AHCI vs. IDE Modes With A SATA 3.0 SSD On Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AHCI vs. IDE Modes With A SATA 3.0 SSD On Linux

Days ago benchmarks were shared from OpenBenchmarking.org that compared AHCI and IDE modes under Linux when it came to the resulting disk performance. There was a fair amount of interest generated out of that so some AHCI vs. IDE mode comparisons from a Serial ATA 3.0 SSD on an Ubuntu Linux host were benchmarked at Phoronix.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=17708

[curaga]

On some mobos AHCI mode slows down boot by several seconds (in the bios phase, as it fires up some code and probes drives). This happen with the test hw?

[e8hffff]

Cool, I've always wondered which is the better performer. Now to check if I remembered to have AHCI after the last bios flash.

[DeepDayze]

On some mobos AHCI mode slows down boot by several seconds (in the bios phase, as it fires up some code and probes drives). This happen with the test hw?

That's the tradeoff for having decent disk performance though on some systems

[Peterix]

If anyone EVER considers using IDE mode with an SSD: DON'T!

In general, linux won't even detect that your SSD supports TRIM in IDE mode. You'll end up with a very slow/useless/ready for low level format SSD, very soon.

[MonkeyPaw]

What I've often wondered is if any additional tweaks are needed when running an SSD with 12.04. Seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there as to what to do to "preserve life" and "increase performance." I know Windows 7 identifies an SSD and configures it differently than an HDD, but I've always wondered what the Linux distros do.

[Vadi]

Me too - and I'd like to hear it from an expert, supported with benchmarks or proof instead of just theory. I've left mine as-is so far - it's running splendidly.

[WorBlux]

What I've often wondered is if any additional tweaks are needed when running an SSD with 12.04. Seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there as to what to do to "preserve life" and "increase performance." I know Windows 7 identifies an SSD and configures it differently than an HDD, but I've always wondered what the Linux distros do.

Align the sectors, enable trim, keep additional free space to trim and wear leveling actually have the chance to work. Everything else is just sort of gravy. Moving swap into tempfs or zCache is great if you have the RAM to do it.

[MonkeyPaw]

Align the sectors, enable trim, keep additional free space to trim and wear leveling actually have the chance to work. Everything else is just sort of gravy. Moving swap into tempfs or zCache is great if you have the RAM to do it.

I've actually disabled swap with seemingly no ill effects. I have 8GB of RAM and usually sit around 1.5-2.0GB usage under normal conditions.

[RealNC]

Most people don't have SSDs, so why not bench disks instead?