Just installed my first SSD Drive, Crucial M4 128GB, so far so good! I decided to do a fresh install of Win7 64bit instead of migrating from my old drive, so Windows should already have enabled it's native AHCI drivers during installation. My question is; my motherboard has onboard AHCI controllers for both Jmicron and Intel, should I just run with the native Win7 drivers, or install drivers for either Jmicron/Intel, and if so which one? (What are the differences?) EDIT: Found out that the jmicron controller only controls eSata and one lonely sata port which I do not use, so I disabled the jmicron. The question remains though, Native Win7 drivers or Intel Driver for AHCI, does it really matter?
Normally the Intel driver is a bit better than the default one. Your MB is a bit old now so you are limited to latest 9.x version of the Intel RST. You can find it there: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...sion=Windows 7 (64-bit)*&DownloadType=Drivers
Thanks! Should I ideally be using the F6 installation method during OS installation, or can I just update the drivers directly via device manager?
Just download the STOR_allOS_9.6.0.1014_PV.exe file and run it. It will install everything you need in windows. The other 2 small files have to be used only when installing an OS which is not supporting your controller (for windows 7 it is not needed since you can do it afterward )