@ MasterB:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
Yes, the v12.8.20.1002 drivers are much newer than the v12.9.4.1000 ones, but the v12.8 development branch is older than the v12.9 branch.
Why don’t you compare them by installing them one after the other (don’t forget to uninstall the RST Software, before you install another one)?
Note: You have to use the "Have Disk" button, if you want to "downgrade" from one driver to the other.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
New from the old 12.8. branch?!
Yes, I was surprised as well, that Intel was still working in May 2015 on an RST development branch, which they started in July 2013 (v12.8.0.1008).
By the way: The v12.8.20.1002 is the 11th driver version of the v12.8 branch, which has been released to the public.
There were obviously so many bugs within that series, that Intel needed 2 years to fix them.
It is like they have different teams working on different branches, and the do not communicate between themselves! 
Anyway the 12.9. branch was the best, so why revive this one, after so many new ones since??
Station-Drivers has just published new Intel RSTe drivers v4.3.0.1198 and the related complete Intel RSTe Drivers & Software Set v4.3.0.1542 WHQL.
You will see the related drivers and the complete Set as soon as possible here.
Looks like there’s still glitches with this branch of drivers.
I installed the latest 12.8.20.x on my H77 chipset motherboard paired with a SSD yesterday since they were more recent than the 13.x. I only use this config for web browsing and MMO/gaming, and the data written on the disk is roughly almost always around 2~3GB a day. I check the written data every day or two and before installing the 12.8.20x the data usage/written for the day was about 2GB and roughly 20GB for the last 7 days .
With the 12.8.20.x the amount of data written per day on the disk jumped by 10ish GB out of nowhere after a day of gaming. MMO gaming, I play FFXIV on high settings with limited shadow resolution and the FPS limit set to 30. I first thought it was something else like gfx card that started swapping texture or the SSD did some internal maintenance to adjust with the new AHCI drivers, but then today same problem after just 2 hours of gaming.
The only thing I changed on my config this past weeks was to update these AHCI drivers. It could be the drivers leaking memory, or the fact that they were originally posted for notebooks/tablets on HP website may indicate that they may be hardware/vendor specific and don’t behave too well on other hardware. Or it could still be something else. I thought to post about my finding anyway to warn SSD users about these drivers, in case of they start writing/screwing much more data per day.
I’ll posts again tomorrow whether it’s still happening or if reverting back to the 13.x branch drivers fixed the issue.
Here’s the link to the page on the HP site with these drivers: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/publi…b_149613_1#tab4
@ Chris34:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your interesting report!
If I should get a confirmation of your find from other users, I will remove these drivers from the start post of this thread.
The latter alternative is rather unlikely. Intel has never developed and released special AHCI drivers for desktops resp. mobile systems.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Since Station-Drivers has published today new Intel RSTe drivers v4.3.0.1198 WHQL and the related RSTe Software v4.3.0.1542 (big thanks for that!), I have just updated the start post of this thread.
Update of the start post
Changelog:
Dell laptops force you to use their graphic drivers and even the matching Intel official drivers refuse to install. Form what I read a while back when I had a DELL laptop, apparently they order some sort of customized chipsets to fit their need (I cannot find the source sorry.). I thought it was something similar.
In any case, the disk activity is back to normal since I reverted back to the 13.x branch drivers on my H77 motherboard. I checked yesterday after updating windows through windows update it was around 6GB, and today after a couple of hours or gaming/web browsing it’s just a little above 2GB.
Hi Fernando,
I hope all is well on your side.
I got a silly question. I decided to give Windows 10 on my X79 system a go (pretty good imho), however what drivers for Windows 10 should I use for my system?
If I am correct I am still running Intel RST 13.1.0.2126 RAID driver (according to my BIOS).
So, according to your thread, it says: Intel RST(e) AHCI/RAID Drivers & Software Set v13.1.0.1058 WHQL = Best matching Intel RAID ROM/EFI BIOS modules: v13.1.0.2126
Can I just install these for Windows 10 (did GPT / UEFI installation ofcourse)?
I tried, probably completely wrong, “Complete Intel RSTe AHCI/RAID Drivers & Software Set v4.3.0.1542 for Win7/Win8/Win10” first. But it was a pain to install these and got my machine locked up several times. And had to refer to a restore point (now back on the original Windows 10 RAID drivers).
Secondly; what is the recommended Stripe size anyways for 2x 250 Samsung 850 EVO’s in RAID 0?
I currently have it set to 128kb (dunno if that was to high) with a clustersize 8KB for C: (mainly Windows and a few programs) and 128KB for D: (games and photoshop files). Probably I need to redo this?
Thank you for your advice.
Regards,
HHawk
Yes!
It depends on what you are doing with your computer (video encoding as the usual work may need a higher stripe size). For "normal" users I recommend to choose a stripe size of 32 or 64KB. I personally set the stripe size of my RAID0 arrays to 64 KB.
Station Drivers lists Intel RST v13.1.0.1058 WHQL as the newest driver for Z77/H77 motherboards. I want to know which is the latest/best driver to install for Windows 10. Intel RST only supports v13.1.0.1058 WHQL for Windows 8.1, not Windows 10… I also have a much newer non-matching Intel RST OROM (14.0.0.2198), but I do not use RAID, so it should not affect anything, should it?
All Intel RST drivers are running fine with Win10 as well.
No, the Intel RAID ROM/EFI RaidDriver version doesn’t matter as long as you are running your Intel SATA Controller in AHCI (or IDE) mode.
@ all:
Update of the start post
Changelog:
Good luck with these Intel AHCI and RAID drivers!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Hi guys or WILLKOMMEN hhould I say 
So, here’s my problem.
I’ve got an old mobo, Asus P5Q PRO with Intel P45 / ICH10R Chipset. The lastest driver - Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility V9.1.1.1019 for Windows 32/64bit XP & 32/64bit Vista & 32/64bit Windows 7.(WHQL) - on ASUS website comes from 2009/09/18.
It’s comes a time when I rly need to reinstall the whole system on it. W7 was working for years without any major problems so my plan is to stick with it. Last time when I setup a new system I was installing only this old driver, then GPU, and audiocard - nothing more, no RAID or extra AHCI drivers (im not sure that was the right idea).
The question is: should I install sth else? I’ve found this forum by accident. Do I feel any diffrence when I instal your drivers? Are they 100% compatible? I was searching for thread or sth like “Why you should install our drivers”. Im not a pr0 user, not a technician or IT guy, so simple exlanation would be much more clear to me.
If there’s any chance pls reply
My setup:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
C2D E8400 @3.00
Asus P5Q PRO, bios 2102
ADATA 2x2GB 800Mhz
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
2x WD RED 3TB (non RAID, still can’t decide about that)
GTX260 216
Intel released 14.5.0.1081 on 7/29/2015 on their Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) download page.
What option ROM does “belong” to that driver?
EDIT: And what ROM would fit best to the default Windows 10 driver? (for an ICH10R, set to RAID mode in BIOS, but no actual RAID array at this time)
@ Des:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
This is no driver, but a simple information file from Intel, which may have given the Intel SATA Controller of your system a special name. So the age of this textmode file is not important at all, because the file has no real function.
If you want to see the real AHCI driver, which is managing the Intel SATA ports of your mainboard, you should open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section of the Device Manager, right click onto the listed Intel SATA Controller (may be named "Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller") and choose the options "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver details". Then you will see the driver (it has the extension .SYS).
I suspect, that your Intel SATA Controller is using the driver named MSAHCI.SYS, which is the generic Win7 in-box AHCI driver from Microsoft.
Usually the special AHCI driver, which has been developed by the manufacturer of the related AHCI Controller (here: Intel SATA AHCI Controller), is the better choice than a generic driver, which is compatible with (nearly) all AHCI Controllers, which are available, but it is your decision. Since the new MS AHCI driver named STORAHCI.SYS will be installed automaticly during the installation of Windows 10, you will have time to test this driver.
If you should not be completely satisfied with the MS AHCI driver, you can switch to an Intel AHCI driver at any time. The best choice for your system would be the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006 WHQL.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
The Intel RAID ROM v14.5.0.2241, which is matching the newest Intel RST drivers 14.5.2.1088 as well.
This is a good question, because the Win10 in-box Intel RAID driver is v13.2.0.1022, which definitively hasn’t been designed for Intel ICH10R RAID systems.
My answer is: If you want to use this Intel RAID driver, I recommend to insert the Intel RST ROM v13.2.0.2134. into the BIOS.
Well… I see the download right under it, I’ve downloaded it many times, and it seems to be a 5.58MB driver file after all… see for yourself (
This is neither a driver nor has it a size of 5.5 MB. As I already have written, the Intel Chipset Device Software doesn’t contain any driver, but a lot of text files for a big amount of different Intel chipsets and their devices.
For further details please have a look into the start post of >this< thread.
Ah, time to downgrade then. Thanks!
My current BIOS runs 13.5.0.2164, but it has a minor issue on one of the two PC’s I run this; that machine does not finish rebooting (screen stays black, drive led stays on until I press the hardware reset button). I think this was fine with 13.2.0.2134.