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XPS 15 9550, AHCI or RAID config for EVO 970 upgrade?
Hey,
I just brought a "1TB Samsung 970 EVO" to upgrade from "476GB NVMe THNSN5512GPUK NV (Raid)".
After researching how to install it I found conflicting information on whether to run the drive in AHCI or RAID configuration. My system is currently in RAID with the Toshiba drive, and i read that the Samsung drivers / Magician software doesn't work in RAID mode and has to be in AHCI. I'm planning to do a fresh install of windows and don't know which configuration is best to set it too. I also heard that changing the configuration later either too or from AHCI / RAID can mess windows up, so i want to get it right the first time.
I'm running the latest bios version (4th May 2018) and my system specs are:
Dell XPS 9550: i7 6700HQ, 16GB RAM, GTX 960M, 4K
and the aforementioned 476GB NVMe THNSN5512GPUK.
Any help appreciated,
Thanks
jphughan
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August 1st, 2018 20:00
If it helps reassure you, I can confirm that ejn63 is correct. If you'll be doing a clean install, then AHCI is the way to go. The only exception would be if you planned to install Windows 7, in which case you'd want to go with RAID because Windows 7 doesn't natively support NVMe, and using RAID mode allows the Intel RST controller to abstract the physical storage interface from the OS, which means that by installing the Intel RST driver in that configuration, you can run Windows 7 from an NVMe device. That's partly why Dell has historically defaulted to RAID mode on systems in the past, but now that Windows 7 is going away, I suspect this may change.
ejn63
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August 1st, 2018 13:00
You cannot use Samsung Magician in RAID mode - so if you want that, it's AHCI (which is likely the better option anyway).
Diethyl
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August 1st, 2018 15:00
Thanks for replying, I am leaning towards AHCI. I just want to know for sure, before i go ahead and do it :)
Diethyl
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August 1st, 2018 20:00
Thank you very much! That clears everything up, just the answer i was looking for :)
BumSr
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August 29th, 2018 20:00
I have a Samsung 970 evo 500 GB on order to upgrade my XPS 15 9570.
A local company will be doing the upgrade for me. I believe that I will be OK with just cloning the existing SSD (presumably they have the appropriate software and hardware to be able to do that) rather than going through a fresh install because they will do that for only $30 instead of charging me $75 for a fresh install.
I understand that with a fresh install you should change RAID to ACHI. What is the proper procedure if you can clone the existing drive? How important is the Samsung Magician software? If it is not essential can the BIOS be left in the RAID configuration and the Samsung 970 evo will still work?
What would you recommend?
Thank you.
samos1111
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August 30th, 2018 05:00
AFAIK Dell officially supports only RAID, where the SSD is handled by the Intel RST driver.
AHCI used to be preferred because it would allow the use of the Samsung NVMe driver instead of Intel RST, because it would allow faster performance. Not sure if this is still the case. By default, the Microsoft NVMe driver is used under AHCI, which is not known to be better than IRST (AHCI was mainly recommended for SSDs that had better NVMe drivers from their factories).
Samsung Magician can be used to monitor SSD health and update firmware, but I think it is not important generally.