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Currently studying how computers work, I came across the last paragraph of the answer of this link:

Many SATA controllers can enable AHCI separately or in conjunction with RAID support. Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards, which also enables AHCI, rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility (in case you ever want to build a RAID array), since there are some issues that occurs, usually BSOD, when you choose a different mode once an operating system has already been installed.

I don't understand how the author compares RAID+AHCI to AHCI+SATA? or AHCI+SATA over just AHCI?(From the second sentence: "Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards, which also enables AHCI, rather than AHCI/SATA mode")

To my understanding:

  • RAID is about configuring different storage devices to act like one (through the system setup). So it's on software + hardware level.
  • SATA is the combination of a plug + cable + socket. So hardware.
  • AHCI is a piece of hardware which allows your OS to communicate with your storage system. There is also an AHCI mode. So hardware + software.

I don't understand "choosing RAID over AHCI/SATA" or "choosing AHCI over both AHCI/SATA" in this context... Let's say you have 4 drives, configured as a RAID-6 array. Those drives will be physically linked to your motherboard with SATA plugs/sockets, and if you have an OS more recent than Vista, you will likely run AHCI on system setup for efficient communication between your RAID-6 array and your OS. I don't understand how they compare: one is array of drives, one is physical plug+cable+socket, and one allows communication between OS and storage.

In this context, it makes no sense to me to choose RAID over AHCI/SATA or AHCI over AHCI+SATA (depending on the different ways I tried to read this)... Or maybe I'm reading the sentence the wrong way ?

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which also enables AHCI is in a (), and by AHCI/SATA he merely means AHCI mode can also be called (native) SATA mode as opposed to IDE/PATA/legacy mode. You were simply reading it the wrong way. The main idea was just that RAID mode essentially "encompasses" (the features of) AHCI mode, like the former is a "superset" of the latter. (I never cared enough to find out whether that is an accurate idea though.)

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  • The truth is, if you are not gonna make a (fake) RAID, the main concern about the choice is that you'll be using different driver for each of them, which might have their own pitfall / hiccup or difference in terms of quality of code / maintenance.
    – Tom Yan
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 5:07

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