Regarding TRIM support for SSDs in RAID0

Some of our fellow Alienware forumers found this message in the "Help" section documentation in the latest Intel RST drivers dated 5th March 2012... Perhaps some of us are already running this driver.

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver 11.1.0.1006

What does everyone think?

I've been curious about this as Hard Disk Sentinel (the disk checking program I always use) suddenly mentioned that "The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance." for my 2x64GB SSDs in RAID0 after I installed the driver (I have a separate 128GB SSD that always stated that message that trim was supported and enabled while the ones in RAID0 didn't) and that line in the documentation that was just recently discovered (who ever thinks to read the manual?!) backs this up in a way.

 

^ The 11.1.0.1006 download page says it's for a Desktop board. Is it ok to use this 11.1.0.1006 on a laptop (Mobile board)? (The latest one for mobile that i see on their site is 10.8.0.1003 and i currently use this older version.) Thanks.

 

When I install it, the device is listed as "Intel(R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller" so it is somewhat aware of it being a mobile version.

 

I'm using it as well and it seems to be doing ok.

I don't think it actually enables trim though, but I'm not sure.

 

Pyr0, where art thou?

 

Thank you Namakai and Cherrybombaz. i have installed the 11.1.0.1006 and it's working fine too.

 

I sent an email to Intel support and the reply I got was that the official version of Intel RST that they support is version 10.8 and that they don't have documentation for future Intel Rapid Storage versions nor for what will be supported in the future.

In the email, they stated that TRIM is supported only for drives not in a RAID volume for Intel RST 10.8 (officially supported).

Indeed there doesn't seem to be any real way to check if TRIM is working or not. I'll try check TRIM indicator using the Intel SSD Toolbox like was mentioned in the AW forums. My read speeds have been very good lately. I saw 290MB/s sequential read where I usually get closer to 250MBls. I'll test write speeds later when I can clear up some disk space.

edit: Checking "Data Set Management Supported" bit in "Drive Details" in Intel SSD Toolbox is inconclusive as the bit seems to always be set to "1" regardless of Intel RST version installed.

Hard Disk Sentinel seems to report that TRIM is working when Intel RST 10.6 or newer is installed.

However TRIM support for SSDs in a RAID0 array is only listed in the Help file of Intel RST 11.0 and newer (currently only Intel RST 11.1).


Here's CDM run one with 11.1:
http://puu.sh/vup2
Maybe an hour later:
http://puu.sh/vupb
A few minutes later:
http://puu.sh/vusR

Looks about usual, I think..

Maybe I need to try with the drive a bit fuller since it's got plenty of space before it needs to write where it's written previously.

I'll run another tomorrow or tonight and depending on how that goes, I'll go back to RST 9.6 and compare.

RST 9.6:
http://puu.sh/vyOp
A few minutes later:
http://puu.sh/vyQU
Immediately after:
http://puu.sh/vyTt

Restart and install 11.1:
http://puu.sh/vyYa
Again:
http://puu.sh/vz1N

Bleh, honestly, I have no idea...