Maximum PC

Okay, I just installed an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD. I then cloned my OS and some programs over to it. That worked out fine and the computer is running off it as the C: at this time.
So here I have questions. As of right now, everything is still in IDE.
1. Is there better performance in ACHI mode vs IDE?
2. Are there things that happen automatically in ACHI vs IDE or vice versa?
3. Does TRIM work automatically or do I need to implement it?
I'm not 'up' on ACHI vs IDE or TRIM therefore the questions.
I do know that if I had done a clean install I could have at that time set ACHI in BIOS and then ACHI would have been set in Windows during install. I also know that there is a procedure to set it AFTER install. That requires changing the registry.
Since the clone works fine I'm not going to go back and do a clean install.

The only two major features you gain from AHCI is hot swapping and Native Command Queuing (NCQ). NCQ is only useful on hard drives. So on an SSD, there is no real benefit to switching to AHCI. But you should probably do it anyway.

TRIM is also activated by default on Windows 7. I'm thinking it's activated by default on Vista SP2. Windows XP doesn't support TRIM.

Since you cloned your OS to the SSD, I think you should disable the automatic defrag that runs in the background in Windows 7. Just my $.02 worth.

Windows 7 will disable this automatically for SSDs.