I do not agree with you. According to my experiences with different benchmark tools Anvil’s Storage Utility is the best:
It does not stress the hardware too much and gives nevertheless very meaningful results, which have a relationship to the user’s daily work with the related system.
Hi everyone. I just thought I’ll read up as I want to make an updated BIOS for my mobo (ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2) and I thought I’ll check @Fernando tests of different drivers and their performance. So, I’ve downloaded Anvil’s storage utilities, made the benchmark and it Was really low compared to what @Fernando showed on the first page of this thread. Also, I’ve found someone showing a TRIM result in this app written by Vladimir Panteelev and it shows me that TRIM is not working. I am using 14.8 raid ROM and EFI driver with 14.8 drivers, so it should work just fine… I’m running Windows 10 Pro x64 build 1909 with the latest updates. Altho @Fernando did not test the z97 platform, I still think that my RAID array should do just better than 6k points. Also, as from Fernando’s tests, I see that trying 15.x drivers (presumably modded and signed by Fernando) is a good choice. Anyway, first of all, I would like to know why my array appears not to be TRIM’med. It’s and RAID0 array made of 2 Crucial MX500 1TB drives, both running the latest firmware. Does anyone have any idea? Below are screenshots from the programs I mentioned. I’ve tied to check the trim status after a reboot, it returns the same result.
@izajasz :
TRIM should be automaticly active within your Intel RAID0 array, because your system uses an Intel RST RAID driver and an Intel RST RAID BIOS module, whose versions are higher than v11.0.
Here are my advices to get the best possible Intel RAID0 performance:
- Read the start post of >this< thread and follow the tips, if not already done.
- Check, whether TRIM is enabled or disabled by the OS. The command (given as Admin) is
and the result should be "0".1
fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify
If it should be "1", you can activate TRIM by this command:1
fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0
- Check for a new Firmware for your Crucial MX500 SSDs and flash them, if there is any available.
- If TRIM should still not work, you can trigger TRIM by using the related option of Anvil's Storage Utility.
Thank You for the response. I also forgot to mention, that my main OS SSD is an nvme drive, and the array is for "Data". The fsutil returns 0 as before but this utility "trimcheck" says oposite. Also, would You reccomend a driver for Z97 raid array ? I saw that 15.x returned the best results for You. Should I install them ? Also, should i change the rom of my BIOS to something else than 14.8 for RAID0 setup ?
@izajasz :
The fsutil command answer “0” only says, that TRIM is active and will be released by the OS if required, but this does not mean, that TRIM passes through the Intel RAID Controller and will arrive within the RAID0 array.
Regarding the “best” Intel RST RAID driver for your specific system I recommend to look into the table, which is at the bottom of the start post of >this< thread. The Intel RAID ROM/RaidDriver BIOS module should match the development branch of the desired Intel RST RAID driver,
Thank You Fernando. I will make a new BIOS using UBU and inject the 13.2.8.1002 ROM and efi driver and will use the same driver version. As for TRIM, I know that doesn’t mean that TRIM command is passed, thus, I would like to troubleshoot this. Anyway, I am thinking of reinstalling the OS and install all drivers, etc fresh. Is this “trimcheck” tool reliable ? Or maybe it is false negative?
It may be false negative, if the TRIM activity within the related SSD (here: RAID0 array) is very low.
That is why I recommend to trigger TRIM before starting the TrimCheck Tool.
Well, I’ve just checked the OS optimization tool and it says “Optimization not available” for the array, for NVme drive it is available. Look at the screenshot below:
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I’ve enabled write back cache through intel software, then removed it.
@Fernando , what is the diffrence beetween “normal” and TRIM_6 raid orom ? 
EDIT: I was able to do some more research about this issue and I’ve found that the cause of the disabled “Optimize” option was that I’ve had the option to initialize SATA drives to “Boot Drive Only”. It is ASUS specific menu in BIOS that allows for a bit faster boot times but it clearly had an impact on this option, so I left it on “Hard drives only” and viola, it works now. Also, this option fixes an issue I described in this topic: Intel z97 RAID 0 SSD - SATA array incomaptible after a reboot. , so, if someone has faced the same issue and have an ASUS board, it’s likely that setting “Initialize SATA devices” to “Hard Drives Only” will fix both of them. But, I still have a negative trim check using the “trimcheck” tool. Optimizing the drive manually doesn’t fix it. I flashed the BIOS to recommended by @Fernando ROM/EFI driver and am using 13.2.8.1002, but still, no success. I’ve run this program on Nvme drive to compare and it reports trim working immediately.
I’m running Windows 10 (x64-bit) and my Standard SATA AHCI Controller contains a very old (Microsoft) driver from 21-06-2006 (v10.0.19041.488)
Which driver would you recommend for my hardware (detailed below) — I use only AHCI . . . not RAID:—
QuadCore Intel (Sandy Bridge) Core i7-2600K
ASUS P8Z77-V
@RaidWin :
Contrary to the shown date the Win10 in-box MS AHCI driver is brandnew (look at the version, which is is the same as the OS).
If you should nevertheless search for an Intel RST AHCI driver, please look into the start post of >this< thread.
@Fernando
Thanks to your heads-up, I was able to find and install v13.1.0.1058.
Edit:
Just spotted the Thanks button after making this post.
Hi Fernando,
I seek your advice as you are the expert on this matter : I’ve recently upgraded to Windows 10 ( Via a new clean installation, not the Win 7 to 10 upgrade feature ) and I noticed that my SSD’s performance was inferior to when it was on Windows 7. I assume this has to do with the default Windows 10 sata driver being used instead of the Intel one ? My motherboard is an ASUS P8Z77-V and my SSD is a Samsung 860 EVO 2TB.
@OshMmf : Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
If you want to know which Intel RST driver I recommend to use with your Z77 chipset system, I recommend to do a look into the start post of >this< thread. Before you start with the comparison of different AHCI drivers, you should optimize the OS performance by following my tips (look >here<).
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
So if I got this right, for my particular motherboard I need to dl and install the Intel RST AHCI/RAID Driver v11.2.0.1006 WHQL right ?
@OshMmf : The choice of the “best” Intel RST driver for your Intel Z77 chipset system depends on the SATA mode (AHCI or RAID). Please re-read the start post of >this< thread.
I did read EVERYTHING that you linked which is why I’m assuming the version I’m forwarding is the right one. And yes I’m in AHCI mode.
@OshMmf : If you would have read the linked post until its end (there is a table!), you would not have chosen the Intel RST driver v11.2.0.1006.
Jesus, so I missed a section in a 210+ lines of text post give me a break. What’s so hard about giving a straight answer ? But yeah I found it now. Thanks for beating around the bush.
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Hi guys,
Sorry to dig up >this< post but I also found this 6.2.0.1238 driver through Driver Booster and it really boosts my 860 EVO. The only problem is outside Windows 10 21H1, it boots slower and if you restart Windows the computer shuts itself off and then powers on again and proceeds. Anyone has this driver working fine? My mobo is MSI H110M PRO-VD.
Thanks
Edit by Fernando: Fully quoted long post replaced by the blue colored link to it (to save space)
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The performance test could do with an update comparing modern drivers (esp. the 17.x.x.x drivers but also the 18.x.x.x ones since many have moved on to Intel 500-series and upward) to + chipsets (and more modern drives including M.2 PCIe NVMe drives). I guess it depends on the hardware available to Fernando.
Or… users/members could report their own findings and specify their specific hardware and OS + driver setup/version that they are testing. Some standardization for settings when benching the performance should be defined to avoid invalid comparisons.
My suggestion would be:
Under Device Manager → Disk Drives → Properties (for the selected storage device) → Policies
Should be set to Windows default mode:
Enable write caching on the device: Enabled
Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device: Enabled (if SSD on SATA3 or M.2 PCIe), Disabled on HDD
(I don’t enable this option on my mechanical drives since they’re much slower and have a bigger risk of losing data if the OS freezes or crashes as well as any memory/cpu instabilities during write operations simply due to their write operations taking much longer than fast SSD’s)
And all tests should be done with the same disk benchmark with the same settings. This is something we’d have to decide together but I’m guessing it’ll be CrystalDiskmark which has become ubiquitous.
As members report their results the data could be compared. The more reports, the better the accuracy of the comparisons.
In the end it’s unlikely that any differences will be noticeable to the end user except in some fringe cases. The main reason to install Intel’s drivers is if the extra functionality is needed or if you’re using an Optane drive.
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