ACHI Mode XP & 7

[toostrike]

I was going to pull the plug on a Crucial 64 GB M4 2.5-Inch Solid State  SATA 6Gb/s drive.The more I thought about,its two small.I would be better off to get the 128 gig version of this SSD.I can put more programs on the c drive avoiding complications.The price per gig is not real cost effective atm, but its all subject to change.Deals are another matter.They seem to pop up,when I'm broke  

I download N-lite so I could  slip-stream the ACHI drivers into a clean install for xp.I plan on using a dual boot xp/7 on a platter for now.I appreciate the link you gave me for the ACHI drivers from AMD vs the older drivers on the Gigabyte site,but I'm confused.My plan is to set up ACHI using xp for now,then when I install Windows 7 I will have the  ACHI mode enabled on xp before I install 7.

I have a few questions.

The current chipset driver I am using  for the 970A-UD3 XP 32 bit is version 8.71 on the Gigabyte site.The AMD site calls this a southbridge driver ,not a chipset driver,and it is version 11.2. Are these both the same,but a newer version?Which version should I use for XP,as far as chipset? Are the AMD chipset drivers universal?Weird how gigabyte doesn't update chipset drivers for a year on there site.  

I could only find the AMD SATA AHCI Driver for xp from the Gigabyte site,so U will use that driver.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3907#dl

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx#3


Can you tell me exactly what changes I need to make in the bios before I install xp with the ACHI drivers.. Again,Thanks so much for the sound advice thus far.

[absic]

The BIOS settings for AHCI Mode will be the same for XP or Windows 7.
Basically OnChip SATA Type - AHCI
OnChip SATA Port 4/5 - IDE

For XP I would recommend that you use the AHCI drivers from the Gigabyte site.

For Windows 7 you do not need to pre-install the AHCI Drivers as the ones included with Windows 7 will work fine. Once you have the OS installed you can then update to the latest version from AMD.

[toostrike]

Ok, that seems simple enough.Just one more question.I promise.Will I get an option in the bios to enable NCQ (Native Command Queuing) after I enable ACHI?Until I get a ssd drive that is one feature I would definitely use.

[absic]

In a word no. This setting is done automatically so you don't need to worry.