Bob,My MB (Asus R3E) will only allow for all SATA ports to be AHCI or IDE. I am going to put my OS on a Crucial C300 SSD and FSX on Velociraptors. In another thread you stated that SSD's perform best on AHCI and mech drives on IDE. Since I can only choose one or the other which one should I choose or should I get a separate PCIe controller for either the SSD or the mech drives? If I should get a separate controller which one would you recommend and should I put the SSD or the mech drives on the separate controller?Rod

Bob,My MB (Asus R3E) will only allow for all SATA ports to be AHCI or IDE. I am going to put my OS on a Crucial C300 SSD and FSX on Velociraptors. In another thread you stated that SSD's perform best on AHCI and mech drives on IDE. Since I can only choose one or the other which one should I choose or should I get a separate PCIe controller for either the SSD or the mech drives? If I should get a separate controller which one would you recommend and should I put the SSD or the mech drives on the separate controller?Rod

Rod; I'd check again...that mobo has three HDD controllers onboard...an Intel ICH10R, a JMicron JMB363, and a Marvell 9128. I'll be surprised if the JMB363 and 9128 are really not separately configurable. You said you were going to put FSX on Velociraptors (plural). If you're going to RAID them together, then you should be using a separate PCIe RAID controller card, preferably with 2GB of hardware cache aboard. Software RAID solutions (i.e. a RAID driver for the onboard ICH10R) are slow, clunky solutions that don't perform well. At any rate, if you really can't configure the HDD controllers separately, I would use a separate PCIe controller card, probably for the SSD in AHCI mode, and the ICH10R in IDE mode for the raptors.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

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You were right Bob, I should have thought of this last night, I downloaded the manual off the Asus website and you can configure the three controllers separately.It seems that I will run the SSD off the ICH10R, should I update the drivers with this oneIntel® Rapid Storage TechnologySupports SATA RAID 5/10 on specific desktop platforms, SATA RAID 0/1, AHCI, and matrix RAID on specific desktop and mobile platformsOS: Windows 7*, Windows 7, 32-bit*, Windows 7, 64-bit....More Windows 7*, Windows 7, 32-bit*, Windows 7, 64-bit*, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition*, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition*, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition*, Windows Server 2003*, Windows Server 2008*, Windows Vista 32*, Windows Vista 64*, Windows Vista*, Windows XP Home Edition*, Windows XP Media Center Edition*, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition*, Windows XP Professional*> 3/23/2010 9.6.0.1014 Latest Driversor this oneIntel® Matrix Storage ManagerSupports SATA RAID 5/10 on specific desktop platforms, SATA RAID 0/1, AHCI, and matrix RAID on specific desktop and mobile platformsOS: Windows 7*, Windows 7, 32-bit*, Windows 7, 64-bit....More Windows 7*, Windows 7, 32-bit*, Windows 7, 64-bit*, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition*, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition*, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition*, Windows Server 2003*, Windows Server 2008*, Windows Vista 32*, Windows Vista 64*, Windows Vista*, Windows XP Home Edition*, Windows XP Media Center Edition*, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition*, Windows XP Professional*> 7/17/2009 8.9.0.1023 Previously released DriversRod

You were right Bob, I should have thought of this last night, I downloaded the manual off the Asus website and you can configure the three controllers separately.It seems that I will run the SSD off the ICH10R, should I update the drivers with this oneIntel® Rapid Storage Technologyor this oneIntel® Matrix Storage ManagerRod

Do some research on those drivers...I remember back when I built my current system about a year ago there were problems with the Intel Matrix drivers and AHCI. Whether or not that's still the case, I don't know.And while you're at it, get the latest JMicron drivers for the JMB363 directly from the JMicron website. The ones that shipped with my eVGA X58 motherboard (and the ones available from the eVGA website) a year ago did not behave well with my Intel X-25M SSD. The updated drivers from JMicron worked OK.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Okay and thanks!