Intel RST 10.1 vs 11.2 and Windows Experience Index Rating

Important Drivers Specific: Intel AHCI/RAID Drivers
1

Hi Fernando or whoever else has any input,

Thanks for creating this site, it very helpful in figuring out ways to improve performance through BIOS modding and driver versions. I am trying to make my computer last another year even though it closely approaching 3 years old and I’m an avid gamer. However, I was updating my RAM and backup HDD this week and decided I would go ahead and update the firmware/BIOS on all devices and reinstall windows.

I have the MSI Big Bang Xpower (MS-7666) motherboard, but it won’t take an Intel RST rom bigger than 85KB so I am stuck at 10.1.0.1008 as MSI tells me there is no way around this. Previously I also used the 10.1.0.1008 driver in Windows 7 SP1 x64 and I would achieve a 7.9 for primary hard disk performance, but after reading your forum I decided to switch to the 11.2.0.1006 driver as it was considered the “best” and would support TRIM. However, having switching to this driver my primary hard disk performance index dropped to 7.3. Perhaps this isn’t a good indication of actual real world performance, but I was just curious why it would drop by over 0.5 a point?

My primary hard drives have not changed, I am running 2x Crucial 64GB C300 SSD drives with firmware 007 in a RAID0 on the Intel ICH10R controller. I didn’t perform any other benchmarks as I just haven’t had time to do so, but I was just wondering if any of you have noticed a drop like this before in the Windows Performance Index just from a driver change.

Also on a side note, I was trying to install Windows 8.1 x64 with a clean install DVD, but it literally takes like 2-2.5 hours to install and once it is done takes 2-3 minutes to boot every time even though I though it was suppose to be faster than Windows 7. In Windows it seems like it installs better, but then leaves the Windows.old folder around and other stuff. When booting from the DVD outside of Windows, it starts reading the DVD like normal then stops spinning for 15-20 minutes then finally the white dots spinning in a circle appears. This also happens after I get past the initial install and it reboots the computer. Has anyone else experienced this?

I tried disabling the Jmicron and Marvell controllers, disconnecting all other USB devices and installing from a different DVD drive, but none of these helped.

- Zaleon

2

@ zaleon:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Besides the fact, that the WEI points cannot be compared with the results of real SSD benchmark tools, it seems possible for me, that the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 is not the best choice for your specific RAID0 system, because you cannot get the matching Intel RAID ROM v11.2.0.1527 inserted into you BIOS. So I would stick with the Intel RST driver v10.1.0.1008 as lomg as you are using your current mainboard.
By the way: If you want TRIM in RAID0 support, you have to insert the "Universally TRIM modded" variant of the Intel RAID ROM v10.1.0.1008.

For a clean Win8.1 installation I recommend to use an USB Flash Drive and the tool named Rufus (you get get it >here<).

Regards
Fernando

3

Hi Fernando,

Thanks for your reply. I did flash my bios with the Intel 10.1.0.1008 ROM modified by CPL0 aka Dufus for enable TRIM. However, if I continue to use the 10.1.0.1008 driver on my system then it won’t matter because any Intel RST driver under version 11 doesn’t support TRIM does it?

Also do you know if the Intel RST 10.1.0.1008 driver works fine in Windows 8/8.1? I can’t find much solid information on it.

Also I just remembered I did alter the stripe size on my SSD RAID0 to 64kb before the reinstall, it normally defaults to 128kb, but my Marvell controller only supports 32kb or 64kb so I thought it would be better for both to be using the same stripe size even though I just have some HDDs on the Marvell. I don’t think this would make much of a difference though.

I will try the USB flash drive tool you suggested for installing Windows 8.1 and see if that works better.

- Zaleon

4

The minimum v11 driver/OROM requirement is only valid for Intel’s official TRIM in RAID0 support, which is only available for Intel’s chipsets from 7-Series up.
As far as I know CPL0’s TRIM modding method will enable this feature for all Intel chipsets from ICH9R up no matter what RAID driver will be used.

I don’t know that, because I never tried to install this driver version as long as I am running Win8/8.1.

5

Fernando,

Thanks for the clarification on the Intel ROM and TRIM support. I will try that 10.1.0.1008 driver and see what happens in Windows 8.1. I guess a tool like TRIMCheck will verify TRIM is working with the ROM and the 10.1.0.1008 driver in Windows 8.1?

- Zaleon

6

Yes, you can either use the TRIMCheck tool or the manual method by using an Hex Editor. You can find a description of both methods >here<.

7

Hi Fernando,

After reinstalling Windows multiple times over the weekend and testing different things, I can confirm that TRIM does NOT work with the trim enabled 10.1.0.1008 ROM and the 10.1.0.1008 Intel RST drivers. I used the 11.2.0.1006 drivers or higher then TRIM worked as intended with my Intel 10.1.0.1008 ROM.

Also Windows 8.1 installed a little faster after disabling the Marvell 91xx controller in the BIOS and recreating my RAID 0 with 128k stripe size on the Intel ICH10R. It was still slow installing, over an hour, but defiantly better than the 2.5 hours it was taking before. I found that the boot up was slow until I activated windows then it seemed the “Fast Boot” actually started working and Windows 8.1 would boot in 13-15 seconds. However, restarting the computer doesn’t use the “Fast Boot” option which is normal and it takes 1.5 minutes to boot to the login screen.

Though while doing some testing on Windows 8.1, I found that my FPS was very low (20-25) in WoW which I play quite often. So after all this trouble-shooting I will be returning to Windows 7 SP1 where my current hardware seems to be happiest.

I will also be using the latest Intel RST driver 13.2.0.1058 as I seem to get the most consistent test results with them through the Windows Experience Index (WEI) score and using Anvil’s Storage Benchmarks on my SSDs. In Anvil’s Storage, I would get a 686 score with the 11.2 drivers, 786 with 12.9 and 768 with 13.2, but I figure the difference is not huge so I will just stick with the latest drivers.

- Zaleon

8

Thanks for your having done the tests and for posting your results.
So there obviously is an Intel RST RAID driver v11.x.x.xxxx or up needed to get full TRIM support within the RAID0 array. This information will help other SSD RAID0 users, who have to stick with the Intel RAID ROM v10.1.0.1008.