I have a Dell 540 Studio, with the latest BIOS. (Motherboard: 0M017G A00) I just bought a Corsair Force3 120gb SSD to use as a primary drive together with data storage on the existing SATA HDD (WD 640gb 7200rpm). I have not connected it up yet, but some forums seem to indicate there is no AHCI option on this motherboard / BIOS. Will a SSD work, & if so what option do I need to select, assuming there is no AHCI? I assumed my motherboard would have this option. Or can I enebale AHCI through Windows drivers / registry tweaks? (or is this needed in addition to enabling it in the BIOS? Or am I wasting my time with an SSD on this system?
Not sure about your mobo my friend but this our guide on enabling AHCI mode after windows install: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676
thanks Dell's support seems to say I must set it as Raid. Should I do this for both the SSD & secondary HDD?
Yes. You should* be able to configure your board for RAID which should* enable AHCI features. With the SATA controller is set for RAID, both drives will operate in Non-RAID Drive Mode – meaning they are operating in a single drive only configuration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface *Notice I used “should” several times, as I’m not absolutely certain of the specifics of your board. You can find more details about your board with CPUID; post some specs of the details and post back. http://www.cpuid.com/ Edit: I found this, let us know if this is correct. Mainboard Dell Inc. Model 0M017G A00 Chipset Intel P45/P43 Rev. A3 Southbridge Intel 82801 JR (ICH10R)
