Intel RST SSD RAID showing 3 instead of 6

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mhenley

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 21, 2001
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Recently built a new system and I realized I'm not getting everything out of it that I should be.

MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
Intel 4770k @ 4.5GHz
2x Samsung 840 Pro
2x 3TB Seagate HDDs
2x 1TB Seagate HDDs

Before I installed the OS I set the two RAID 0s that I wanted from BIOS with 128k stripe. SSDs are on ports 1 and 2, mechanical drives on 3 and 4, all using the same brand SATA 6 cables. When I installed the OS (Win 7 Ultimate x64) I installed the latest Intel RST application and driver. Everything runs great, but I'm seeing single drive performance numbers when I bench my SSDs. Now I know why.

According to Intel RST the link speed is 3Gb/s instead of 6Gb/s for the SSDs. I'm looking for suggestions on how to get it to recognize these drives correctly.



 
All the ports are SATA 6bg/s ports so it shouldn't matter which ones your plugged into, although I think that the Asmedia controller is better than Intel.
I had a similar problem with some OCZ drives awhile back that were actually reporting they were 3gb/s until I installed the latest firmware.
 
Just updated to latest firmware, (06 instead of 05) but issue still persisted. Also tried rolling back to 12.8 RST, but that didn't help so I went back to 12.9
 
I just noticed something interesting. Immediately after cold boot, one of the SSDs will show 6Gb/s while the other shows 3, then after a few seconds they both go back to three. Bad cable(s)? Bad drive(s)? Any diagnostic software I can use to help figure this one out?
 
Samsung recommended breaking the RAID and running Samsung Magician, which isn't an option. Intel told me to contact MSI. MSI told me to break the RAID and test each drive individually with the manufacturer software.

It was a faulty cable. Labeled as being 6Gb/s capable, but only running at 3Gb/s. That cable is now on one of my non-RAIDed mechanical disks and a replacement has been ordered. My SSD RAID now shows 6Gb/s and I'm happy to finally see benchmark numbers over 1000.
 
Good to see you can actually run intel raid on SSD's now. Personally with 840's I'd do raid1, the speeds are still going to be in the 500+ something range and if one goes down you just hosed your OS.
 
I had considered that, but I keep frequent full-image backups on a 3TB external and have backup drives ready to install and re-image if I need to. If I didn't have an existing backup solution I would absolutely run RAID1, but for now I'm really enjoying the blazing speed that RAID0 offers. Simply put, I can load into a BF4 match and grab a chopper or tank, and I've never been able to do that before.
 
Excuse my ignorance but, this is kinda on subject.

Have the SSDs gotten to the point where TRIM works in RAID.. or is it a moot point with the new drives?
 
Yes, it does matter, and my setup supports it. I confirmed this by using the following at a command line:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

A zero indicates TRIM is enabled and working correctly, a one means that it is not. Mine reports zero.
 
mhenley said:
Yes, it does matter, and my setup supports it. I confirmed this by using the following at a command line:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

A zero indicates TRIM is enabled and working correctly, a one means that it is not. Mine reports zero.
Click to expand...

Ok.. what about on the Intel drives? (specifically 335 series)
 
Post some HDtune or crystal shots of your raid0 on Intel with the 840's.

I would have thought they would be tapping out the chipset bandwidth thus making SSD raid0 kinda useless.

I swore I read some thread about this somewhere.
 
ep0x73 said:
Post some HDtune or crystal shots of your raid0 on Intel with the 840's.

I would have thought they would be tapping out the chipset bandwidth thus making SSD raid0 kinda useless.

I swore I read some thread about this somewhere.
Click to expand...

:)

 
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