If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
Success!! I double checked all connections and finally powered up.
It went right into the BIOS. It's alive! Temperatures seem to hover at around 118-125 degrees F. The only problem I had was a noisy fan, which was screwed to the case but when I relocated it, the noise was gone. It recognized all the 2GB of memory (2048MB) and the drives. Now that I am in the BIOS, I will need to go very slowly to configure it. I am now very confused at all the BIOS settings and particularly the SATA drives. I really don't know how to configure them. I want to get the most efficiency out of them and am wondering exactly how I should configure them. Just two 320GB SATA drives. NO RAID.;; Just a C and D drive. Per Paul's suggestion, the two DVD burners are on the primary ide channel as master and slave. Can someone please tell me how exactly to configure these SATA drives for the most efficiency since I now need to install the operating system (WIN XP SP1). Thanks all! |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
Ihatefishsauce wrote:
Success!! I double checked all connections and finally powered up. It went right into the BIOS. It's alive! Temperatures seem to hover at around 118-125 degrees F. The only problem I had was a noisy fan, which was screwed to the case but when I relocated it, the noise was gone. It recognized all the 2GB of memory (2048MB) and the drives. Now that I am in the BIOS, I will need to go very slowly to configure it. I am now very confused at all the BIOS settings and particularly the SATA drives. I really don't know how to configure them. I want to get the most efficiency out of them and am wondering exactly how I should configure them. Just two 320GB SATA drives. NO RAID.;; Just a C and D drive. Per Paul's suggestion, the two DVD burners are on the primary ide channel as master and slave. Can someone please tell me how exactly to configure these SATA drives for the most efficiency since I now need to install the operating system (WIN XP SP1). Thanks all! Leave them at Auto ? :-) The board is P5GDC-V Deluxe. Storage devices are ICH6R (one ribbon cable, four SATA) and ITE 8212F with two ribbon cables. The SATA offers: 1) Standard IDE 2) AHCI 3) RAID mode For Standard IDE, the "Enhanced Mode" is the one you should use, as it allows all six ports to be used, and places the controllers in the PCI address space, for use with the default driver in WinXP SP1/SP2. As far as I know, the AHCI and RAID, need the RAID driver (installed via F6 during a clean install or a repair install). The IDE option should be able to use the built-in driver in WinXP SP1 or SP2. AHCI allows command reordering for better performance in server environments. The term used here is "Native Command Queueing". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing If you were running a benchmark such as HDTach, the performance should be no different, because access would be sequential and already optimal, while the surface is being scanned by the benchmark. Presumably, random access, and more than one application thread, would be needed to see an advantage. (One web article I looked at, used IOMeter to try and spot a performance difference.) The advantage might be 10%, if you were serving files to several other interactive computers, from your computer. If simultaneous requests for three different areas of the disk came in, the controller could execute them in a seek time optimal fashion. AFAIK, switching drivers is a "catch 22" situation. If you have any plans of running AHCI or RAID, you should use the RAID driver from day one. This will make RAID migration easier. And might even allow you to change to AHCI mode, as I think it is the same driver. If you are not interested in RAID, and don't want to mess with AHCI, the standard IDE driver native to Windows should do the job. On my computer, the emphasis during installation, is portability. I want the ability to move my disk, to as many other motherboards as possible, without issue. For that purpose, I would pick "Standard IDE", as that offers the best hope of being able to move the disk. While AHCI/RAID are exciting toys to play with, moving the drive later may be a scary experience. If you have a thorough backup strategy, with "bare metal" recovery capability (i.e. a boot CD that can restore the backup image and make a new boot drive), then perhaps you don't care about this quite as much. If you offered me 60MB/sec non-portable storage, versus 50MB/sec portable storage, I would take the latter one. Paul |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
On Jul 27, 10:29 pm, Paul wrote:
Ihatefishsauce wrote: Success!! I double checked all connections and finally powered up. It went right into the BIOS. It's alive! Temperatures seem to hover at around 118-125 degrees F. The only problem I had was a noisy fan, which was screwed to the case but when I relocated it, the noise was gone. It recognized all the 2GB of memory (2048MB) and the drives. Now that I am in the BIOS, I will need to go very slowly to configure it. I am now very confused at all the BIOS settings and particularly the SATA drives. I really don't know how to configure them. I want to get the most efficiency out of them and am wondering exactly how I should configure them. Just two 320GB SATA drives. NO RAID.;; Just a C and D drive. Per Paul's suggestion, the two DVD burners are on the primary ide channel as master and slave. Can someone please tell me how exactly to configure these SATA drives for the most efficiency since I now need to install the operating system (WIN XP SP1). Thanks all! Leave them at Auto ? :-) The board is P5GDC-V Deluxe. Storage devices are ICH6R (one ribbon cable, four SATA) and ITE 8212F with two ribbon cables. The SATA offers: 1) Standard IDE 2) AHCI 3) RAID mode For Standard IDE, the "Enhanced Mode" is the one you should use, as it allows all six ports to be used, and places the controllers in the PCI address space, for use with the default driver in WinXP SP1/SP2. As far as I know, the AHCI and RAID, need the RAID driver (installed via F6 during a clean install or a repair install). The IDE option should be able to use the built-in driver in WinXP SP1 or SP2. AHCI allows command reordering for better performance in server environments. The term used here is "Native Command Queueing". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing If you were running a benchmark such as HDTach, the performance should be no different, because access would be sequential and already optimal, while the surface is being scanned by the benchmark. Presumably, random access, and more than one application thread, would be needed to see an advantage. (One web article I looked at, used IOMeter to try and spot a performance difference.) The advantage might be 10%, if you were serving files to several other interactive computers, from your computer. If simultaneous requests for three different areas of the disk came in, the controller could execute them in a seek time optimal fashion. AFAIK, switching drivers is a "catch 22" situation. If you have any plans of running AHCI or RAID, you should use the RAID driver from day one. This will make RAID migration easier. And might even allow you to change to AHCI mode, as I think it is the same driver. If you are not interested in RAID, and don't want to mess with AHCI, the standard IDE driver native to Windows should do the job. On my computer, the emphasis during installation, is portability. I want the ability to move my disk, to as many other motherboards as possible, without issue. For that purpose, I would pick "Standard IDE", as that offers the best hope of being able to move the disk. While AHCI/RAID are exciting toys to play with, moving the drive later may be a scary experience. If you have a thorough backup strategy, with "bare metal" recovery capability (i.e. a boot CD that can restore the backup image and make a new boot drive), then perhaps you don't care about this quite as much. If you offered me 60MB/sec non-portable storage, versus 50MB/sec portable storage, I would take the latter one. Paul Thank you again Paul. Very good and it solves the final question of IDE configuration. I am on vacation now, so I can play around more and get this thing up. Paul, do you work for ASUS? May I ask you what type of work you do for a living? I am thinking that you are an engineer of some type. Or just tell me it's none of my business. Thanks again, Paul. Your replies are always solid, respectful and thorough. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
Ihatefishsauce wrote:
On Jul 27, 10:29 pm, Paul wrote: Ihatefishsauce wrote: Success!! I double checked all connections and finally powered up. It went right into the BIOS. It's alive! Temperatures seem to hover at around 118-125 degrees F. The only problem I had was a noisy fan, which was screwed to the case but when I relocated it, the noise was gone. It recognized all the 2GB of memory (2048MB) and the drives. Now that I am in the BIOS, I will need to go very slowly to configure it. I am now very confused at all the BIOS settings and particularly the SATA drives. I really don't know how to configure them. I want to get the most efficiency out of them and am wondering exactly how I should configure them. Just two 320GB SATA drives. NO RAID.;; Just a C and D drive. Per Paul's suggestion, the two DVD burners are on the primary ide channel as master and slave. Can someone please tell me how exactly to configure these SATA drives for the most efficiency since I now need to install the operating system (WIN XP SP1). Thanks all! Leave them at Auto ? :-) The board is P5GDC-V Deluxe. Storage devices are ICH6R (one ribbon cable, four SATA) and ITE 8212F with two ribbon cables. The SATA offers: 1) Standard IDE 2) AHCI 3) RAID mode For Standard IDE, the "Enhanced Mode" is the one you should use, as it allows all six ports to be used, and places the controllers in the PCI address space, for use with the default driver in WinXP SP1/SP2. As far as I know, the AHCI and RAID, need the RAID driver (installed via F6 during a clean install or a repair install). The IDE option should be able to use the built-in driver in WinXP SP1 or SP2. AHCI allows command reordering for better performance in server environments. The term used here is "Native Command Queueing". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing If you were running a benchmark such as HDTach, the performance should be no different, because access would be sequential and already optimal, while the surface is being scanned by the benchmark. Presumably, random access, and more than one application thread, would be needed to see an advantage. (One web article I looked at, used IOMeter to try and spot a performance difference.) The advantage might be 10%, if you were serving files to several other interactive computers, from your computer. If simultaneous requests for three different areas of the disk came in, the controller could execute them in a seek time optimal fashion. AFAIK, switching drivers is a "catch 22" situation. If you have any plans of running AHCI or RAID, you should use the RAID driver from day one. This will make RAID migration easier. And might even allow you to change to AHCI mode, as I think it is the same driver. If you are not interested in RAID, and don't want to mess with AHCI, the standard IDE driver native to Windows should do the job. On my computer, the emphasis during installation, is portability. I want the ability to move my disk, to as many other motherboards as possible, without issue. For that purpose, I would pick "Standard IDE", as that offers the best hope of being able to move the disk. While AHCI/RAID are exciting toys to play with, moving the drive later may be a scary experience. If you have a thorough backup strategy, with "bare metal" recovery capability (i.e. a boot CD that can restore the backup image and make a new boot drive), then perhaps you don't care about this quite as much. If you offered me 60MB/sec non-portable storage, versus 50MB/sec portable storage, I would take the latter one. Paul Thank you again Paul. Very good and it solves the final question of IDE configuration. I am on vacation now, so I can play around more and get this thing up. Paul, do you work for ASUS? May I ask you what type of work you do for a living? I am thinking that you are an engineer of some type. Or just tell me it's none of my business. Thanks again, Paul. Your replies are always solid, respectful and thorough. If I worked for Asus, boy, do they own me a lot of back pay :-) I do have a number of their motherboards here. Paul |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
"Paul" wrote in message ...
Ihatefishsauce wrote: For Standard IDE, the "Enhanced Mode" is the one you should use, Yea, this is what I use. No fuss, no muss. But what does the enhanced option do exactly? |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
Revolt wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message ... Ihatefishsauce wrote: For Standard IDE, the "Enhanced Mode" is the one you should use, Yea, this is what I use. No fuss, no muss. But what does the enhanced option do exactly? AFAIK, it places the storage interfaces in the PCI address space. Basically, it means a different driver is used. A driver that is not present in Win98 or WinME. But the driver is available with the right service pack of Win2K or WinXP (or Vista I suppose). The "compatible" mode of operation, places the control blocks in the I/O space. Only four disks can be handled that way, just like the old motherboards used to have. Old motherboards had two ribbon cable, for up to four drives. They used INT 14 and INT 15 for interrupts. The "compatible" mode looks exactly like an old motherboard, to any OS you are using. That allows an older OS like Win98 to install its built-in I/O space driver. But it also means you can only use four disks. Enhanced mode supports more disks, because it doesn't have to look like anything. For example, some Southbridges have room for eight disks, and as long as they all sat in the PCI address space, the PCI driver(s) could use them. For interrupts, PCI allows sharing of interrupts, so all of them could be bound to the same interrupt number. You can get more info here, better than I can explain it. Note that they don't write a specific version for every new chipset, and this doc was only written once, to explain their idea of putting stuff in the PCI space (at base address register - BAR, plus offset). "Serial ATA Controller Programmers Reference Manual" http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...s/25267102.pdf Paul |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Almost there, but confused about SATA selection in BIOS
"Paul" wrote in message ...
Revolt wrote: You can get more info here, better than I can explain it. Note that they don't write a specific version for every new chipset, and this doc was only written once, to explain their idea of putting stuff in the PCI space (at base address register - BAR, plus offset). "Serial ATA Controller Programmers Reference Manual" http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...s/25267102.pdf Paul Thanks a lot for the info. Have downloaded the .pdf for later reading. Yes, I am Revolt, just changed my username to something more fitting. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
A8N-SLi Premium - Latest BIOS? - I am confused | Don | Asus Motherboards | 2 | October 25th 06 12:01 AM |
P5D2-E PREMIUM BIOS not scanning SATA drives and stalling at BIOS | Paul | Asus Motherboards | 1 | February 25th 05 12:50 PM |
Confused about RAM selection | hardsteppa | Homebuilt PC's | 7 | December 22nd 04 03:18 PM |
Confused about RAM selection | hardsteppa | Asus Motherboards | 7 | December 22nd 04 03:18 PM |
7vaxp ultra sata controller bios and SATA data corruption | Dimitris | Gigabyte Motherboards | 0 | December 1st 03 03:18 PM |