Well, not scared exactly. That would make me a wuss. More....apprehensive. Y'see I was dead excited at the prospect of linking up my c300 128GB and installing Win7 (64bit), but I stupidly did a bit of searching about on that internet thingy and have got myself in a tizz. I now have several Q's, and trust you guys more than Google I have ordered a Highpoint Rocket 620 as recommended by custompc mag, (and a sata 3 cable - I had no idea they were different. i was going to use a sata 2 cable until I saw there were special sata 3 cables. Have I made the first gulible error here?) Anyway, on with the questions: 1. ACHI? I am told this is a must. I am currently running IDE mode. I am also told that all firmware updates etc MUST be done in IDE mode. And also that optical drives prefer IDE mode. Soooo, with the rocket add-on card, how do I tell which mode thats in? Is it software driven? In which case does it need drivers in order to install win7? Or could I end up installing in IDE mode by mistake and ending up with suboptimal performance? Or is it driven by the BIOS, like the onboard sata2 ports? 2. Once installed, there seem a lot of people discussing the merits of one sata/raid driver over another. And I get confused easily. Do I just let win7 find the "optimal" driver and leave it at that? 3. Any tips on the best way to move settings/steam installs / programmes from my mechanical HDD (which is staying as a data drive) would be greatfully appreciated. I want an SSD to speed things along, but I've wasted hours worrying about these stupid things. Bet it will be worth it though. Thanks guys. Seriously appreciate any input. Edit: Current PC= MSI p55 gd65, i5 750, Titan fenrir, GTX260 (rev 2), 4GB 1866 DDR3, Be quiet 650w, Samsung f3 1TB HDD, xtreme gamer Sblaster, Antec 902 Case. Win 7 64bit
Ah cack, now I read that the highpoint rocket only works as sata 3 if you stick it in a 16x PCI-E slot. It advertises that it works in a 1x, 4x, 8x and 16x, but only actually works as Sata 3 in a PCI-E 2.0 slot. Otherwise it stays as sata 2. And if I use my other 16x slot thats just gonna dump the 1st PCI-E 2.0 slot that my GPU is in down to 8x because of the onboard PCI-E controller on my i5. I don't know what to do now.
To be honest mate, you'll be MORE than happy just using the on-board SATA3. I am on my board (UD3R) and it's more than fast enough. I'm running a 64GB C300.
You have PCI-E 2.0 though and PCI-E 2.0 @8x offers the same bandwidth as PCI-E x16 So just stick it in the other slot. The graphics card performance wont change.
From what I've heard (don't just take my word for it, do some research as I may be wrong) running your graphics card in an 8x PCI-E 2.0 slot does not bring serious slowdowns compared to running at 16x. Rumor has it, even 4x may be enough for today's video cards.
I think he was more concerned abotu the PCI-E x8 on his sata 3 card running @ sata 2 speeds. I beat you too the punch on both anyway by some seconds.
TBH I was repping all of you, including you Slizza, but hadn't clicked the clicky. Check now and you will be repped up Very happy that the sata3 issue is resolved. If anyone wants to try their hand at the ACHI thing there may be more +rep available. (Ooo I love this, its like repping is currency )
thanks for making thread + replies.. helpful stuff to I'm sure a bunch of other people including myself edit - prices just dropped 30-40 bucks at newegg .. for all you in the states
Amazing isn't it? I'm a keen CustomPC reader but I think they have read too much ******** on the internet with their "omg 8x/4x" stuff.
Just to update the thread, I installed my C300 with no problems at all. Win7 (64bit) is immensly better than I thought. After switching to ACHI mode, windows installed fuss free, and when I went through looking for auto defrag etc, everything was already "tweaked" for a SSD. Windows recognised it and (like "Mr Muscle") "did the hard work, so you don't have to" ATTO scores (max) Windows ACHI driver Write 149407 Read 284963 Intel ACHI driver Write 148855 Read 285569 Rocket 620 sata3 card Write 134892 Read 374561 BUT! The smaller files were MUCH slower on the sata3 card and it took 10secs (ish) to initialise the card at every boot, so total windows loading was actually slower. The system "felt" better without the sata3 card and it has now been shoved in a drawer.
This may be of interest, not specific to Corsair drives... http://www.corsair.com/solid-state-drives/force-series/cssd-f120gb2-brkt.html Click on the "FAQ" tab and scroll down, there are three pdf documents which discuss optimising Win7 for SSD use, as well as checking that TRIM is enabled.
Nice article Ph4ZeD, I wonder what the performance would be like using a single card on the X4 slot, I assume its much the same story as sli on x4/x4. I might have to test it out myself actually.
