How do I enable AHCI mode on a GigaByte Motherboard

It's a setting in the BIOS.    It's usually labeled "IDE mode" or "SATA mode".
Switch it to AHCI

If you have Windows already setup, this might help,
http://www.techpowerup.com/151304/gigabyte-releases-sata-mode-switching-tool.html

Here are the controllers...
Samsung-SSD-Status-for-Experts-Exchange.

I read the articles on ACHI vs Sata and the performance improvement seemed to all be about the

"Native Command Queuing (might improve computer/system/hard disk responsiveness, espcially in multi-tasking environment "

Which seemed to focus on addressing spinning disks. Is it really going to be worth it to change to ACHI on a SSD

Thanks,

Steve

http://www.techpowerup.com/151304/gigabyte-releases-sata-mode-switching-tool.html

How do I determine if my motherboard is one of the ones supported?

Thanks,

Steve

I accidentally setup Windows on an SSD without ACHI and had issues with responsiveness and other issues (i hadn't read this before).      I redid the system using ACHI and everything is running smoother.      From what i've read IDE mode should be fine for SSD also.      ACHI is required if you intend to have hot-swapping drives.

Won't be hotswapping. I have Sata 2 3GB/sec.

Absolutely ACHI is valuable for spinning disks.  ACHI does so much more, like increases the maximum I/O size; adds addtitional opcodes for more efficient read/write operations; lets you do concurrent I/Os and the device reorders commands for efficiency ... just to name a few.

Don't even consider not using ACHI unless you've already installed the O/S without it enabled and can't go back.

>>  How do I determine if my motherboard is one of the ones supported?      <<  post the model plse !

Model GA-EX58-UD5 Gigabyte

As I understand it you can not have raid and ACHI running on the same machine. The port that the SSD (system Disk) is on used to be part of a Raid set. I have two other raid 1 sets for data.

So I believe that I am stuck with having the SSD drive off of the Intel Raid Controller and not being able to use Samsung Magician to tune the SSD. I guess with the mother board just having Sata 2/ 3gb per sec I just will not get the performance that boost that I was hoping for.

I have enabled ACHI in the Bios and done some Windows Updates and now I am getting Blue Screens.

can you post the dmp file?-->windows\minidumps

As I understand it I can't do ACHI and have other drives set up as Raid on the same system