HOW TO: Windows Installation Thread (includes SATA III, SSD Upgrade, RAID0 Discussion)

The link is dead because Intel pulled the latest version of 11.5 due to a memory leak. You can download it from my Google Drive folder [ Download Intel RST 11.5.0.1207] if you would like to use it. I never noticed an issue with a memory leak on my system, but I don't leave it on when it is not in use. Or, you can download the previous version [ Download Intel RST 11.2.0.1006] which, for some reason, Intel also pulled from distribution. Both versions work fine for me.

 

good stuff, if there is a leak issue, i'll just put in 16gb of ram lol. i'll probably just do 11.5 to see if it gives better performance than 11.0 for my SSD.

a side question, probably off topic but thought i would ask it in here. after i installed intel storage software thing it shows and listed all of my drives. two WD drives at 3gbps even though one of them is in 6gbps bay. SSD of course showed a 6gbps and finally an external sata port and after connecting my raid enclosure to it, shows up as 3gbps. question is where are the remaining two ports as i believe there are total of four Sata II and two Sata III right?

 

Good question. I don't know if it is simply a port numbering issue or something else. I've noticed that on my system also and don't know the answer. It may also be the HM67 chipset can support up to 6 SATA ports but we only have 4 that are not enumerated sequentially. I would love to know the answer to this question.

As far as your WD HDD, even if connected to a SATA 3.0 6GB/s port it will show 3GB/s if that is the limit of its speed capacity. So everything is fine with that unless it is one of the rare SATA 3.0 6GB/s HDD.

 

hey mr fox check this one out SSD RAID 0 TRIM Confirmed - Dreams Do Come True

m18x peeps seems to be the first to get to try trim on raid 0 but as their article shows with the vantage, looks like has to be on OROM bios mod or 77 chipset.

 

I don't think that the CrystalDiskInfo thing that they mentioned is valid as that was more likely due to a change in the CrystalDiskInfo software itself: History

I think the rest looks pretty good.

 

i think we just need people to do that vantage test without the OROM bios thing or 77 chipset to see if its jsut driver

what crystaldisk thing? the blue color they had? its just a skin lol
or were you refering to their bench results which is pretty similar to tweaktown and i think its valid, if you have a 8xcorsair performance SSD as boot drive..

 

The LPM fix I mentioned is in this post.

 

I am trying to figure out how my roommate's single SSD is out performing my SSDs in Raid 0, I just looked in RST and noticed that one of my SSD is running at 3GB/s and the other at 6GB/s. How do I go about resetting the one SSD or do I have to go thru a process of pulling the CMOS battery etc?

Apparently I solved my own issue. I will run tests to check that it stays at 6GB/s but I just had to upgrade RST and it seems fine now. :-/

 

Cool, killaz05. Glad you got it sorted. If the slowdown happens again, go into services.msc and change the setting for RST to "Automatic" instead of "Automatic (Delayed Start)" and that should cure it. (It did for me.)

 

Well I found a new issue. I noticed still that my System is no were near as fast as my roommate's single OCZ vertex 3 SSD. So I looked up some info and ran a ATTO benchmark on it. I see that this benchmark is widely used so I went with it. I compared my results to those with similar drives and noticed something is very wrong.


Does anyone have a clue as to what could be wrong? Those write speeds are really low and then the read drops heavy near the end. I ran it multiple times with the same result.

 

killaz05... I cannot remember... did you clone the OS from HDD to SSD or do a clean Windows installation? (I ask because cloning from HDD to SSD almost always produces a poor result.)

As your Corsair SSD have a Sandforce controller, it will not offer the best performance available in an SSD, especially with incompressible data. Try running a CrystalDiskMark 500MB test with compressible and incompressible data and see how much difference there is in read/write performance. I suspect the results may be similar to the Agility 3. Below are test results with my own drives for comparison.



Compared to Crucial M4 128GB with Marvell Controller...

 

This was a fresh install. It has while a while ago since I installed windows onto the drives.

 

I added more info to my post with some test results you can compare to. If your results are similar, you may be able to give the credit for mediocre performance to Sandforce Technology. Given the opportunity to start over again, I never would have purchased any SSD with a Sandforce controller. I knew better and did it anyway based on price, so I am living with my own poor choice. I still have the pair of Crucial M4 drives, but 128GB each is just too small to be of much value to me. Next time it will be either a pair with a Marvell or Indilinx controller (Samsung, Crucial or Vertex 4).

 

I see what you mean


I guess I will have to look into different drives for better performance. I suppose games are considered uncompressed data and that is why my roommate's single SSD is able to out perform me.

 

nice CDM results on ur agility 3 mr fox.. i just couldnt stand a single HDD speed lol especially with more files on it drop it's read/write speed. however in raid 0 for HDD its different, speed almost stays at constant sure beats the hell out of me. im still very tempted to try SSDs in raid0 but will probably wait till i get R2 or R3.

 

Thanks for this tip, Mr. Fox - it always bugged me that it took a while before the Intel RST would load up after windows had already booted to desktop. I wonder why it was installed with: Automatic (Delayed) as the default setting?

 

That just seems to be the default setting for the RST service. All versions seem to be that way. I always change it on my systems and it works better. Maybe Intel does that because some systems may need delayed startup to avoid problems.

 

mr fox, are there any special tweaks for SSD in both single drive/ raid other than power management, device manager and installing latest IRST driver 11.5?

because i cant seem to get decent benchmark from both CDM and HDT, especially sequential read/write and 4k read/write. always seems to be 30-50% less than what some people gets. i understand the reviews uses superior system and better beta firmware for benchmarking purposes, and they dont install OS on the drive they are testing, always had their OS drives. i just dont see how it would matter so much with only window installing on the SSD would drop its performance so much.

any special steps / orders for tweaks i should do including the ones i mentioned above?

ps. i do do heavy writes and daily image backup/restore and also video rendering, but i do give it a few hours to do its trim/garbage collection before doing benchmark again.

 

Have you put your pagefile on the HDD? That may help some. Disable Windows Search/drive indexing also.

Have you confirmed Write-caching is enabled on the drives and array? Do this in Device Manager for the array and enable disk caching for each member drive in RST. See screen shots below to confirm your settings...


(click image thumbnails to enlarge)

Hope this helps.

 

i have pagefile disabled, its set to 0 MB on the SSD so it is off right? i have had window search disabled but thats via the services.msc, not window search from control panel -> turn window features off/on location. turning window search off via control panel method will disable searching permanent and i had that on, but the service is turned off. drive index is off.

for the 1st picture, i have write cache on, i did not check with with IRST im not very familiar on navigating through intel's software, i will check around it and get back soon.

thanks for the help man

 

ok i checked with IRST, and it does say cache enabled. i do know that firmware still doesnt fixes trim for my sandisk yet so im not too worried on low write speed as it will bounce back up if i let it do its garbage collection for a day or so. my sequential write is up there in the 490-500s, but 4k is only around 32mb/s and was hoping for at least 35 with OS installed on it under compressible data.

i tested it with 100 and 500 mb size with CDM. only thing i have not turned off now would be window search..

 

Ok here is my quick question,

in M18X R2, can I set up this type of configuration at one and same time:

2 x 256GB SSD as RAID 0 (using on SATA3 channels)
+
1TB HDD (using as ACHI on SATA2 channel)

Raid array would hold OS installation and softwares just like major C disk, and 1TB HDD would serve as storage Drive.

Need your input people, Thanks alot!!!

Mario

 

You cannot independently configure individual SATA ports to run with RAID0 on some and AHCI on others. However, the good news is, setting the BIOS to RAID takes care of that for you. Setting the BIOS to RAID is the best setting to use even if you have only a single HDD. So set it to RAID and your drives will work perfectly in the manner you want them to.

For information specific to the configuration of drives in the M18x R2, (which includes an extra HDD/SSD space in the caddy and an mSATA slot,) please read this thread:

M18x r2 hard drive configuration - What about 3x 9.5mm hard drive?!

 

So by setting RAID0 in BIOS I actually can define which drives make as RAID0 Array and which not to, those untouched would run like ACHI mode standalone from array, correct?

Thanks for quicky!

 

Well, as Mr. Fox said, you can't have two modes operating simultaneously....it's either raid or ahci. All your drives would be operating under the raid setting but not all of them need to be part of that raid. In fact, all you need do is to create the raid between the two SSD's and ignore the HDD. That will take care of itself.

 

Exactly, so in practice it is possible to have it configured like I wanted to

So my steps would be install SSD's in port 0 and port 2 which are SATA3 ports, and then after making RAID array and after OS installation I just install my 1TB HDD in port 1 which would be SATA2 port and have my configuration workaround done?



Thanks crew for the tips!

 

Exactly. That's all you need do to get the drive configuration you want :thumbsup:

 

cool thing is, window 7 ultimate built-in raid isnt as good as alienware's hardware raid ive tested both of them in raid0. win 7 is amazing though, given enough CPU power it should do well.

2x black scorpio 750gb in raid 0 gave me 230mb/s read and 210mb/s write via win7 raid, and alienware gave me 240 and 220.

 

On the subject of the 11.5 memory leak, I'm still using it without any issues. I normally shut my system down when I am not using it. Out of curiosity I left it on all night to see how it would look and it turns out to still not be a problem for me. I plan to continue using it until the next Intel RST 11.5 or 11.6 update. See below...

I've never tried using the Windows 7 software RAID0 before. My desktop does not have a native RAID controller (ICH7 chipset) so I will try that the next time I need to do an OS install. It will be interesting to see how the two 500GB Barracuda HDD work in that configuration.

 

The memory leak isnt HUGE but it does slowly creep up when it doesn't/shouldn't need to. I doubt it's anything to be concerned over - especially if you have more memory than 4gb.

 

UltraGSM, make sure that 1TB drive is not 12.5mm but 9.5mm. If it's 12.5, I won't fit along two 7mm SSDs.

 

Yea its slimline 1TB drive alright, I had fat one before It wouldnt fit many laptops, this one does just fine same height as my other SSDs

cheers

 

TBoneSan - here is what you were asking in the M18x Pre-Order Configuration Questions thread.

Creating a RAID0 membership within Windows works fine. You don't want to clone a Windows installation from HDD to SSD because it usually results in performance issues. But, since you already have Windows installed on SSD, you can install a matching SSD and create the RAID0 within Windows, or clone from that SSD to a larger SSD and then create the array within Windows using a matching SSD.

Or, you can create a RAID0 array with two drives for data only and leave your 64GB SSD alone as the boot drive. You can do that using RST software within Windows as well. If I am understanding correctly, this latter scenario is what you are wanting to do and it should not be a problem. You don't need to copy the data anywhere, as the original data is preserved. As a safety precaution, you may want to back up files you cannot afford to lose, just in case (very unlikely) something goes south in the RAID0 conversion/migration process.

 

TRIM still doesn't work on RAID 0 SSD's in Windows 8 on the M18x does it? It's only working on Intel Motherboards that have the 11.5 OROM isn't it?

 

There is a modded BIOS available that has the 11.5 OROM added to it for the R2 and it should enable RAID0 TRIM support. It does not require an Intel motherboard, but it does require the appropriate Intel chipset, which the R2 already has.

 

stupid intel getting rid of Trim raid0 support for 6 series chipset =/ " RAID0 TRIM Another Look"

 

Thanks for the link, unityole. That's a good article... very enlightening. So, for those of us with a series 6 chipset and no 11 series OROM, garbage collection is the most we can expect.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hopefully I'll get a couple of Crucial M4 256's from the postman tomorrow.
I am trying to prepare everything for the RAID 0 install, I think I have most things covered but I have a couple of niggling questions (Apologies if they can been covered somewhere in this monster thread).

Mainly I'm just after some clarification from your already great help.

I already have a boot drive (C) so these 2 new drives will effectively be data storage..

- since I'm not installing windows or a boot drive, can I simply use Intel RTS software from Windows, Boom... easy, no?
- Do I need to mod my BIOS to enable 11.5OROM for TRIM support ?

- Lastly, as far as physically installing the SSD's - should the M4's come with the SATA cables or are they already ready to connect up inside
m18x somewhere around the HDD caddy? or do I need to drag my down to the shop and get some ?

 

Congrats! Those are good drives.

 

OK. All installed! Raid 0 and I believe I also have TRIM enabled.
I'm doing some benchmarks now - they vary quite a bit though.
Ill post them up soon

Big Thanks for your help Mr Fox!

OK. All installed! Raid 0 and I believe I also have TRIM enabled.
I'm doing some benchmarks now - they vary quite a bit though.



Big Thanks for your help Mr Fox!

 

Good job! You're welcome.

 

Nice job Tbone. Be sure not to "back to back" bench the drives.....this will affect the overall scores as the drives do need a bit of time to recover for optimal benching - that's probably why you have varying results.

 

Thanks fellas.
Stevie I didn't know that, thanks for the heads up!

+ 1 Rep

 

TBoneSan, I've just run crystam diskmark with the same settings you used and it seems something is slowing your RAID down. Let's compare settings, but first, run Crystal 5x100 random data and then Anvil's SSD bench from here:

Anvil's Storage Utilities
http://www.ssdaddict.com/apps/AnvilBenchmark_RC2.zip

This is how I am doing:

Spoiler

 

I would recommend comparing your stripe sizes and cluster sizes between the systems. 4k clusters with 128k stripe produces the best overall results for me with SSD RAID0.

 

Mr Fox. How does one set those settings? Or is that what you use for settings when running the benchmark on the ssd's?

Thanks Buddy

 

I must have not noticed your 4k writes, Tbone....they should be considerably higher than that, but you may have been benching the drives back to back and that could be the reason for the low result.

You could turn off drive indexing to improve figures.....go to computer, right click your drive, select properties and at the bottom, uncheck the box that says "allow this drive to have its contents indexed" - it will then zip through a load of files and you WILL get an error window when its finished....just select ignore and that's it....done. Recheck your benchmarks and look for better figures.

 

Hey Guys, thanks for all your help. Thanks DarkSkies for bringing this to my attention (ill post up those other benches your after real soon).
+1 Rep
Stevie thanks, I tried your trick but didn't gain a noticeable improvement.
You're right all right though. My 4K writes suck. I'm sure I've done something wrong so I'm going to re-setup the raid.

UPDATE

Ok so I backed up, formatted and redid the RAID array. I'm sure I screwed up at least a couple of things. I believe the mistakes made were:

- In RST I didn't allow caching
- During the disk management partition I didn't choose a high enough cluster size. I went with 32k or less.

This time I went with 128 striping and 4k clusters like Mr Fox had done. Its worked the treat!



Question is...

Now I have copied back my steam folder from being backed up on a standard HDD, is that going to affect the performance?

 

DarkSkies,

Here is the bench in Anvil's you were after Pretty similar to yours now.

Spoiler

 

Very good. My setup should be a bit slower than yours since I partitioned my array and has more data on it (so it is, good). NTFS 4096 and 129KB stripe is the best choice talking performance. (that's actually valid for any flash-based devices, NTFS/FAT32 work best with 4096 cluster size)

You can do two additional things:
1) Flash an A03 bios for R2 updated with the newest RST OROM, as modified by sv7. You can find it here: M18x R1 - A05 with RST OROM 11.5 - Page 4
This will bring the TRIM capability to your array. You don't get TRIM simply by running latest RST drivers. You also need the onboard Option ROM running recent RST firmware. You can see the OROM version right after your switch on your laptop or you can check it under {RST}/Help/System Report. If your orom is x =< 11.0.x, you should have TRIM already (but nonetheless update to 11.5 to be sure).

Anvil should display that as well, but apparently RC2 doesn't anymore. Older versions did, though. Also note that Anvil has a "Trigger TRIM" option. This can always come handy. I also belive that Anvil is the best SSD benchmarking tool there is. Just look at its accuracy.


2) You can also disable Windows write-cache buffer flashing in the Device Manager and then enable write-back cache in RST. This should increase the performance of your array a bit.

Spoiler