AHCI or RAID?

Hey guys,
I'm using a crucial c300 SATA III SSD and I have it in RAID mode (and my secondary drive is the stock 320 GB HDD) and installed Windows 7 on that (it's on an AW m17x R3). Should I reinstall everything with settings on AHCI or is there no difference? I'm getting lower numbers almost everywhere than what other people have been getting and was wondering if it could be because my pc is set to Raid despite the drives not being identical (as opposed to AHCI). What are your opinions?

 

You oneed to break your Raid. If you are on raid, the max performance of your drives is limited to what the lowest performing drive can do. So your Crucial is runing at the same speed as your regular HDD. Not really a good idea.
So yes, you will need to reinstall.

I am assuming you are in Raid 0?

 

No, just because the controller is set to 'RAID' doesn't mean the drives are in RAID. Just that they'll be able to be (set...).

You should still be able to set it to AHCI mode and the system should boot up properly (though I'd be surprised if the performance is any better).

 

When I switched to AHCI the laptop wouldn't boot. Also, during the boot up, the screen before the alienhead pops up showing both drives and it says "RAID" next to both of their settings. I don't know what that means exactly, but thought I'd mention it.

 

Ok, let's determine first if you run your drives in Raid 0 or not.
Go to your Disk Manager (start menue, right click on 'computer' >'manage'>'storage'>'disk management') and let us know if both drives show up seperately. If they do, they are not in Raid 0, so you don't have to change anything about it here (the controller might still show as Raid).

So if they are not raided 0, you can change to AHCI per these instructions (just switching the mode in Bios will result in the system not being able to boot. You have to do a bit more):
GUIDE - Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 7 Installation - Guru3D.com Forums

 

Thank you very much! I'll do this when I go home tomorrow night!

 

Hey, this is actually not working with me for some reason. I follow the instructions and let the files load during the reboot, but it continues failing starting up.

 

Dave, I will look into it tonight.

 

Thank you!
Edit: It's actually ok though, because I was able to get my numbers up a different way. I'm pretty much where most benchmarks are right now

 

Good to hear that you got up there. Do you know what your MOB chipset is?
I have heared about some being incopatible with AHCI mode (even though it is offered).

 

What's a MOB chipset?

 

sorry, I should have been more clear. Motherboard chipset.

 

Nono, I'm just computer retarded compared to you guys
And I'm not sure, but I think Intel HM67 or something like that. (Whichever one comes with the m17x R3).

 

Sorry Dave, was busy and could not get back to this any sooner.
Well, all I can say, it should work. I am really lost why it wouldn't.
Your chipset is capable of it.
I am sorry for not being any more help at this point.
One more thought, you did check that your drives are not raided right?