P5K Deluxe Wifi-Ap Bios Questions

[Harkin]

Can't find link now, saw it on intel's site somewhere , giving the various features together with access modes.

Storage Performance: PCMark*05
Serial ATA: Native Command Queuing

I noticed in the PCMARK05 link that even the single drive was using the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, when I loaded Xp and loaded up the Motherboard Cd and did the Auto Setup feature it never loaded the Matrix drivers. I thought the Matrix drivers were only for Raid and not a single drive?

[Supershanks]

As I said earlier, you can select RAID in bios, install & run Intel Matrix Storage Manager, without making a raid array.

I find it more convenient to use RAID rather than IDE, or AHCI. AHCI offers little improvement over RAID (comparing single drive operation, but it also doesn't support a raid array, so I see little real benefit in AHCI.

Given the problems of switching axxess modes, Described, with fixes here How to enable AHCI/RAID mode without reinstalling windows (ICH8/ICH8R/ICH9/ICH9R) , I have always opted for raid(admitedly before i saw the Fixes.) to give maximum flexibility.

[Harkin]

Interesting, will have to read thru it tonight

[Harkin]

Ok another Bios question. As default the Bios has PCIE SPREAD SPECTRUM and CPU SPREAD SPECTRUM Enabled. Im not OC and in general ppl turn it off if they OC as they dont go well together. I know the SS causes less EMI to interfere with other devices but how important is it even if Im not OC? Am I not loosing out wih my graphics and Cpu by having SS enabled?

[Supershanks]

Have read some long articles on ss, many believe it's a kind of marketing ploy. Electrical equipment has to comply so you get the spread spectrum options. I always disable it, but it's just a habit. I honestly couldn't say if it impacts OC. If you don't overclock i'd leave it.

[Harkin]

Yeah I suppose, I was just wondering if I was loosing out with it enabled. Especially the PCIE SS as I remember my P5B didnt have that option. As gaming is my main worry I wudnt want my Graphics card to be crippled in any way especially after spending so much on it.

[mroz]

But is AHCI any better ie quicker? IDE just doesnt sound appealing when its a SATA, they shud just have a plain SATA option. When I enabled AHCI on my P5B and I reloaded Windows it asked for a Disk as if it were a Raid setup which I thought was weird

It depends on your hardware & usage patterns. Useful info here.

Re enabling RAID/AHCI after Windows install, if your board has two separate disk controllers (eg ICHx(R) & JMicron), the simplest method I've read:

Move your boot drive to the other controller. Ensure boot order in bios will still allow booting. Boot, let Windows sort knickers, shutdown. Activate Raid/AHCI option for the original controller in bios (with boot drive still on the other controller). Boot. Let Windows sort out drivers for the 'new' hardware'. Shutdown. Move boot drive back to original controller & ensure drive boot order correct. Boot. Hopefully should be okay (nb I've not yet had a reason to do this myself, so not tested by me).