IDE vs. F6 SATA driver install on WinXP Pro & Speed Improvements?

[Savage1701]

I am using an Asus P5W64-WS MB, XP Pro SP3, and an older 74GB WD Raptor. I've never really messed around with doing the "F6" installation of RAID drivers when installing XP. Instead I've always just selected the default in the BIOS where the SATA drive is treated like an IDE device and I did not have to install the drivers during OS installation. I currently see under a speed utility that my Raptor is giving transfer rates of 85MB per sec. maximum, 24 MB per sec minimum, and 73 MB per second average.

My question is this - what sort of improvements might I see if I did a clean install of XP Pro and configured the drive as an SATA drive using the F6 driver installation option during install?

Also, is it worth going to a RAID 0 configuration if I am going to do the SATA thing? I would be using the ICH7R controller for that.

Finally, what does the AHCI option allow, and is that used with the IDE or F6'd SATA driver installation?

Thanks for any help.

 

[kimsland]

The HardDrive is working off the same speed on PATA or Sata.
The F6 is usually used for Sata Drives that require extra drivers
The Raid 0 is not the safest idea, and in actual fact normally I would say, don't do Raid anything if you're unsure.
AHCI info found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

 

[CCT]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hard-disks/average-read-transfer-performance,658.html

 

[Savage1701]

Thanks for the further info. Very interesting read on synthetic benchmarks vs. real-world improvements in RAID 0 configs.

 

[captaincranky]

Not With XP.....

Finally, what does the AHCI option allow, and is that used with the IDE or F6'd SATA driver installation?

Thanks for any help.

You've probably figured this out by now, but "ACHI" (the native single drive SATA mode) can only be run under Vista, not with any flavor of XP. So, it's either IDE or RAID.

 

[CCT]

'You've probably figured this out by now, but "ACHI" (the native single drive SATA mode) can only be run under Vista, not with any flavor of XP. So, it's either IDE or RAID.'

I beg to differ - I ran that successfully on an Asus P5GD1 with a Raptor under XP Pro with no problem.

 

[SNGX1275]

By selecting IDE you lose NCQ ability I believe. Some benchmarks can be found here.