@all:
Update of the start post
Changelog:
Hi,
I apologize if this has been asked before but the 15.7.x raid efi raid roms are not compatible with X99?
Thanks
@davidm71 :
“Compatible“ does not mean, that your system will be 100% supported.
By the way: IAs long as no Intel RST(e) drivers v15.7.x.xxxx are available, it does not make much sense to insert a v15.7 series RaidDriver into the BIOS.
Well what about the 15.2.xxxx release? From your write up in the beginning of the thread it seems like it’s 100 percent not supported. Furthermore it states the the efi raid from from 14.8 is also not supported though the manufacturer of my X99 included a 14.8 version in last bios release. So that information is erroneous. In the old days you could include a newer raid rom branch in your firmware without repercussions. Though I google searched and found accounts of the 15.x rom release causing issues for X99 so fwiw last night just modded everything to the latest 14.8.2.x release.
Thanks
@davidm71 :
The question is: What do you prefer - the newest or the best drivers and BIOS modules for your X99 system?
All Intel RST(e) drivers and RAID modules, which belong to the v15 platform, natively do only support the latest Intel chipsets from 100-Series up and systems with a 6th Generation Intel CPU (Skylake/KabyLake).
If you don’t have such system, you will be able to get the Intel RST(e) RAID drivers v15.x.x.xxxx installed (due to the universal external DeviceID DEV_2822), but I doubt, that you will be satisfied by the stability and performance.
Nevertheless you can try it - it is your decision.
Thats sound advice however I think the first page of this thread needs to be updated to include the 14.6-14.8 branch for X99 as like I said 14.8 was included by the manufacturer of my MSI X99A Godlike bios so one could assume its compatible and judged to be stable for X99 at least by MSI.
EDIT by Fernando: Unneeded parts of the fully quoted post and blank lines removed (to save space)
Where have I written within the start post, that Intel X99 Chipset systems are not supported by the Intel RST(e) RAID ROM/EFI modules, which belong to the v14 platform? The start post of this thread just contains the Intel RAID modules, which I recommend for certain Intel chipsets. As you can read within the start of >this< thread, the v14 platform drivers do support X99 chipset systems, but I personally do not recommend to use them (according to my knowledge the older Intel RAID drivers are better).
I meant that you didn’t recommend the 14.X branch for X99. Curious why you did though and why MSI included it in their bios release? Thanks.
Why should I recommend something, which is according to my knowledge not the best?
Regarding MSI: You should ask them, why they have inserted v14 platform Intel RAID modules into the BIOS of their X99 mainboards. Maybe they have done it for users like you, who want the latest of everything (even if there are better older versions available). Furthermore I doubt, that the mainboard manufacturers take the time to compare all compatible driver and BIOS module versions in AHCI and RAID mode, before they release a new generation of mainboards. I have done it with a lot of different Intel chipset systems from 6-Series up (look >here<) and found out, that older Intel RST/RST(e) drivers and RAID ROM/EFI modules very often are the better choice, especially for RAID users.
I have to applaud your efforts on comparing all these different chipsets however I can not find any tests performed on the X99 Chipset. All I found was tests done on the Z97 chipset so how do you know its conclusive on X99?
Thanks
We are still waiting for someone, who has an X99 chipset system and takes the time and efforts to do similar drivers comparison tests. What about you?
This is not true. I have done rather similar tests with an Intel 6-. 7-, 9- and 100-Series chipset system.
The related informations I have gotten from other Forum users, who have an X99 chipset system and tried different Intel RST(e) drivers. My best source was our Forum member 100PIER, who works hard to find the best storage drivers for his SSDs, which are running in AHCI and RAID mode.
Edit: The folowing benchmark scores are totally incorrect. Any performance boost of 14.8 Satadriver was from a newer bios release and not from the driver. Please ignore and stay tuned for screenshots that will clarify this all later:
Ok you got me curious so I ran some benchmarks with Anvil and I have to say I got some very surprising numbers. I was shocked in matter of fact. Luckily I have dual bios switch and the old 13.1.0.2126 rom was already there so I compared that against the 14.8.2.2397 rom and with their corresponding 14.8.16.1063 and 13.2.0.1022 Drivers. The results showed there is definitely a performance advantage with the 14.8.2.2397 Rom vs the 13.1.0.2126 Rom despite what driver was being used. I ran each benchmark three times and averaged them out for accuracy. The last score in my raw data image was a confirmatory check with the RST suite installed as well as the 14.8.16.1063 driver and that score got to say was the best of them all! So here are the results done on an MSI X99A Godlike Motherboard and Two 256GB Samsung 850 Pro’s in Raid 0:
Intel Rapid storage Technology EFI RaidDriver & Legacy OROM Version 15.5.1.3017
rst_15.5.1.3017.zip (157 KB)
@davidm71 :
Thank you very much for having done some benchmark tests with your X99 RAID0 system and for having published your results.
My personal comment:
@all:
Update of the start post
Changelog:
Ubu only installed 13.2.0.2134 and not 2124. Is 2134 ok?
EDIT by Fernando: Unneeded parts of the fully quoted post removed (to save space)
Yes.
An Intel RST(e) EFI RaidDriver v13.2.2.2224 is not available until now. This version exists only as LEGACY mode Option ROM module.
@Fernando
As requested clarifying what was said prior and reposting the information here:
I ran the benchmarks again as you requested and I have to say you were right. The reason I got such a boost in benchmark scores had nothing to do with the 14.8 satadriver efi rom. I made one big mistake in that I had two different Bios versions running from my dual bios switch. Had version 1.8 and shipping version 1.1 on the other side of the switch. Unfortunately one of three of the screen shots I took got corrupted and you can’t see the score but you can infer that it was probably slightly worse than the other two in the set. What this all showed was that the 13.1 firmware and driver set performed on par as the 13.2 and better even than the 14.8 set.
There was something inside the 1.8 bios release that enhanced the scores what ever it could be I don’t know. Updated ME, bios tweaks, who knows. At this point though I’m not sure if I’m going back to 13.1 as I primarily use an NVME drive to boot and the raid array just hosts my steam folder and that the scores are 20 % better on the new bios which makes a case for benchmarking your bios releases as opposed to firmware releases. Going to next try the 13.5 release of Satadriver and post all the screen shots later. I suspect 13.5 should be similar to 13.1 in performance.
Did some more benchmarks before bed comparing the 14.8 efi driver pair to the 13.1 efi driver pair on my old bios vs the old bios.
So whats interesting to note is the vast difference in score of 4235 on the old bios with the 14.8 EFI Driver pair vs an average score of 6452 with the 13.1 Efi Driver pair. Thats like a 50% boost in performance!
All from a newer bios update!
Take home message everyone should be updating their bios to the latest or at every upgrade do a bench and keep track of the numbers… 
Screenshots to be posted later tonight.
@davidm71
In UBU there is a folder “Modules\IRST\User”.
In this folder you can put the desired versions of your IRST files - RaidDriver.efi and/or SataOrom.bin.
After that, an additional update option will be available.
[Discussion] UBU Tool related Questions, Reports and Suggestions (200)
* For AMI Aprio 4 EFI and OROM, for Aptio V only EFI.
** The EFI file must be “clean”, that is, it does not contain the FFS section.