Setting up M.2 NVMe RAID 0 on Z170X-UD5

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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Mar 1, 2015
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I am attempting to setup two Toshiba NVMe M.2 drives on my new Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 mobo. I have followed the instructions in the manual, tried everything I could find on Google, and tried every variation of the RAID/IRST settings available in the bios, but still can't get IRST to see my NVMe drives. The bios can see both of them individually in ACHI and RAID mode, but as soon as enable UEFI, they disappear completely. When I go into the IRST setup is shows "No disks connected to system". I have tried with bios version 5 and 6f but got the same results. I have also tried using a pair of Samsung Pro 950 NVMe drives with the same results. It seems like this mobo does not have support for raiding NVMe drives, even though it says it does. Any suggestions?
 
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true blue 2
Hey folks, sorry for the delayed response on this. After extensive email conversations with Gigabyte support, we came to the conclusion the Toshiba NVMe drives were malfunctioning. The drives (Toshiba THNSN5256GPU7) were on Gigabyte’s QVL, and Gigabyte support proved to me (with screenshots and detailed test notes) that they were in fact supported, and could be setup in RAID without a lot of fuss. Their final recommendation was that the drives were somehow malfunctioning and I should RMA them back to the vendor. The supplier who actually drop shipped them to me (Super Micro) initially resisted the RMA, but the vendor I actually ordered them from (BLT) fought diligently on my behalf and got the RMA pushed through. During all this, I...
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Mar 1, 2015
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Thanks USAFRet. I appreciate your post, but I'm really just looking for some help to make my drives work in RAID mode as Gigabyte claims they should. I'm a 25 year I.T. veteran and a firm believer in RAID, even for SSDs. Benchmarking has proven to me beyond any doubt that my SSDs will read and write almost twice as fast in RAID. Every once in a while, something like this stumps me and I turn to the vast knowledge of my internet colleagues for help. I'm hoping someone here at Tom's will have a brilliant suggestion. Thanks again! ;-)
 
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Joshchen

Joshchen

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May 17, 2016
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I think you can update the bios. But I think it has issue. because build raid 0 read and write speed is lower then only one in the Taiwan media reports.
http://
 
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Mar 1, 2015
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I already tried the bios update, but as I stated, it did not help. I wish Gigabyte had a little better telephone support. I'd like to call them on this one, but haven't had the best of luck with their phone support. They advertise RAID support for NVMe drives at their webpage for this mobo, < http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5480#ov > but there definitely seems to be some issues with it right now. I'm just hoping someone has a suggestion or work-around. This stuff is too expensive to just say "oh well" and throw in the towel.
 
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alston

alston

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Mar 15, 2016
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I hope I can hlpe you. but you are not first one.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2866804/samsung-sm951-pci-nvme-compatible-z97x-ud3h-rev.html

 
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Mar 1, 2015
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I am using the Toshiba 256GB drives listed at the bottom of the NMVe list on the support page. I have a set of Samsung 950 Pro's 256GB, but they don't belong to me, so I have been testing primarily with the Toshibas. Keep in mind, they work fine and my bios can see them as long as i'm willing to use AHCI to set them up. It's when I attempt to set them up in RAID and use Intel RST feature that they disappear. After digging around, I think I've figured out what needs to be done, but can't figure out how to do it on this board. I've read several articles that say that "SSD remapping" is required but there does not seem to be a setting for that in my bios (Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 rev 6f). The second page of this document shows an example of what I have read at several other sites. http://mediapool.xpressplatforms.com/product-files/pdf/1115534-82818.pdf. Does anyone know how to do an SSD remap (may also be called PCIe NAND remapping on some mobos) on a Gigabyte Z170 mobo?
 
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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AARGH! There has got to be more info out there on this! I've been roaming around the internet most of the night, but there seems to be very few articles about NVMe raid and PCIe remapping. I guess I don't understand why Gigabyte would offer the technology and onboard hardware to do this, but make it painfully difficult or downright impossible to do. What good is it to have the hardware and technology on your board if it won't do what it's advertised to do???
 
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alston

alston

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I think this can help you.
but I saw many news or review, said only for AHCI.
http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz/understanding-m2-3xraid0-nvme-boot-performance/
 
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Mar 1, 2015
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Hey folks, sorry for the delayed response on this. After extensive email conversations with Gigabyte support, we came to the conclusion the Toshiba NVMe drives were malfunctioning. The drives (Toshiba THNSN5256GPU7) were on Gigabyte’s QVL, and Gigabyte support proved to me (with screenshots and detailed test notes) that they were in fact supported, and could be setup in RAID without a lot of fuss. Their final recommendation was that the drives were somehow malfunctioning and I should RMA them back to the vendor. The supplier who actually drop shipped them to me (Super Micro) initially resisted the RMA, but the vendor I actually ordered them from (BLT) fought diligently on my behalf and got the RMA pushed through. During all this, I purchased a set of Samsung MZVPV256HDGL SM951 NVMe drives and they worked fine from the moment I installed them. They cost a little more, and have slightly lower R/W specs, but they worked right out of the box and eliminated all the headaches I was having with the Toshiba drives.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. And BTW, for anyone that believes RAIDing these drives is a waste of time and/or has no significant advantages, my Crystal Diskmark tests are showing ~3200 MB/s read (which I believe is near the saturation point for the PCIe bus) and ~2500 MB/s write. Show me a consumer SSD drive of any type that will do that by itself (without RAID) and I’ll consider giving up my belief that RAIDing is the best way to go when you want maximum performance from your drives.
 
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GamerTM

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I'm also going to buy 2 x Samsung SM951 NVMe for my Z170X-UD5 mobo and want to use RAID0.
Would you be able to confirm 2 things for me please?

1) Are you able to boot OS from RAID0 in such configuration? How about multi-boot?

2) Gigabyte website states the following:

"With two PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 connectors onboard, GIGABYTE brings to the user PCI-Express connectivity for SSD devices. Delivering up to 32 Gb/s data transfer speed per connector, the dual M.2 provides an ideal storage solution as it also supports RAID modes.
UP to 32Gbit/s + UP to 32Gbit's"

According to Samsung MZVPV256HDGL SM951 NVMe specification:
Sequential Read Up to 2,150MB/s Sequential Write Up to 1,260MB/s

I'm wondering why you are getting ~3200 MB/s read in RAID0 "only".
If M.2 slots are using two separate x4 PCIe lines, then you should be getting near 4300 MB/s in RAID0. Ok, maybe not exactly as RAID0 is never x2 speed of single drive but still...... I would expect a bit more than 3200MB/s.
I'm just wondering where is the limitation?


OK, all is clear now.
"The Z170 chipset, however, is limited by DMI 3.0 to about 3.4GB/s sequential performance for read and about 3GB/s for sequential writes."
So the thing advertised by Gigabyte is simply not true.

Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/7553/samsung-950-pro-pcie-gen-3x4-nvme-ssd-raid-report/index.html


 
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true blue 2

true blue 2

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Hi GamerTM.

For question 1, yes, I am able to boot my OS from these drives in RAID 0. You will have to have the Intel RST “boot” drivers available during the initial OS install, but once they are in place, you are good to go. My computer is cold booting Windows 10 in about 7-8 seconds with these Samsung drives in RAID 0. As for multi-boot, I haven’t tried it, but am guessing it will work fine. I would recommend a little research regarding the OS’s you’ll be using before you get started though.

As for question 2, it sounds like you’ve answered that one on your own. Yes, essentially the 3200 MB/s read speeds are a DMI limitation on the PCIe bus. I’ve seen plenty of posts out there to help verify that. As for the write speeds at 2500 MB/s… 1260 MB/s x 2 = 2520 MB/s, so my benchmarks there are right at full-throttle.

Just be sure to have the IRST driver ready on a flash drive (or CD, DVD, External HDD, etc.) when you install your OS and the Samsung drives should be very cooperative with everything else.
 
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A

AndrewJL

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Mar 5, 2017
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Thanks for this post. I’m also considering adding dual M.2 SSD drives to my new build as my OS boot drive, but I haven’t found many encouraging posts on this topic. It sounds like you have solved for this, so I wanted to share my specs with the community and get some feedback.

Here’s my build:

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z170 GAMING 5 ATX (GA-Z170X-GAMING 5)
CPU - Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz Skylake (BX80662I76700K)

For the RAID 0, I’m considering either two Samsung 960 EVO NVMe - 250GB (MZ-V6E250BW) or just two traditional SSDs (e.g. Samsung 850 Pro).

A few questions I was hoping to get feedback on before I decide:

1.) This was solved by using Samsung MZVPV256HDGL SM951 drives. Would this work with the Samsung 960 NVMe drives (MZ-V6E250BW) or would you suggest sticking with Samsung MZVPV256HDGL SM951?

2.) It was suggested to have the Intel RST “boot” drivers available during the initial OS install on a flash drive. I believe you are referring to the drivers here - https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/55005/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST- Can you provide more details on when/how you would install these during the install? Will I be prompted by Windows install?

3.) I also have four Western Digital Red drives that I want to use for secondary network storage. It sounds like I will be losing several SATA ports when I use the M.2 slots. I was considering using a dedicated RAID controller anyway for the WD drives. How many SATA slots would still be available after I dedicate the NVMe drives to M.2?

Any other tips or pre-cautions are greatly appreciated. I’m surprised there isn’t more information available on this, especially given the performance True Blue 2 is seeing.
 
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