NCQ support on MSI K8N Neo 2 platinum socket 939.

[Gankutsuou]

I recently bought 2 NCQ drives. I don't know if NCQ is available for my type of mob.

It's a MSI K8N Neo 2 platinum on socket 939.

Can someone tell if NCQ supported?

 

[imported_Kensai]

I don't think so. It's an nForce 3 board and last that I heard, it didn't support NCQ.

 

[keeleysam]

I actually *think* it does, but I'm too busy to look it up in the manual.

 

[codegrinder]

in device manager under the ide controllers i was able to right click and go into the options and turn it on.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally posted by: codegrinder
in device manager under the ide controllers i was able to right click and go into the options and turn it on.

But the chipset itself doesn't support NCQ, which is one of the features of SATA II.

 

[Gankutsuou]

Hmm, I will check it out this week end.

 

[Gankutsuou]

Originally posted by: FastEddie

Originally posted by: codegrinder
in device manager under the ide controllers i was able to right click and go into the options and turn it on.

But the chipset itself doesn't support NCQ, which is one of the features of SATA II.

I was not aware of this. I wonder why some SATA 1 drives are NCQ enabled if only SATA 2 boards can run the protocol.

 

[FastEddie]

That's a good question. I'm betting that it's a software anomoly of XP, recognizing that the drive is NCQ capable. However, the sata controller itself must be able to utilize NCQ, and afaik, it can't as it's not supported.

 

[igr111]

nVidia nForce 3 SATA controller does not support NCQ. nForce 4 chipset is the first to support this feature. You can always buy a separate SATA II/NCQ PCI controller, which shouldn't be that expensive.
From the reviews and benchmarks I've read, NCQ is of minor help. I doubt you will notice much improvement in day-to-day tasks. I think we won't see amazing leaps in HDD cache technology until Longhorn ships with it's support of hard drives with some sort of built-in memory controllers, for the lack of a better name. So, I would say save your money for a WD Raptor or technologies with tangible benefits.