Intel Rapid Storage Technology Should I install it?

Is Intel Rapid Storage Technology really necessary? Because whenever I enabled Link Power Management I get constant freezes in-game for about 5-10 seconds.

 

Not necessary. Especially if you are using a legacy BIOS for any raid setups. Actually I think you can even use most of the features in some UEFI.

 

The only time you need to install it is if you have a RAID setup. Especially with these new NVMe Drives, it is absolutely useless as the NVMe controller handles all the SSD operations so installing it will mean nothing if you don't have RAID.

In the past, on older versions of Windows, back in the days of SATA SSDs/HDDs, it was recommended to install the IRST driver ONLY if you don't have a RAID setup as the IRST Driver has a newer/better controller driver but on Windows 10 and again, with the introduction and popularity of NVMe SSDs, it is pointless.

 

Oh, I guess it's completely useless for me, I don't know why MSI installed it in the first place.

 

All notebook manufacturers install it on every single laptop, don't ask me why, I guess they just blindly install all the drivers on the drivers disc without knowing what they're doing.

I remember one friend of mine bought a cheap Acer Jokebook for like 800 USD which only has a 512GB HDD and nothing else yet he still had the IRST installed from the factory, go figure!

 

Its because they use HDD. Stock windows drivers performs like crap during HDD benchmark with peak R/W speeds of 60-70MB/s and 20MB/s. With Intel IRST, R/W speeds 100-120MB/s and 80MB/s. As a matter of fact, my older lappies still use HDDs instead of SSDs.
Usually disable power saving for SATA link in IRST or Prefer High Performance Plan to get rid off that limit. At the moment, i'm using the said tweak on my sister's new lappie with HDD.

 

@Phoenix @Vasudev

Aight, I guess this solves my problem, one less driver, don't want to install it since its causing constant freezing during gameplay, I almost smack my laptop the first time playing a game on it, thinking that I paid $3K for a laptop that performs like **** but at the end it's RST is the culprit.

 

The notification area app seems to monitor the hdd/ssd smart health so you might get a warning of imminent failure even on single drive system, though on a single driver system i have never seen any performance boots so i dont not install it myself.

Also does Win10 monitor hdd/ssd smart health anyway?

John.

 

@Phoenix: Will CCleaner be affected by Avast buying out Piriform? Any chances of getting CCleaner Slim version 5.32 at Majorgeeks? So far, official site simply turns up blank page upon clicking Slim Builds Page.

 

No idea yet, it may be rebadged with a new name but only time will tell.

This page load just fine after a while, just leave it for a few seconds: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

AND, let's post in the right thread not to hijack other people's threads!
Avast Acquires Piriform

 

Every time before boot by BIOS and during OS startup.
You can use wmic diskdrive get status in cmd. It just says OK or Fail not detailed data. Use HWINFO/Speccy/HD Sentinel/HD Tune or similar to get detailed info

 

Hi @Phoenix, in this Thread you recommend to install the IRST driver. Here you say, dont install them. What am i missing?

best regards,

mangix

 

Install only manufacturer supplied IRST driver and not stock ones.

 

New tech, will demand other solutions. Re-read @Phoenix post. Everything is explained perfectly well.
See also this link for more info http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

 

I recently had a problem with my new higher end HP Envy notebook ( HP ENVY Laptop 17-ae1xx prod # 1WC57AV ) with an OEM Samsung 1TB NVMe SSD when I would get a 5 second freeze or hesitation mainly when running itunes which would occur few minutes. The system is faster than anything I have ever owned before and should have more than enough horsepower to run itunes without any hesitation at all. Seems that the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) was causing the problem. I looked online for anyone that might have a similar problem but could only find tidbits hinting to IRST as the problem. I thought it might be some sort of setup problem at first. I verified the settings for drive and BIOS were correctly set up by the factory and they all were. After reading your post I got the courage to completely uninstall the IRST program and the itunes hesitation problem went completely away. My boot times are still lightning fast and I see no performance degradation. Why do they install this software on single drive large NVMe SSD units?

 

Because most *not all* techs who build the laptops are too lazy to even think what they're doing, they have the list of drivers for a laptop, install every freakin' thing they have even if it was a single SSD in AHCI

Speaking of iTunes, everytime you install or update iTunes, Apples silently installs a program called bonjour on your laptop which also sucks performance and internet bandwidth as it sends everything you do to Apple.

so go to Control Panel > Programs & Features and uninstall Bonjour.

iTunes will still work fine, it will just warn you that Bonjour is missing when you run it, just hit ok and continue it will still work 100% fine.

you will notice your laptop and internet immediately get faster

 

Let me guess, you fixed it by uninstalling the application?

I do get a similiar issue but it doesn't happen that often for me, like once a week or two and it freezes my HDD (hence freezing some games) for 30 seconds. If you could check the Event Viewer app for any warning containing the ID 129 and the name iaStorA and as description "reset to device raidport0 was issued" i would really appreciate it

In my case it does happen only when playing games that are on the HDD (The SSD runs just fine), i have never noticed it while Steam was loaded (which i have on the HDD) either.

 

Do I need to install Intel rapid storage technology to make my nvme ssd work?
I have alienware 15 R2.

 

If you're using RAID then Intel rapid storage app and its driver is a must for optimal performance.

I think Tim from MG gave us a video on how to remove itunes bloatware addons from MSI installer using 7-zip or WinRAR.
Bonjour like functionality is included in W10, Linux so Bonjour is a waste.

 

At first I just disabled the "Link Power Management" but since I reinstalled Windows I did not install IRST.

Best Regards,

Midas Touch

 

Hi there,
I installed the Rapid Storage Technology on a Gigabyte 1155 M/B with Intel Core i7-8700K CPU and noticed an immediate decrease in boot time, I need it for my online shop in the office.
after that the balls on the Starting Windows screen disappeared while all four were lined up....before they even rotate and collide.
Before installation, they were disappearing after colliding. YMMV. (128 GB M4). This was one of the problems that I encountered when I got in an install