Assistance w/ SATA AHCI and Intel RAID controller on Intel x99 mobo

[ejp]

Hello LTT, 

 

I recently installed a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD in my pre-made Alienware Area 51 desktop PC that only came with an HDD. In short, when I would boot to the fresh W10 OS and check in device manager my SSD would always be on the SATA RAID controller instead of the standard SATA AHCI controller, and because I am not using raid and only use the SSD for booting to the OS and programs and the HDD for storage, I wanted to get the performance benefits of AHCI. Unfortunately, because the Alienware desktop came pre-made with a custom BIOS, it is the only BIOS that does not have AHCI or RAID option to simply enable or disable, so I had to move my SSD to SATA slot 4, my HDD to SATA slot 5, and my optic drive to SATA slot 6 on the motherboard, and for some reason, only when connected to SATA slots 4-6 on the mobo do items show up under the SATA AHCI controller in device manager.

 

Now under Standard STA AHCI Controller in Device Manager I have 3 items: my SSD, my HDD, and my optic drive, but now when I go to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver it says "The setup program ended prematurely because of the following error: this platform is not supported" and the Intel SATA RAID controller no longer shows up. Thus, my questions are as follows:

 

- Does anyone have any idea why only when my drives are connected to SATA ports 4-6 do they appear under the SATA AHCI controller despite all of the SATA ports appearing to be the exact same?

 

- I know Intel Rapid Storage Technology has some minor benefits for HDD's so I am considering moving the HDD back to SATA ports 1-3 which would make it appear under the Intel Chipset SATA raid controller again, but this mean HDD is connected to SATA port 1-3 and my SSD/optic drive are connected to SATA ports 4-6. Because I am using my SSD as the main OS boot and program drive, is there an adverse effects of having my SSD boot drive connected to a port number behind my HDD? I don't know if having my boot drive connected to a SATA port # greater than my HDD would give me any problems at all, or does what SATA port your drives are connected to on the mobo even matter for performance or anything at all?

 

- Given the slight performance benefits of AHCI for drives not in RAID, would anyone recommend that I keep all 3 of my drives under SATA AHCI controller?

 

- From what I understand AHCI only provides real benefits to SSD's, but would my HDD benefit from being under the SATA AHCI controller too, or should I move that one to appear under the Intel RAID controller so I can then install Intel Rapid Storage Technology? What overall setup would you recommend for the best performance?

 

Please reference attached images: The 1st image is device manager showing the SATA AHCI controller and the Intel RAID controller I'm talking about, and the 2nd image shows Device manager in connected device view with all 3 of my drives under the SATA AHCI controller and the Intel RAID controller disappeared, and the 3rd image shows when I had my SSD and my HDD in SATA ports 1-3 and they were incorrectly showing up under the Intel RAID controller instead of the SATA AHCI controller.  Please be as detailed in your response as possible so that I can take advantage of the opportunity to learn from such a knowledgable community. Thank you :).  

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