The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Windows 7 install on T400 with SSD-need to enable AHCI in BIOS?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by nambis, May 31, 2013.

  1. nambis

    nambis Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    33
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm new to SSDs and will be doing a fresh Win7 install on my T400. I've read that one should enable AHCI in the BIOS before installing Windows, but I can't find good confirmation of this. Can anyone tell me if this is something I need to do on my T400?

    Thanks!
     
    nambis, May 31, 2013
    #1
  2. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    982
    Messages:
    5,162
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    216
    I don't think it is technically required, but yes, you should do it. Usually people use the compat setting with Windows XP to avoid having to load compatible AHCI drivers. No worries on that issue with Windows 7.
     
    Thors.Hammer, May 31, 2013
    #2
  3. PatchySan

    PatchySan Om Noms Kit Kat

    Reputations:
    3,971
    Messages:
    2,248
    Likes Received:
    221
    Trophy Points:
    81
    It would be recommended to enable AHCI mode so your SSD can perform optimally by enabling the extra features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) for example.
     
    PatchySan, May 31, 2013
    #3
  4. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

    Reputations:
    7,588
    Messages:
    10,023
    Likes Received:
    1,077
    Trophy Points:
    581
    SSDs work in IDE mode, but you want AHCI in order to get the best performance out of your SSD. WEI isn't the best of benchmarks, but a SSD in IDE mode, usually gives you a score of 7.3 as opposed to 7.9 for AHCI in Windows 7.
     
    tijo, May 31, 2013
    #4