No announcement yet.

Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

    Hi Everyone,


    On my Windows 7 (x64) computer I have just migrated from a RAID0 array to a Solid State Drive. My computer is about 4 years old, and when I built it RAID0 was a good answer for increasing system performance. Of course SSDs have come down a great deal in price over the last couple of years so upgrading with an SSD now makes sense.


    The motherboard in my computer is a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and it is currently set to RAID within the BIOS. More specifically I have configured a single RAID0 array using two hard drives (to boost read / write times).


    It is my understanding that in order to get maximum performance from an SSD the correct BIOS mode is AHCI. However if I set my BIOS mode to AHCI I will no longer have access to the data on my RAID array.


    Will leaving the BIOS set as RAID (rather than setting it to AHCI) reduce the performance and / or longevity of my SSD?


    Any advice here will be greatly appreciated.


    Kind Regards,


    Davo

  • #2
    Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

    Short answer, no not at all.

    All the features of AHCI are a part of RAID, at least for Intel chipsets and drivers. Intel actually classifies AHCI as a "subset" of RAID.

    Any single drives that are not part of a RAID array, like your SSD, are treated by the Intel IRST driver in the same way in AHCI or RAID mode. So you still have TRIM, NCQ, hot-plugging, etc, with single drives. No need to change from RAID mode to AHCI for your SSD. I set my SATA mode to RAID whether or not I have any RAID volumes, and I'm a long time SSD user.

    My only question is, what version of the Intel RAID software are you using? Are you using Matrix Storage drivers, or the new IRST?

    Your board's ICH10R SATA chipset can use both, but the Matrix drivers were written before TRIM existed, and I'm not sure they work fine with TRIM. They really should not affect TRIM commands, but drivers written with an older SATA specification may discard instructions that are unknown to them, such as TRIM. The Intel RAID driver on your board's download page looks like a Matrix Storage driver. Your ICH10R will work with up to IRST version 11 drivers, per their specs.

    I have never migrated from the Matrix RAID driver to the IRST RAID driver, with RAID volumes created with the Matrix software. That may not be possible.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

      Hi parsec,

      Thanks for the great information here. I believe that my computer is running the Gigabyte Drivers. Following are the ones that I remember loading from a floppy disk back in the day -



      Out of curiosity I decided to have a look at the RAID volume under Device Manager, and I was surprised to see that this is an "unknown" -



      and...



      Furthermore when I attempt to update the driver using the "Search automatically" Windows functionality I am met with "Windows was unable to install your RAID Controller".

      I am going to download some drivers again from the motherboard homepage. However at this stage I think it is safe to assume that I do not have the Intel RAID installed.

      Kind Regards,

      Davo
      Attached Files

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

        Hi parsec,

        A quick update. I downloaded the Gigabyte SATA driver package (as illustrated in my last entry), from GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 775 - GA-EP45-UD3R (rev. 1.1), and extracted it. I then went into Device Manager and "manually" updated the driver, with the end result being the screen capture below -



        As can be seen above this seems to have loaded both the Gigabyte and the Intel drivers, however I am almost 100% that Windows is using the Gigabyte drivers. Is there any way that I can check this before Windows loads?

        Any further help here will be greatly appreciated.

        Kind Regards,

        Davo

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

          Definitely using the Matrix Storage Manager!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

            Originally posted by Mr Davo View Post
            Definitely using the Matrix Storage Manager!

            The OROM can be different than the driver and it usually is. That screen does not tell you what driver you are using only what OROM is in your BIOS. If you want a newer OROM it should be available in a new BIOS or it can be injected into a BIOS file.
            Jon Coulter Storage Editor TweakTown

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

              Check your EP45-UD3R mobo user manual and you'll see that it has Gsata2 ports that are different from the Intel sata2 ports. Your best performance will use the Intel sata2 ports. The Gigabyte sata2 drivers are only for the Gsata2 ports.

              From page 10 in the user manual:
              Code:
              [B][COLOR="#0000FF"]Storage Interface[/COLOR][/B] 
              [B][COLOR="#800080"]South Bridge:[/COLOR][/B][INDENT][LIST][*]- 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices[*]- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10[/LIST]
              [/INDENT]
              
              [B][COLOR="#800080"][COLOR="#800080"]GIGABYTE SATA2 chip[/COLOR][/COLOR][/B]:[INDENT][LIST][*]- 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices[*]- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices[*]- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD[/LIST]
              [/INDENT]
              
              [B]i[COLOR="#800080"]TE IT8718 chip[/COLOR][/B]:[INDENT][LIST][*]- 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive[/LIST]
              [/INDENT]
              Q9650 @ 4.10GHz [9x456MHz]
              P35-DS4 [rev: 2.0] ~ Bios: F14
              4x2GB OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 1094MHz @5-5-5-15
              MSI N460GTX Hawk Talon Attack (1GB) video card <---- SLI ---->
              Seasonic SS-660XP2 80 Plus Platinum psu (660w)
              WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB (data)
              Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD (boot)
              SLI @ 16/4 works when running HyperSLI
              Cooler Master 120XL Seidon push/pull AIO cpu water cooling
              Cooler Master HAF XB computer case (RC-902XB-KKN1)
              Asus VH242H 24" monitor [1920x1080]
              MSI N460GTX Hawk (1GB) video card
              Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Speakers
              win7 x64 sp1 Home Premium
              HT|Omega Claro plus+ sound card
              CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS
              E6300 (R0) @ 3.504GHz [8x438MHz] ~~ P35-DS3L [rev: 1.0] ~ Bios: F9 ~~ 4x2GB Kingston HyperX T1 PC2-8500, 876MHz @4-4-4-10
              Seasonic X650 80+ gold psu (650w) ~~ Xigmatek Balder HDT 1283 cpu cooler ~~ Cooler Master CM 690 case (RC-690-KKN1-GP)
              Samsung 830 128GB SSD MZ-7PC128B/WW (boot) ~~ WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB (data) ~~ ZM-MFC2 fan controller
              HT|Omega Striker 7.1 sound card ~~ Asus VH242H monitor [1920x1080] ~~ Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Speakers
              win7 x64 sp1 Home Premium ~~ CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD U.P.S
              .

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                The Gigabyte ports are the two purple ports next to the old IDE port.

                You clearly are using the yellow Intel SATA ports for both your RAID 0 volume, and your SSD. You finally installed the full Intel RAID driver on your board, and given what I see on your board's download page, it seems to be an Intel Matrix RAID driver, given the version number (8.9.0.1023.)

                The good new is the Intel SATA ports are completely separate from the Gigabyte ports. Don't even consider changing your RAID drives to the GSATA ports, leave them where they are on the Intel ports.

                I forget if Intel recommends using the Matrix RAID/AHCI driver with SSDs. I also don't know if the Matrix RAID OROM will work with an Intel IRST driver. Any idea Bill?

                I killed my socket 775 board (with ICH10R) a while ago, so I can't check the OROM - driver compatibility. My only concern here is TRIM pass through with the Matrix RAID driver to the SSD.

                Do you feel confident enough to use a modified BIOS as Bill suggested?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                  Ive never tested RAID TRIM with matrix OROM but, from what I heard you need an 11+ series OROM to have TRIM with RAID. Intel, However does not say you need any particular OROM just the driver.
                  Jon Coulter Storage Editor TweakTown

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                    read through this thread Raid0 and TRIM Support on Intel 11.5 OROM and Latest v11.5.0.1184 RST Drivers ? this is where it all began. all the info you need is there even a link to a guide that shows you exactly how to inject a new orom into your bios. OR you can ask stasio to mod a bios for you.
                    Jon Coulter Storage Editor TweakTown

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                      Thanks guys. At this stage I am happy to leave the BIOS as is, the SSD is behaving ok. If it does become an issue I will revisit this and consider a custom BIOS. However in all likelihood by the time the SSD becomes and issue I will be well and truly ready for a computer upgrade.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                        Originally posted by Bill Gates View Post
                        read through this thread Raid0 and TRIM Support on Intel 11.5 OROM and Latest v11.5.0.1184 RST Drivers ? this is where it all began. all the info you need is there even a link to a guide that shows you exactly how to inject a new orom into your bios. OR you can ask stasio to mod a bios for you.
                        Yeah, that's RAID 0 TRIM, which is not what I'm thinking about, and does not affect the OP. I'm just wondering if there is any reason the Matrix driver would mess up normal TRIM to a single SSD.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                          Originally posted by parsec View Post
                          Yeah, that's RAID 0 TRIM, which is not what I'm thinking about, and does not affect the OP. I'm just wondering if there is any reason the Matrix driver would mess up normal TRIM to a single SSD.
                          No it wont, TRIM is a function of Windows. The only time the driver affects TRIM is when You are running an actual array
                          Jon Coulter Storage Editor TweakTown

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Will keeping my BIOS set to RAID affect my new SSDs performance?

                            Originally posted by Bill Gates View Post
                            No it wont, TRIM is a function of Windows. The only time the driver affects TRIM is when You are running an actual array
                            Yes I know, but I thought I saw a statement by Intel somewhere that said the Matrix driver would interfere with TRIM and non-RAID drives. I should have saved it for myself. Again, I really don't know and was wondering about this, but you're probably right.

                            I also saw somewhere that RAID 0 TRIM needed the SSD to support UDMA 6 or better, ever hear of that one?

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X