AHCI sata worth it?

Hi I neglected to install the intel matrix driver on my new d900c during the OS installation and I can not seem to get the notebook to boot when I change the sata mode in the bios from normal to achi. The concise users guide that came with the laptop stated clearly to install the matrix driver with the OS if you inted to use raid or ahci. So is it worth reformatting to get the AHCI. I am not sure the seagate 7200.2 drives support AHCI as the seagate web site says nothing in the drive specs.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

I enabled raid in my bios for AHCI (single drive mode) to see if there was a performance diffrence.. IN XP you will need to slipstream the matrix drivers onto the install CD.. in vista they are already included. I wanted to see if having BIOS in raid mode to enable AHCI that will allow Native Command Queue, and to see if it would make much of a diffrence as in IDE mode native command queue doesn't work.. for me the diffrence is not there except in a certain programs.. but then its suppost to be also cause less ware on the drive somehow because of the way it buffers. also.. if you enable AHCI you will loose XP/Vista "Enable Write Caching on the disk" and "Enable Advance Performace" in the device manager. some tradeoffs for Advance Command Queue. With this option tho you can always pop another drive in the system for RAID and get better performance out of that.

I wouldn't recommend enableing AHCI unless you plan on using RAID or just have to try out A.C.Q. or if your on VISTA and you don't want to need to reactivate Vista should you ever reinstall with RAID. as your system will look completly diffrent to the OS with this option ON or OFF..

 

Thanks Exratrive. The point appears moot, I have tried two different seagate 7200.2 drives in this machine when I select the drive type to AHCI then hit f10 in the bio the system restarts and the AHCI intel firmware kicks in, it shows the drive then the screen goes blank and the machine never posts. Segate does not say that these drives support NCQ but I would think they have to, several etailers state they do in their specs. Anyway I probably will just stick to normal sata mode, but it bugs me that I can not get this feature working.

 

in order to even view our touch a drive in AHCI mode you need to load drivers in XP setup and install XP with the drivers.. else the system will not ever find the drive. you will not even be able to use any partition program on the drive like partition magic.. native SATA support in the basic of interfaces hasn't been updated like the IDE interface when it comes to partition programs. you can partition a drive in IDE mode then when ready switch to AHCI mode and install in that mode. But thats a extra step you have to remember.

 

Yes that makes sense, my issue is that putting in a new sata drive and selecting AHCI in the bios the computer wont even go to the cd drive to load xp. It hangs in the bios. It may be that the dvdrw drive isnt compatabile, I verifed with segate that these new momentus drives do support NCQ/AHCI.