Any reason to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver if I won't use RAID?

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DaRuSsIaMaN

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 22, 2007
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Title pretty much says it all. It's one of the drivers on my ASUS CD. I have a ssd and a storage drive plugged into SATA ports, but I won't be doing any RAID stuff. Would this driver still affect anything at all for me? Thanks.
 
You might want the Intel SSD Toolbox at the very least. As long as you have your chipset drivers installed then I don't think that it will affect performance.
 
i run the intel RST without raid. do you need it? i really dont think so. i would recommend the ssd toolbox. that will change a few settings to increase the performance of your ssd and extend its life.
 
I was using the latest Intel 6-series chipset drivers for my DP67BG and with that AHCI driver I got a 7.8 WEI for my SSD. Well when I decided to install the latest Rapid Storage driver my WEI dropped to 7.7 and my ATTO read scores were also slighlty lower. I went back to the 6-series AHCI driver. I don't see any benefit for my PC when I use RST.
 
wasabipeas said:
I was using the latest Intel 6-series chipset drivers for my DP67BG and with that AHCI driver I got a 7.8 WEI for my SSD. Well when I decided to install the latest Rapid Storage driver my WEI dropped to 7.7 and my ATTO read scores were also slighlty lower. I went back to the 6-series AHCI driver. I don't see any benefit for my PC when I use RST.
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Hm, interesting. I guess I shall ignore it, then.

Btw, I do not have an intel ssd. Sorry if that was unclear. This RST driver simply comes with my ASUS motherboard (P8H67-M Evo). But I have a Kingston SSD.
 
What timing.;) I was just researching this question myself while preparing downloads for a new build.

Check out this link on the Product Overview at Intel's website:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020784.htm

Quote : "Whether using one or multiple hard drives, users can take advantage of enhanced performance and lower power consumption."

There's a more detailed explanation within the link.

It sure seems to me to be a good thing. I'll be installing it.
Hope this helps,
 
wasabipeas said:
I was using the latest Intel 6-series chipset drivers for my DP67BG and with that AHCI driver ...
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Btw, is that AHCI driver separate, or does that simply come with installing the chipset driver? I don't really understand what AHCI is all about and what to do. I have it enabled in bios, and I've read that it's better, but that's all I know. I installed the "Intel Chipset Driver" from the list of drivers on my Asus CD. So I don't need to do anything else regarding AHCI?


Grackdor, thanks for pointing that out. I'm actually going to install this RST driver now and see if I notice any better power consumption lol (since the intel article in your link claims it will help with that). I have my PC plugged into a Kill-A-Watt. And I will also compare the WEI before and after.
 
Yes the AHCI driver is installed as part of the 6-series chipset driver package. Of course you will first have to enable AHCI for your SATA controller in your BIOS. You can verify that you have the AHCI driver installed by going into Device Manager and then click on IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. It should be listed there, usually as a SATA AHCI Controller.
 
DaRuSsIaMaN said:
Grackdor, thanks for pointing that out. I'm actually going to install this RST driver now and see if I notice any better power consumption lol (since the intel article in your link claims it will help with that). I have my PC plugged into a Kill-A-Watt. And I will also compare the WEI before and after.
Click to expand...

Ok just to update you guys, I did not experience any difference in WEI between having the RST driver installed vs. not having it. Got identical score of 7.2 for hard disk and 5.9 for overall (I had 5.9 for both graphics and memory categories).

I also did not see a difference in power consumption.
 
I'm not sure how useful wei is for judging any performance differences - if that's what you're trying to compare, probably better off with a real bench.
 
Well, I thought along those lines, too, and I actually did a HDTune test as well. Started doing benches after I already submitted my above post. I ran one benchmark after I uninstalled the Intel RST driver, and one again immediately after I re-installed it (a newer version than what I had installed previously). This is using HDTune free. Result is that I got the exact same average transfer rate:

Before (No Intel RST driver installed):


After (With Intel RST driver installed):


Although, this is not exactly statistically sound since it's only 1 run for each condition. I just ran it again, and actually got a higher average: 184.8. So, perhaps there's some small gain with the driver, but I doubt it.
 
Seems marginal, but maybe falls under the category of "might as well."

In any case, I was wondering the same recently so I appreciate you running those benches - thx!
 
Only need it if you are running raid.

..and the RSD is faster than the Intel RAID driver...so if you are running Raid it's suggested you use the RSD... and the microsoft Raid driver is dog ass slow.
 
Wait a minute ... back to something that was said earlier... can the Intel SSD toolbox be used for other SSDs, not just drives from Intel?

I want to run an error scan. I feel like I should do that with all new drives, and then occasionally as I keep using it. It seems to me that the free version of HD Tune is not really optimized for that... should I try out this Intel SSD Toolbox thing?

(Sorry about veering off the original topic.)
 
Ok I'm confused about this Intel RST thing again. It seems like it's never running anymore. What's the point, then? When I look at my icons in the task tray (I keep it hidden), the text next to the icon always says: "Intel RST service is not running." (See screenshot below.) When I was investigating this whole thing before, it used to actually be in the on state. That is, the task tray icon indicated that it was running. I don't know what was going on back then or what I did that might have been different from my normal computer operations these days. But somehow something used to make it go into the on state, whereas now it seems to be in the off state perpetually.

Weird. Perhaps running the benchmarks turned it on?? But I believe that even if I didn't run any benchmarks, it used to go into the on state. And now apparently it doesn't.

So I'm still baffled by this Intel RST thing.

EDIT/P.S.: Here's the screenshot:



Sorry if it looks weird. I'm using a shell replacement, SharpEnviro. But it's still Windows 7 Pro 64.
 
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The service itself may only run when you activate the RST console. The driver would still be active, just not the service. I know I have clicked on the icon before and it shows the spinning circle on it while it starts the service, but I've never just hovered over the icon.
 
I don't know what was going on back then or what I did that might have been different from my normal computer operations these days. But somehow something used to make it go into the on state, whereas now it seems to be in the off state perpetually.
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Seems the RST console is on a delayed start but mine always started.

I'd try reinstalling the program to restore the settings.
 
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