Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) RAID driver v9.6.0.1014 is out!

Nice, under the radar with no announcement at all. I think these are the ones that support TRIM, although RAID support is still a work in a progress.
 
Any performance increase? What's the point of these anyway?
 
nsx241 said:
Nice, under the radar with no announcement at all. I think these are the ones that support TRIM, although RAID support is still a work in a progress.
Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm? Intel's site keeps timing out for me.
 
http://communities.intel.com/message/88022#88022
redux said:
Have you guys checked the read me in the help section? Check out the Help > Creating a Volume> Creation process > Configuring the Volume

“trim support is provided for all volume types except Raid 5 (If your ssd meets ATA-8)”
Click to expand...

Installing them on my laptop now, and I plan to do some testing (with a bunch of writing and deleting) to make sure that TRIM really is working.
 
Just installed these. My benchmark scores (AS SSD and CrystalDisk) were pretty much the same as the msahci driver. Assuming trim is working properly (only time will tell), I'd say these are good to go.

For those wondering, even though it lists support for only for Intel branded Desktop Motherboards, the driver's readme file lists all supported chipsets:

Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology is designed to provide
functionality for the following Storage Controllers:
RAID Controllers:
- Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E/5 Series SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/5 Series/3400 Series SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) ESB2 SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) ICH7MDH SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) ICH7R/DH SATA RAID Controller

AHCI Controllers:
- Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) 5 Series 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH10D/DO SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH10R SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) EP80579 SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH8R/DH/DO SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ESB2 SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH7R/DH SATA AHCI Controller
 
I wish Marvel would come out with a Sata 3 raid driver that would support TRIM for a couple of new Crucial C300s I have :(
 
So can I turn off the weekly scheduled TRIM?

I just have one X25-M, but I have two WD 640's RAIDed that was keeping me from using MS driver before on my Win7 64-bit install.

Help Section said:
• Trim (Microsoft Windows 7* only)
This feature provides support for solid state disks (SSDs) that meet the ATA-8 protocol requirements. This feature optimizes write operations, helps devices reduce wear, and maintains unused storage area on devices as large as possible.
Click to expand...
 
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I installed it on my work laptop (Win7 x64, P8600 2.4GHz C2D, ICH9M, X25-M G2 80GB showing 22.2GB free of 74.4GB in Windows). It was apparently in IRRT mode when I installed, so a few weeks ago I did the registry hacking to get it back to AHCI mode using the MS drivers. Before installing the new drivers (it wasn't quite a fresh boot, but I just copied the drivers and SSD apps over the network, no apps launched or anything), I ran AS SSD Benchmark three times. The first time I got 240-something, the other two I got 270-something.

I updated to the new IRST driver, rebooted, and ran the benchmark again. 350ish. I ran AS Cleaner without the FF option (should "dirty" up the NAND rather than cleaning it). Ran the benchmark again. 350ish. And again. And again. And again. Then I ran AS (Un)Cleaner again, twice back to back. I figure that the multiple AS Cleaner and AS SSD Benchmark (it creates a 1GB file for testing the performance) runs should dirty it up quite a bit without TRIM.

After all that, AS SSD Benchmark says 346. Running the Toolbox Optimizer to guarantee it was clean took about 2.5s. One more run of AS SSD Benchmark gives me 346.

I'm convinced that TRIM is enabled in these drivers.
 
All the Intel branded boards supported by this
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel® Desktop Board D5400XS
Intel® Desktop Board D945GBO
Intel® Desktop Board D945GCZ
Intel® Desktop Board D945GNT
Intel® Desktop Board D945GPM
Intel® Desktop Board D945GTP
Intel® Desktop Board D945PVS
Intel® Desktop Board D955XBK
Intel® Desktop Board D955XCS
Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX
Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX2
Intel® Desktop Board DB43LD
Intel® Desktop Board DG33TL
Intel® Desktop Board DG45FC
Intel® Desktop Board DG45ID
Intel® Desktop Board DG965MQ
Intel® Desktop Board DG965OT
Intel® Desktop Board DG965PZ
Intel® Desktop Board DG965WH
Intel® Desktop Board DH57DD
Intel® Desktop Board DH57JG
Intel® Desktop Board DP35DP
Intel® Desktop Board DP43BF
Intel® Desktop Board DP45SG
Intel® Desktop Board DP55KG
Intel® Desktop Board DP55SB
Intel® Desktop Board DP55WB
Intel® Desktop Board DP55WG
Intel® Desktop Board DQ33HS
Intel® Desktop Board DQ35JO
Intel® Desktop Board DQ35MP
Intel® Desktop Board DQ43AP
Intel® Desktop Board DQ45CB
Intel® Desktop Board DQ45EK
Intel® Desktop Board DQ57TM
Intel® Desktop Board DQ965CO
Intel® Desktop Board DQ965GF
Intel® Desktop Board DQ965WC
Intel® Desktop Board DX38BT
Intel® Desktop Board DX48BT2
Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO
Intel® Workstation Board S975XBX2
 
Is there a webpage on Intel regarding what this does? Some type of link other then the installation files.
 
Meh, can't do anything...

error.png
 
Computurd said:
these drivers support trim in all arrays except raid 5. performance is shit though.
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate? They seemed to work pretty well for InivisiBill...are you talking single drive performance, RAID, or both?
 
hhara said:
Is there a webpage on Intel regarding what this does? Some type of link other then the installation files.
Click to expand...

The details at this point (2 days after release) are almost non-existant. In fact its pretty hard to actually find the drivers straight from Intel's website, and there is no information provided. Like they said, "under the radar".
 
Better driver for me.

The integrated Win7 AHCI driver doesnt work with my LG ComboHD drive (Freeze on bootup). The 9.5 beta did work but started to fail on first boot, this driver works perfectly. Did have trouble with E-SATA hotswap on 9.5, will test with 9.6 later.
 
FYI, you don't need to actually use the installer. You can simply download the appropriate "F6 disk" and point to that location when manually updating the driver from Device Manager.
 
InvisiBill said:
FYI, you don't need to actually use the installer. You can simply download the appropriate "F6 disk" and point to that location when manually updating the driver from Device Manager.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Installed manually. Will post the results soon.
 
Since I installed this driver, I've had an issue with my mouse jumping on the screen. It seems to keep jumping up to the top middle of the screen. I'm THINKING maybe the chipset driver isn't playing nicely with my Logitech MX1000 mouse?
 
This driver tanked my AS SSD score by 30pts. Now I even get a lower score if I roll back the driver.
 
hmz said:
This driver tanked my AS SSD score by 30pts. Now I even get a lower score if I roll back the driver.
Click to expand...

After the first few runs, I was getting improved score by around 2-5 points. A day later, and my score has tanked from 405-410 to 364. I've reinstalled the old drivers, 8.9 as well as the intel tool box, and am running the optimiser. After I've done the optimiser, I'm going to revert back to msAHCI and see if my stats return to what they were.

Yup, just confirmed it. Even after a trim session with Intel Toolbox, and have set drivers back to msAHCI, scores are around the 360 mark. How crap. Now what?
 
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I think I'm just going to stop using AS SSD to benchmark. It doesn't seem to be very consistent. Crystal Mark on the other hand , pretty much gives me the same results every time. Am I missing something?
 
Damnit, and I just finished making my "perfect clean install" with a "lite" version of W7 and newest drivers for everything - imaged with Acronis Home 2010.

Oh wait, never mind. these drivers are out for some time already. Already running them! (go to www.station-drivers.com for your drivers, ESPECIALLY intel!)
 
C-rizzle said:
So can I turn off the weekly scheduled TRIM?

I just have one X25-M, but I have two WD 640's RAIDed that was keeping me from using MS driver before on my Win7 64-bit install.
Click to expand...

Mabye. I wonder if the intel SSD toolbox catches things and TRIM's thing that normal file delete TRIM pass thru doesn't catch?
 
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MooN said:
Sweet... so now I can finally grab another SSD and run raid?
Click to expand...

Um, nothing was stopping you from running RAID before, this driver does nothing to change that. If it's TRIM your looking for, look elsewhere. (where do you guys get this stuff?)


nsx241 said:
Nice, under the radar with no announcement at all. I think these are the ones that support TRIM, although RAID support is still a work in a progress.
Click to expand...

Edit: corrected. Sorry about that. Looks like these drivers should be good for TRIM pass thru, assuming you have everything else in order.
 
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okashira said:
I see this now. So that's where the info is coming from.

http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php?shownews=33366&catid=3

But it seems odd to me that this magazine I've never heard of has this information, yet intel themselves has nothing on TRIM support for these drivers. I get the feeling that these drivers don't support TRIM. Unless someone has another reference ?
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3773&p=2

Intel’s storage drivers (Intel RST 9.6) with TRIM support are expected to be available any day now so you’ll no longer have to rely on Microsoft’s AHCI drivers for TRIM.
Click to expand...
 
GregRotter said:
Yup, just confirmed it. Even after a trim session with Intel Toolbox, and have set drivers back to msAHCI, scores are around the 360 mark. How crap. Now what?
Click to expand...

This is exactly what happened to me. Even with msAHCI, this shit is unable to score over 400pts as it used to.

Get pretty much the same score with Crystal Disk Mark.

After playing with drivers and AS SSD benchmark, the crystal disk info shows Media Wearout Indicator 98. I am sure it was 99 a day before. I don't like this shit at all.
 
My scores went up.

before installing the driver I was getting a score of 429 now its 440 with the RST 9.6 driver.
 
hmz said:
This is exactly what happened to me. Even with msAHCI, this shit is unable to score over 400pts as it used to.

Get pretty much the same score with Crystal Disk Mark.

After playing with drivers and AS SSD benchmark, the crystal disk info shows Media Wearout Indicator 98. I am sure it was 99 a day before. I don't like this shit at all.
Click to expand...

Heh. Mine's been stuck at Media Wearout Indicator = 98 for a long time.
Host Writes are 2.57 TB.
 
These benchmarks are not consistent and shouldn't be considered the one and only tool to use unless you run them on a cleanly formatted drive with a single partition, which tools like HD Tune and Sandra require.
 
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