Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: Gavster on April 17, 2011, 09:50:36 am
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Hi All,
The Windows Experience Index on my PC is currently 7.1, the lowest rated component being my Primary Hard Disk. This is a bit of disappointment, as my primary hard disk is a solid state drive, and the most costly component in my PC.
I have put off looking at he BIOS to see if the settings are correct, as the hard drive options are fiendishly complex, and in any case, everything seems to be running smoothly, so I have no need to go there. However, I three types of disk drive, and I wondered if there is any settings I should change to get the most out of them.
The drives are as follows:
1. INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC ATA Device
2. Western Digital WD1001FALS-00J7B1 ATA Device
3. WDC WD1600AVJB-63SZA SCSI Disk Device
1 & 2 are connected to my motherboard by SATA cables, the third by an IDE cable.
Is there anything I can do with my SSD to boost the Windows Experience Index on my PC?
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Hi there,
Don't get too hung up on the WE rating as it really isn't very good.
When you first set-up your system did you install the OS with the SATA controller set to IDE or AHCI mode?
If you set-up in IDE mode then you really need to change it to AHCI especially as you are running and SSD. This isn't as straight forward as just changing the setting in BIOS as you will also need to tweak the registry to keep things running smoothly. If this is the case you can easily tweak the registry following this guide: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?69682-Change-from-IDE-to-AHCI-after-Installation I would recommend that if you do this you don't install the AMD AHCI driver as I have found it is not as good as the Microsoft version that comes with windows.
If you set-up in AHCI mode and then installed the AMD AHCI driver you would probably do better with a clean install of the OS and stick with the Microsoft native AHCI driver that is installed at the beginning. You can try removing the AMD Driver but I have found this doesn't always work as well as it should and it is actually easier to start again.
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How would I know if the ATA controlleris set to IDE or AHCI mode? Where in the Bios is this setting?
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It will be in the Integrated Peripherals section and say SATA Control Mode
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Hi
go into BIOS and look under Integrated Peripherals.
There are a couple of parameters to look for the 1st is OnChip SATA Controller (this is enabled by default)
Below that is OnChip SATA Type this is set to Native IDE by default but also has options for RAID or AHCI.
Then you have OnChip SATA Port 4/5 This is usually greyed out unless you change the OnChip SATA setting to RAID or AHCI. When you switch to one of these modes the options become available and it can be set to IDE or As SATA Type.
The next option is SATA 3.0 Support, this is enabled by default but can be disabled if you only want SATA3G/Bs transfer mode.
The Onboard GSATA/IDE Ctrl option allows you to use the two GSATA ports (coloured white) and the IDE connector. This option is again enabled by default.
Onboard GSATA/IDE Ctrl Mode allows you to set up either RAID, AHCI or IDE Mode for the 2 GSATA ports.
You really only need the second option (OnChip SATA Type) to be set to AHCI the others can be left at default settings. If this is already set to AHCI Mode then you are pretty much good to go.
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As suggested, I updated the registry in accordance with the forum post in the OZC technology forum. I have one complaint: it is not really clear what "msahci" registry key is, or what function it performs, let alone what changing the start value from 3 to zero does in the real world. For all I know this step could be a joke, but perhaps someone with knowledge of what "msahci" can enlighten us.
Anyway, after I changed the registry, I rebooted, and then made the following change to the BIOS (which you get to by pressing the Delete key after startup). My next step was to go to:
BIOS-> Integrated Peripherals-> OnChip SATA Type->AHCI
After saving the change, I reboot (once more), but the Operating System will not load and I am left with the following message:
"BOOTMSGR is missing"
One question here: how do I slow down the split second display of the "POST" screen so that I can read it?
The reason why the BOOTMSG is missing is that my computer has moved my Solid State Disk (SSD) from being first in line in terms of boot priority to being third (this maybe caused by switching to ANCHI), so I rebooted once more and executed this additional step:
BIOS->Advanced BIOS Features->Hard Disk Boot Priority
where I modified the list of boot devices so that my SSD is the first boot device once again.
Rebooting one more time, the operating system comes up, much to my delight. Voilà! Windows Experience Index has changed for the better. Now my Primary Hard Disk is shown that was the lowest performing component (7.1) has not become the highest performing component (7.6) in my PC whose overall performance is now 7.4 (due to my graphics). Now I now why I sunk my hard earned cash to by a SSD.
Many thanks for your help, I am most pleased with the result 8)
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One question here: how do I slow down the split second display of the "POST" screen so that I can read it?
You can hold it at any point by pressing the "pause" key.
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Not sure if this is the answer you're looking for with regard to the msahci option that you had to change in the registry.
During the Windows 7 or Windows Vista installation process, any unused storage drivers are disabled. This behavior speeds up the operating system's startup process. When you change the boot drive to a driver that has been disabled, you must enable the new driver before you change the hardware configuration.
For example, assume that you install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a computer that contains a controller that uses the Pciide.sys driver. Later, you change the SATA mode to AHCI. Therefore, the drive must now load the Msahci.sys driver. However, you must enable the Msahci.sys driver before you make this change.
This issue affects only the boot drive. If the drive that you change is not the boot drive, you do not experience this issue.
Basically, changing the 3 to a 0 enables the msahci driver. Not sure why Micros**t does this or why they use these numbers though. :P
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Have you run any SSD benchmarks so see if you are getting the full read/write speeds you should just to make sure. I know your rating has gone up for the better, but still might be an idea to check.
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Is there any performance test you would recommend that is free?
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Good question, in all honesty I don't. I know there are some SSD specific read/write benchmarks you can get.
I don't own a SSD yet, so I am unable to advise as i'm still in the dark ages ;)
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The best and well recognised test is AS-SSD
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The best and well recognised test is AS-SSD
I read that at as "Ass D" .... O_o Too many late nights :P
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Get some sleeeeep Oggmonster! ;D
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The Windows Experience Index may not be very sophisticated, but at least it did help me identify that there was something with my SSD configuration.
In case there are any experts with good insight in the performance benchmarks for Solid State Drives, I downloaded AS SSD (http://www.alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?cat_id=4) as suggested, but I don't have the expertise to interpret the results myself. My only comment is that the results are four times better than my laptop at work which is much older(c. 2006).
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3329/asssdbenchintelssdsa2m1.png)
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8495/ascopybenchintelssdsa2m.png)
(http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6691/ascomprbenchintelssdsa2.png)
If you think there is anything else I can do to get further improvement let me know.
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245 is quite good read speed for a SATA2 SSD. The write speed will always lag behind and is worse the smaller the drive is in general.
My SATA2 Corsair 256GB drive does about 220 read and 160 write so I would be happy with your figures! ;)