Thank you natakuc4 for replying on an old post.
I am running win 7 64 bit ultimate with every update and I am up to date on OS according to microsoft upddate.
The only 2 dell driver updates that say the same thing "Your computer does not meet the minimum specifications. Application will now exit" are R263958 (Intel Rapid Storage Technology, v.9.6.0.1014, A02) and R233884 (Intel Matrix Storage Manager - Notebooks, v.8.9.0.1023, A0).
I did go to tried using later ones direct from Intel: downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx and Intel seemed to have the same version and had the same result. I ran Intel's inpsection software for driver searches and it only provided an update to wifi card.
When I replaced my SATA HDD with a SATA3 SDD my goal was to obviously improve performance score on an already good 1st gen quad core i7 system. The SATA3 SDD is backwards compatible with SATA1 & 2 so I do not understand how there could be any conflict for the drivers installing this time when I have had all along. I just want to continue to run in AHCI to take advatage of any addtional processing performance which is needed.