Intel Rapid Storage Technology question on ssd RAID 0

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thanulee

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I have setup a RAID 0 with 2 intel 330 ssd 120gb. My motherboard is an Asus p9x79 delue and my cpu is i7 3930k. Last time i had my raid setup disks crashed all of a sudden so i had to format and since then i stopped using raid.
Yesterday after another format, I decided to try raid 0 again cause i read that these intel discs support Trim which would give me great speeds in my work. I had hard time installing raid 0, i couldnt find the proper drivers for my motherboard and at the end the drivers on the cd did the work.

So now i have installed my windows but i have this problem. I cannot install Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers (IRST). Gives me a message like this: this computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. I havent quite understand actually what IRST does. Can someone explain to me plz? Do i need it? Btw, I noticed my read speeds were about 900 and my write about 220 but i dont know if these are normal speeds on raid 0 ssd setup.

Also another issue that i face is that i have this Intel Toolbox program, which used to work before raid, but now on raid is like the screenshot i attach.. (i cannot attach actually so here it is http://communities.intel.com/thread/43690 ) Doesnt give me no options all buttons are disabled, despite the fact discs are intel..

If everything is fine as i am, i dont care about none of these. So my question is, do i really need these programms in order for my Raid setup to work correct? Or i should leave things as is and keep installing everything? thank u very much and sorry about my english
 
Solution
popatim
Are the two drives on the grey sata3 (6gb/s) ports? The ones closest to the ram sticks. Put your optical drive on one of the highest numberd sata 2 port.

Reset the bios to remove any overclocks. You can work on overclocking after you get the system stable.

Enable raid in the bios under the advanced>sata section of your bios.
Disbale hotplug for sata6g_1 and sata6g_2

Save and exit then enter the raid bios setup utility by pressing ctrl+I when prompted.

create a raid volume by pressing 1.
- name it. <enter>
- select raid0 for the raid level by pressing theup/down arrows then<enter>
- select both ssd's to be used in the raid by using the arrow keys again and pressing space bar on each one then <enter>
- select a stripe size by...
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The Kasafist

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Raid 0 with SSD from what I hear sometimes have issues try just leaving them as seperate drives Raid 0 also has been known to make SSD slower if not they simply don't improve on their speed since they're already so fast anyhow. Not sure about the concrete evidence though. I know most simply stick to Raid 1 with SSD for back up otherwise leaving them as seperate drives from I have seen, seems to be the best option.
:bounce:
 
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popatim

popatim

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Are the two drives on the grey sata3 (6gb/s) ports? The ones closest to the ram sticks. Put your optical drive on one of the highest numberd sata 2 port.

Reset the bios to remove any overclocks. You can work on overclocking after you get the system stable.

Enable raid in the bios under the advanced>sata section of your bios.
Disbale hotplug for sata6g_1 and sata6g_2

Save and exit then enter the raid bios setup utility by pressing ctrl+I when prompted.

create a raid volume by pressing 1.
- name it. <enter>
- select raid0 for the raid level by pressing theup/down arrows then<enter>
- select both ssd's to be used in the raid by using the arrow keys again and pressing space bar on each one then <enter>
- select a stripe size by using the arrow keys then press enter (use 64k or 128k)
- next it will ask you for the capacity, press enter to accept the default which should be the maximum size.
- press enter again to get passed the warning that all data will be destroyed.
- exit the Raid Bios.

Now you can install windows to the raid. You will need to have the drivers ready as you already know.


edit - and toolbox will not work with the drives in raid mode.
 
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Solution
popatim

popatim

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https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=22676&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%C2%AE+RST)&lang=eng

Is the 64 bit win 7/8 driver you need at windows installation. After you install windows you can install RST if you want but you dont really need it.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.aspx?httpDown=http://downloadmirror.intel.com/22676/a08/SetupRST.exe&lang=eng&Dwnldid=22676&ProductID=2101&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)


I beleive the problem you had installing windows was the hotplug option in the bios, you can't install windows to removeable drives.

*hmm seems to be something wrong with the sites ability to post long url's...
 
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choucove

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Usually when I have seen the above issues with IRST it is because the RAID array is configured on a set of non-Intel controlled SATA ports (such as an additional Marvel controller in the motherboard giving you additional SATA ports) or as Popatim has said, having the drives set to hot-plug enabled. Sometimes if nothing else, you might try and look on the ASUS support page to see if they have a newer version of your RAID driver and the IRST management program to download.
 
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thanulee

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Well, I been searching for 2 days now and that driver doesnt work on x79 chipsets. IRST cannot be installed on my pc, but IRSTe can (intel rapid storage technology enterprise*). Actually i been told in the intel forum, that only Z77 chipsets support trim on raid ssd. I installed IRSTe anyways, i dont really know if it was neccessary or what it does and everything seems to run ok for the moment.

So if i got this right, i need to have my ssd's plugged at the top sata which is intel controller 6 gb and not marvel or something similar (thats how are installed) and i need to disable hotplug option from motherboard? Then i need to install IRSTe or RAID driver during installation and thats about it? And what about speeds? I get 940/240 read/write. Is that high enought for the raid? thank u all for ur answers
 
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Cybershaman

Cybershaman

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Hi, thanulee! :) I think I have the answer to your problem...

Yep, finding the right drivers for Asus motherboards is a pain. They have a habit of sorting things differently or putting the same thing in different folders so you have to painstakingly go through each one, sometimes even selecting a different OS, and comparing each download. I too have a P9X79 Deluxe with a RAID 0 SSD array. I too have also beaten my head against the wall until I finally figured out that I needed the "enterprise" version of the IRST SATA drivers! You can find the latest right here:

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/sata/IRST_VistaWin7_8_VER3601093.zip

Now...having said that, what are we 'enterprise' users supposed to do about TRIM? I kept seeing, as I'm sure you have, talk of the new IRST drivers being able to pass the TRIM command in Windows 8. But, again, those are the NON-enterprise drivers. There IS the latest, hot off the presses IRSTe driver package available at Intel's site but I haven't gotten around to testing it yet. That is available here:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23257/eng/RSTe_and_AHCI_Drivers_GUI_CIM_CLI_3.8.0.1111_2013.09.26.zip

Recently, I read in Maximum PC magazine that there is even some debate if TRIM is even really all that crucial. Each SSD drive, on its own, will independently run its own flush routine. They also said they haven't seen any appreciable degradation of performance in any of their RAIDed SSD drives AS OF YET. They just haven't had an array set up long enough to measure the difference, if any, to compare.

At any rate, I hope this helps. It sucks that it is so confusing so I hope that my head beating will have saved some of your skull... :p
 
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Cybershaman

Cybershaman

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That is correct, sire. Sorry if my previous post sounded like I didn't read your next post. That's because...I didn't... :p

I'm actually about to test the latest IRSTe drivers straight from Intel. I'll post later if something Earth shattering happens... ;)
 
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Cybershaman

Cybershaman

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The other reason to install these drivers rather than just using the default Win8 drivers is that you get a handy program that you can access from the system tray next to your desktop clock. Most of the time you wont use it but if you ever get an indication that there is an error during bootup (it will show one of your drives as bad but will still run), you can fix it by accessing it with the IRSTe application by right-clicking on the icon. So there are reasons why you might want to use drivers other than Windows' own default drivers. That, and well, the TRIM support... ;)

Rock on...
 
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thanulee

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Thank u very much dear friend! Although outdated the info u provided will probably help me on my next format :D I dont even remember what i did in previous one, but i think i ll manage much easier in next one!!

 
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Martins Pecis

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cryan

cryan

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I know that Asus released a RST driver for the P9X79 WS. Prior to that, it was RSTe only. You could do RST if you wanted, but you'd have to install manually. I have mine running 10.6.1013 drivers, which predate the X79 platform. As long as you have the right OpRom in the UEFI (I think Asus added it to later revisions, it's available from other sources otherwise) RAID 0 will have TRIM, assuming you're running a recent version of RST.
 
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