Hi I have a question which I have been pondering about. I have an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD and using an Intel P67 based motherboard. Everything is working perfectly. My question is more for educational purposes. When installing a new SSD into a system, I have read that the storage controller mode needs to be set to AHCI (NOT IDE/legacy or RAID) - correct me if I am wrong here? Further to this, once one has installed the OS one would start with drivers as usual. This includes chipset driver's and so forth... Now on Vista & Windows 7, the OS uses the Microsoft generic AHCI driver (Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller) for the storage controller. This generic driver will be updated once Intel's latest chipset drivers are installed (e.g. Intel ICHXX/XX/XX X Port SATA AHCI Controller - XXXX, where 'X' will be different depending on your storage controller). One also has the option to install Intel's RST (Rapid Storage Technology) driver & application. This driver usually updates or replaces the generic windows driver (if any) or even the Intel chipset driver as mentioned above. Now, this is where my actual question comes in.... whats the difference between Intel's AHCI driver loaded via the chipset driver setup and the one used by the Intel RST setup? Furthermore, which one should one use and why?
Sadly I did NOT find much drivers on Asus website, in particular the SATA drivers for the Intel SATA Controller. In device manager I have listed under IDE ATA/ATAP Controllers category the following 3 entries: Standard SATA AHCI Controller. AHCI SATA controller issue code 10. Standard AHCI 1.0 Sata Controller driver - Does it support LBA 48-bit? Solved High Definition Audio Controller Not working (code 10) Intel(r) PCHM SATA.
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to enable advanced Serial ATA (SATA) features like Native Command Queuing and hot swap.
Intel(R) ICH9M/M-E Family 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2929 by Intel compatible with Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller Signature information: This driver is digitally signed Last update. This page contains drivers for Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller manufactured by Intel™. Please note we are carefully scanning all the content on our website for viruses and trojans. This and other SATA Controllers drivers we're hosting are 100% safe. This package installs the software (Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver) to enable the following device. Standard SATA AHCI Controller. Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit; Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit; Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit.
AHCI is built into chipsets with the following controller hubs:
Microsoft Standard Sata Ahci Controller
Intel® PCHM RAID/AHCI controller hub
Intel® PCH RAID/AHCI controller hub
Intel® ICH10R/DO SATA RAID/AHCI controller hub
Intel® ICH10D SATA AHCI controller hub
Intel® ICH9M-E SATA RAID/AHCI controller hub
Intel® ICH9M AHCI controller hub
Intel® 82801IR/IO Controller Hub (ICH9R/DO)—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 82801HEM I/O Controller Hub (ICH8M-E)—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 82801HBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH8M)—AHCI only
Intel® 82801HR/HH/HO I/O Controller Hub (ICH8R/DH/DO)—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 82801GHM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7MDH)—RAID only
Intel® 82801GBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7M)—AHCI only
Intel® 82801GR/GH I/O Controller Hub (ICH7R/DH)—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 82801FR I/O Controller Hub (ICH6R)—RAID and AHCI
Intel® 82801FBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH6M)—AHCI only