Steve Sinchak

link: http://www.tweakwin7.com/articles/44119/improve-sata-hard-disk-performance-convert-from-ide-to-ahci/
 

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
58,412 (7.78/day)
Location
Oystralia
System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
you dont get speed boosts at all, going from IDE to AHCI. you just get some extra features like NCQ and hot swap capabilities.
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
381 (0.07/day)
Location
Lost in space
System Name Geting old
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor BE 3.8 Ghz
Motherboard MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL.. MS-7388 1.0
Cooling CORSAIR H50 water cooler
Memory 8 GB of Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB)PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1 TB
Display(s) LG FLATRON W2361V 23"
Case RAIDMAX SMILODON
Audio Device(s) HD Realtek
Power Supply Two 1000W ULTRA X3 wired together
Mouse Logitech G9x Laser
Keyboard Corsair K65 RGB
Software Windows 10 pro
you dont get speed boosts at all, going from IDE to AHCI. you just get some extra features like NCQ and hot swap capabilities.

that true but at lease you get the added features :respect:
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
381 (0.07/day)
Location
Lost in space
System Name Geting old
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor BE 3.8 Ghz
Motherboard MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL.. MS-7388 1.0
Cooling CORSAIR H50 water cooler
Memory 8 GB of Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB)PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1 TB
Display(s) LG FLATRON W2361V 23"
Case RAIDMAX SMILODON
Audio Device(s) HD Realtek
Power Supply Two 1000W ULTRA X3 wired together
Mouse Logitech G9x Laser
Keyboard Corsair K65 RGB
Software Windows 10 pro
my drive is running in ahci mode no bsod yet
 

95Viper

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
13,304 (2.20/day)
Ah, but under the right set of circumstances, NCQ does improve preformance (not saying speed of the drive).
As, can be seen here:Native Command Queuing.

If data is located in various distributed sectors on a non-ncq HDD drive, then it must retrieve them in order, which may take more rotations of the platter, than on a ncq enabled HDD drive.

@segalaw19800> Use the search function, as there are a number of threads associated with this same topic.
But, glad you got it working to your satisfaction.
:)
 
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Messages
734 (0.12/day)
Location
Golden, Colorado
System Name KAREN / EVA / GHOST
Processor Intel Core i7-950 / AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE / Core i5 3570k
Motherboard ASUS TUF Sabertooth X58 / DFI LP DK 790FXB-M2RSH / Asrock z77e-itx
Cooling Thermaltake Frio / Corsair Cooling™ Hydro Series H50 / Corsair Hydro Series H60
Memory Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 1600 / Corsair Dominator Quad2X4096-8500C5DF / G.SKILL Ripjaws Serie 1600
Video Card(s) XFX HD6950 CF unlocked /XFX HD5770 CF/ MSI R4890 Cyclone
Storage OCZ Vertex 2 60 WD Raptor X WD1500AHFD / Seagate Barracuda /Western Digital 80gb, Toshiba 1TB
Display(s) 2 Acer P215H 21.5 Widescreen / Acer S211HL 21.5 / HP 2009F 20inch
Case SILVERSTONE RAVEN RV02-BW / NZXT Phantom /Bitfenix Prodigy
Audio Device(s) On board / Philips MMS 321 - PC multimedia speakers
Power Supply Ultra X3 ULT40311 1000W / Cosair CMPSU-750TX 750W/ CORSAIR Gaming Series GS700 700W
Software Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 64 bit
I enabled this a few days ago the only difference is my boot time. It takes a long time to boot now. Other than that I guess the extra features can be good.
 
$

$immond$

Guest
you dont get speed boosts at all, going from IDE to AHCI. you just get some extra features like NCQ and hot swap capabilities.

Ive benched my SSD in IDE and AHCI mode. I seem to get a whole 3-4 Mb/s more in AHCI mode over IDE mode. Not much of an increase but Chrystal Mark seems to show consistent results.
 
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
7,704 (1.15/day)
System Name Back to Blue
Processor i9 14900k
Motherboard Asrock Z790 Nova
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 64GB Corsair Dominator DDR5-6400 @ 6600
Video Card(s) EVGA RTX 3090 Ultra FTW3
Storage 4TB WD 850x NVME, 4TB WD Black, 10TB Seagate Barracuda Pro
Display(s) 1x Samsung Odyssey G7 Neo and 1x Dell u2518d
Case Lian Li o11 DXL w/custom vented front panel
Audio Device(s) Focusrite Saffire PRO 14 -> DBX DriveRack PA+ -> Mackie MR8 and MR10 / Senn PX38X -> SB AE-5 Plus
Power Supply Corsair RM1000i
Mouse Logitech G502x
Keyboard Corsair K95 Platinum
Software Windows 11 x64 Pro
Benchmark Scores 31k multicore Cinebench - CPU limited 125w
Ive benched my SSD in IDE and AHCI mode. I seem to get a whole 3-4 Mb/s more in AHCI mode over IDE mode. Not much of an increase but Chrystal Mark seems to show consistent results.

I'm curious as to how it benchmarks..
Most drive benchmarks I have seen are not exactly accurate and realistic.
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
13,846 (1.84/day)
System Name Dark Monolith
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling Arctic Cooling Freezer II 240mm + 2x SilentWings 3 120mm
Memory 64 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Black
Video Card(s) XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Mercury OC Magnetic Air
Storage Seagate Firecuda 530 4 TB SSD + Samsung 850 Pro 2 TB SSD + Seagate Barracuda 8 TB HDD
Display(s) ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQDM 240Hz OLED
Case Silverstone Kublai KL-07
Audio Device(s) Sound Blaster AE-9 MUSES Edition + Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 Nichicon Gold
Power Supply BeQuiet DarkPower 11 Pro 750W
Mouse Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum
Keyboard UVI Pride MechaOptical
Software Windows 11 Pro
AHCI really only adds NCQ feature and slightly lower CPU utilization during intensive HDD operations.
Bandwidth itself won't really change much if at all...
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2004
Messages
1,587 (0.21/day)
Location
Poland,Slask
System Name HAL
Processor Core i5 2500K
Motherboard Asus P8P67 Pro Rev3.1
Cooling stock
Memory 2x4GB Kingston 1600Mhz Blu
Video Card(s) Asus 560Ti DirectCuII TOP
Storage Kingston 120 3K SSD,WD Black WD1502FAEX
Display(s) LG 1440x900
Case Chieftec Mesh Midi
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Corsair TX750V2
Software w8
Plus you get a diffrent driver [possibly newer].

Would actually try it on my dell d630 which has lame corporate OS installed without AHCI enabled but will this work for XP ?

EDIT : self answer : No such key in XP
 
Last edited:

filip007

New Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
151 (0.03/day)
Location
Slovenia
AHCI and NCQ give faster write times and with some proper chipsets like ICH9R/10R/11R the new boards have this function already in i think.
 
Top